Please help with electrical problem

[Genequte]

Picked up the Wildwood from storage after the winter. Plugged the trailer in to the garage to charge. I wen to turn the fridge on and the LP detector went off and then it blew the GFI on the house. I checked all the fuses and all are fine. Now everytime I plug in the cord to the house, it blows the GFI. Any advice would be appreciated.

[sherdep]

turn the breakers off in the trailer electrical panel, unplug the trailer from the house and then reset the GFI in the house and then re-plug trailer back in to see if blows the GFI breaker -
the breaker in the house could be going bad or possibly while the unit was in storage something ate a cord and is causing it to blow the breaker or possibly too many things are turned on and causing it to blow the breaker

[Genequte]

All the breakers are off, still blows the GFI. It's not the house, because I used the neighbor's plug as well. It started charging when I first plugged it in, then the LP detector started going off, then the GFI was tripped. The detector ran down what was left in the battery and now I can't plug in the trailer without tripping the GFI.

[sherdep]

might have a bad LP detector - not uncommon to have one go bad

If I remember correctly if you have a low battery the LP Detector will go off as well.

Maybe pull the Fuse for the LP Detector and see if that helps
if no fuse then try to disconnect the LP Detector and then plugging the trailer in - sounds like you got something that is drawing too much current when you plug it in and causing the GFI to blow.

[Genequte]

all the fuses are in the off postion, all of the appliances, and light switches in the off position and still as soon as the plug goes in, it trips the GFI.

[sherdep]

What year and Model Wildwood trailer do you have?

you could also post a thread in the wildwood section for better exposure since it is trailer specific

either one of a couple of things - either you have a bad GFI breaker at the house breaker panel or something is drawing too much on the trailer side causing the GFI Breaker to trip - or have some wires touching causing it to trip the breaker.

Not sure if this is the right way to troubleshoot your issue but I would turn off all the breakers and pull the all the fuses in the electrical load center and then plug the trailer into the GFI and see if it blows the GFI Breaker again

Maybe also disconnect the battery as well before doing all this.

[jimh]

I'd check and see if there is continuity between ground and neutral measured at trailer male plug. Use ohm meter with trailer unplugged. If u do problem will be cord to trailer.
If u blowing breakers with AC breakers off, problem will be from connection back to cord plug. To be sure, perform above test might main breaker in trailer breaker box off.
If u don't detect a problem, I would suspect the ground fault breaker.
U should show infinite resistance (open) with these test.

[LadyWindrider]

Disconnect the 12 volt battery in the camper. Charge the battery for a few hours with an automotive charger. Meanwhile, plug the camper in and see if it is still tripping the breaker. Make sure you isolate and insulate the battery connections.

Sounds like camper battery completely discharged while in storage. When you plug the camper in, the converter is trying to charge this battery and exceeding the capacity of the GFI house breaker which is probably 15 amp, and you are using a 30 amp to 15 amp adapter.

Also if you have electric and gas water heater, make sure the electric portion is not on. Make sure everything is off in the RV, lights, radios, televisions, etc. And don't turn the refer on. If you do a search on here, a lot of people have had problems with a cheap 15 amp to 30 amp adapter. Process of elimination, but you need the 12 volt battery charged up so your converter is not pulling a big bunch of current and overloading the circuit, before you get too worried about a a GFI problem.

[GrandpawGrizzly]

I like Windrider's explanation best.

The LP gas monitor is sounding off to tell you it is detecting below standard voltage coming from your obviously dead battery; it is getting just enough juice to tell you to please fix your battery in the only way that it knows: by going off. Unless you can smell or establish leaky gas by some means other than the Detector, I doubt that you have any LP problem along with your electrical mishap. That's the good news, because bad LP plus bad Elect would probably be someone's worst nightmare.

I think you need to resurrect your battery off-line like Windrider says and use a higher tolerance gfi if at all. Dont forget to top off the electrolyte before hooking it up to any charger.

If it still goes bananas after that, I would look at your 110-12v converter next. On my electrical board I have a separate breaker for the converter; if I switch it off and plug into land power all of my 110v appliances work but there is no flow to the battery. So, if you disconnect the converter from the 110v system in that way and your adequate source gfi keeps going off then you will have isolated the problem to wiring between the electrical board and the source power supply. Maybe you experienced a wire chewing rodent problem or simple degeneration of wiring from age or environmental conditions (like one guy I met who stored his TT in a frozen snowbank for 3 months).

[rick_h]

Originally Posted by GrandpawGrizzly

Dont forget to top off the electrolyte before hooking it up to any charger.

Sorry but I disagree with one statement out of the good advice already given. In trade school when we covered acid batteries we were told to top off fluids when the batteries were charged. The Fluids will expand when the battery gets charged, so topping them off before could make them spew liquid out the vents. We were taught to make sure the liquid in the cells cover the plates - charge - then top off fluids.

[sherdep]

dont forget not to use tap water - it has to be distilled water also

[GrandpawGrizzly]

Originally Posted by rick_h

Sorry but I disagree with one statement out of the good advice already given. In trade school when we covered acid batteries we were told to top off fluids when the batteries were charged. The Fluids will expand when the battery gets charged, so topping them off before could make them spew liquid out the vents. We were taught to make sure the liquid in the cells cover the plates - charge - then top off fluids.

