2015 364TS Tripping Shore 115V GFCI

[MrLucky]

Your #2 scenario, are the individual breakers on or off when you turn the main 50 amp breaker on. If they are all on you may want to turn them all off before resetting the main. After the main is back on turn the individual breakers and see which one causes the main to kick off again. Good luck.

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by handman

When running the generator, there are no issues. But then again, 50amp 220v current is not where we are having problems. Only when we are plugged into 115v to keep the coach batteries charged. What is a hot skin condition?

Now this is stretching a little bit. I am bridging from my experience to my book learning. In your house at your main panel the ground bus and the common bus are the same. There is a cross connection between them, right at the box. I believe they call that a grounded box. But in a sub panel the ground and common are not cross connected. I believe the panel in our trailers and RV's is like a subpanel. The ground and the common cannot cross connect. If my theory is correct then disconnect the coach and use continuity checker to see if there is connectivity between ground and common. If so it's possible they have done something in your main panel or something that is connected to your main panel when you don't realize it is still connected.the effect I think is that trailer, which the outlet sees as a big appliance has a ground fault.

[handman]

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the input. I will take all of these suggestions back to my dealer, which will be tomorrow. I will let you guys know what the outcome was. Its nice to know there are people out there like you that are willing to help.

[AquaMan]

Will be anxiously awaiting what the outcome is. I've been thinking about this all day, and what I keep coming up with, doesn't make sense. I thought the water heater was a good idea, but if all the breakers were off, then you could rule that out. By the way, a "hot skin" situation is when the frame becomes electrified by a bad ground or shorted/crossed wires (other instances also exist). There are some good youtubes on it.


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[Krazymace]

Originally Posted by Flybob

X2 on element in WH. If it burns out it will cause the GFI to trip. Even if the WH is turned off now.
Disconnect both wires from the heating element, insulate them then try again. If GFI does not trip element is burned out.

Exactly what I did. I don't know of any electrician who could have figured that out. Only the Forum has the "experienced" experts. Would bet anything the WH is the problem!!!


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[Tom48]

Originally Posted by genehorn

A possibility would be that the service dealer crew swapped a hot and neutral wire during their time with it. A GFCI would detect that and trip. Without a GFCI everything would still work. Could be difficult to find.

I think that would be the same effect as what I said above. Look for reversed polarity in what ever they changed. Check for hot skin with a good volt meter. Look then check at where they connected the gen to the system the converter to the system etc.

But mostly follow the wire from the pole checking for ground to common cross connection at every point up to the main breaker the without turning power on check the other side of the breaker to see were the ground fault or ground to common cross connect starts. If I am right, with the coach unplugged there should never be a cross connect from ground to hot or common. Hot would be a direct Short and common would be a ground fault.

[wrapperman]

Something to keep in mind. There should not be 2 gfci connected on 1 circuit or either one "may or may not" trip. So every time you mention "shore gfci" are you referring to actually the receptacle on the post or home or where?
I would also look at the transfer switch board to make sure it does not have an open ground when they replaced it.
Also all receptacles will be connected to a 15 amp circuit breaker and not to a 50 amp breaker.
Please let everyone know so it could be passed on to others when this issue arrives again.

[handman]

Hi everyone, I wanted to update you as of today. I forwarded all of your suggestions to my tech and he looked at all of those possibilities and the gfci was still tripping. They had no choice but to assume there was a short somewhere in a j-box or a wire in the walls of the coach. So they started tracing each circuit and this is the email I received from my tech.

"Rex found the wire going from the half bath plug to the plug over the kitchen sink has a break in the neutral wire. He is checking all the J-Boxes in between them now if its not in a J-Box he has to run a complete new wire. I should know by 2 if he is running the new wire. The lower amp draw on a GFCI plug could not take the short and that’s why it would trip once we turned off that breaker to the fridge and the microwave."

So, hopefully after today we will confirm that the issue has been resolved once we fix the short in the area he mentioned. I will keep you posted. Fingers crossed! 😰

[handman]

New update as of today!

So the technician found that a receptacle in a storage bin under the coach had shorted out and burned the plug and the wires. So the technician replaced the receptacle and also replaced the wire back to the junction box just to be safe. After that they were able to plug the coach in to the shore GFCI outlet without tripping the GFCI. However sometime in the night the GFCI tripped again because the next day when they came out to the coach it was tripped.

After hearing this I asked them if they had tried all of the other options that you guys and Forest River had recommended which included disconnecting the elements in the hot water heater and come to find out they had not tried that yet because they were sure they found the problem with the shorted wire.

So yesterday they disconnected both elements in both hot water heaters and have had the coach plugged in with no issues tripping the GFCI. They are going to turn all of the breakers back on and leave the coach plugged in until Friday to verify that everything has been resolved.

I will repost again Friday with an update.

Thanks

[AquaMan]

Thanks for the update!

[Krazymace]

Too bad there's not an electrical switch for HWH inside. Pain in the butt to have to pull outside cover and flip the switch. If you forget and drain tank, the element is toast. I learned the hard way.


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[VinceU]

Originally Posted by Krazymace

Too bad there's not an electrical switch for HWH inside. Pain in the butt to have to pull outside cover and flip the switch. If you forget and drain tank, the element is toast. I learned the hard way.


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If it's an occasional disconnect just use the circuit breaker inside.

[Krazymace]

Originally Posted by VinceU

If it's an occasional disconnect just use the circuit breaker inside.

Been advised on this forum that's not what a breaker if for. May end up causing bigger problems.


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[doc73]

Done it for years, no issues. That's how I kill my electric side of the heater. It will wear out the breaker faster but it is a 5 minute fix and a trip to HD if it goes south.

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[VinceU]

Originally Posted by Krazymace

Been advised on this forum that's not what a breaker if for. May end up causing bigger problems.


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Yes I was part of that discussion. In your case it would be an occasional use. The circuit breaker retails for 6.75 at the Depot and is plug in format. Use it at your connivence, open shore power first to prevent arcing within the W/H breaker.

[AquaMan]

I turn the lights on/off in my main shop bay by the breakers, there are 10 breakers, and they have been switched on and switched off at least 6 times a week for the past 30 yrs. Still on original breakers!

[doc73]

Yeah but you not using forest river breakers!!!! LOL

I have actually worn out two breakers in two different trailers. one was from it popping to many times... OOPS. The other just went bad for now reason. $5 later and all was well.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by AquaMan

I turn the lights on/off in my main shop bay by the breakers, there are 10 breakers, and they have been switched on and switched off at least 6 times a week for the past 30 yrs. Still on original breakers!

Just curious, have you had any load tested? May no longer operate.

[thebenz]

I have my GFCI in the master bathroom popping anytime I power up the generator when on the road. It makes it a pain because then the TV, etc doesn't work and the only way to reset the GFCI is to stop the RV, open the slides to gain access to the master bath and then reset the GFCI.

Thanks for this thread. I'm going to start by testing out my storage bin electrical outlets. I know that both of my hot water heaters are working so I don't think it is the element.

[handman]

Good morning All.

I am finally writing you today with resolution to my original problem. The hot water heater elements were the culprit! Evidently when they had my coach for service which by the way was from December 12th through February 20th, there was a potential freeze so they drained all of my water and forgot to turn off the electric elements, so they burned up. Voilà! I have now had my coach back for a couple of weeks in storage plugged in, refer running and no issues! Yay!

So, to reward ourselves, we took a trip to lake cypress springs and are finally enjoying the outdoor life again.

Thank you again for everyone's support and suggestions, they never would have figured this out if it wasn't for you guys.