Rick,
That is what I meant by "top off": bring the electrolyte level up to cover the plates, which is what the US Navy calls "topping off" (or used to anyhow); it means to bring the level up to the top of the plates (not the top of the battery itself).

The original poster's battery may have gone totally dry in storage and that is why it is not recharging; just one possibility out of many of course...

[jimh]

with the power cord disconnected, check the monitor and see the condition of ur battery.
when u shut off the main breaker, u are checking to see if the fault exist between what u are plugging into and the trailer. all a/c circuits, including the converter, are disconnected from the a/c when the main breaker (in the trailer breaker box) is off.
if u don't throw the ground fault at that point, then u can turn all the other breakers off, restore the main, then start turning them one one at a time. the battery isn't going to play a part until u throw the breaker with the converter on it. that is also when all the dc in the trailer comes into play. if that happens, i would suspect battery or converter but not the other dc circuits. wouldn't rule them out but would check after bat and converter.
this should make it a little easier to isolate.
it just doesn't sound right that the converter would be trying to push over 100 amps into the battery without a fuse on the converter blowing.

batteries can do some strange things. ur bat monitor should be able to tell the condition on ur battery. good starting point before proceeding.
it depends on what is taking u breaker out: ground fault or breaker. they function differently. ground fault senses an imbalance between the hot and neutral...an extremely small imbalance. it assumes another path (short) if that imbalance exist and trips. the other part of the breaker senses high amps. u can try plugging into a non ground fault and see what happens. if it doesn't throw, u either have a bad ground fault breaker or u have a fault somewhere. when u plug in at a campground, u are not on a ground fault.

[rick_h]

Originally Posted by GrandpawGrizzly

Rick,
That is what I meant by "top off": bring the electrolyte level up to cover the plates, which is what the US Navy calls "topping off" (or used to anyhow); it means to bring the level up to the top of the plates (not the top of the battery itself).

The original poster's battery may have gone totally dry in storage and that is why it is not recharging; just one possibility out of many of course...

Thats good, I just wanted to clarify that if he had filled them right up to the top discharged it would overflow when charging (which is how I should have worded it in the first place) Hope I didn't offend

[08flagvlite]

While I also agree that a low battery could make the required current supply increase when plugged in after a camping trip, it shouldn't increase that much, and besides, as stated, even with all of the camper's breakers off, it still trips the GFI. I've seen a few other posts on here over the years with the same or similar issue, resulting in the GFI tripping off. I am under the gut feeling, and mind you I'm NOT an electrician, that the GFI, as named IS a Ground Fault Interruptor. Therefore, it occurs to me (my opinion), that the camper sitting on RUBBER wheels is not EARTH grounded, as I do believe is what a GFI needs to properly complete it's circuit. I also have noted that others have had to change the source of their AC power to a non-GFI house plug, or their own dedicated power box to solve the problem. This is exactly why MOST campgrounds do not have GFI circuits on their power boxes. They don't want to have these issues to deal with. I have a mobile home, and I can't plug my Flagstaff in to the outside GFI plug on my home, but I can and do plug it in to my garage power source, that is not GFI protected. SOLELY my opinion......Randy

[cheese53073]

• AC current passes between the hot and neutral wires. If it is flowing properly, the difference between the current in the hot wire and in the neutral wire will be near zero. If there is an improper ground situation, such as a hair dryer falling into a bathtub, the current is siphoned off through the new ground situation and the difference between the hot and neutral increases.
  
  

• A GFCI circuit breaker continuously measures the differential current in the circuit branch. Any time there is an improper ground, or ground fault, and the differential reaches a preset threshold, the breaker trips, cutting off all current to that circuit branch. Sometimes, a pulse in the current can create a differential large enough to trip the breaker. There is a lag of several milliseconds between the time the fault occurs and the time it is detected and trips the device. Since a circuit breaker is located farther away than a receptacle, the delay will be increased by the time it take the current to reach the breaker
  
  

Either you have some shorted wires in your plug/cord or you have an excessive power surge when you first plug in your trailer.

[rick_h]

Originally Posted by 08flagvlite

I also have noted that others have had to change the source of their AC power to a non-GFI house plug, or their own dedicated power box to solve the problem.


I have a mobile home, and I can't plug my Flagstaff in to the outside GFI plug on my home, but I can and do plug it in to my garage power source, that is not GFI protected. SOLELY my opinion......Randy

Ahhh I totally forgot about that ! GFI'S DO NOT LIKE TO BE FED IN SERIES - IN OTHER WORDS YOU CAN'T PLUG A GFI INTO A GFI ! Arrg never even thought when I read the initial post.

Randy is totally right in that respect.

[Genequte]

Thanks for all the help. Took to the dealer, who had winterized it for me, and when they drained all the water out, they forgot to shut off the water heater. So, when I plugged in, the heater coiled burned up, exposing a wire, which kept shorting out the gfi. They also forgot to close the plug underneath, so when they tried adding water, it flowed like a river. They fixed the problem at no cost.

[sherdep]

Glad you got it figured out