Camper trips house breaker

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Author Topic: Camper trips house breaker  (Read 1637 times)

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Offline kelaykay

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Camper trips house breaker
« on: September 11, 2010, 12:23:43 PM »
Hey folks... When we plug the camper into the house power supply, the lights and AC kick on fine, run for 5 to 15 minutes, then it trips the house breaker and a beeeeeeep alarm goes off in the camper.  If I switch the breaker, it works again for a while.

Any thoughts?

BTW the cabinets are disassembled so I thought some wiring may be shorting.  Didn't find anything obvious (like a hot wire laying around).  Not sure why it would work for a while, then quit- versus just shorting out immediately if it was an actual short.

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Offline Rockies Bill

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2010, 12:36:48 PM »
I believe most if not all rv's need a dedicated 30 Amp breaker. That is if your running everything. Mine works fine on 20 amp breaker. But, i' don't have AC. I suspect your running on a 20 amp circuit that is also running other items in your house. Might want to get an electrician to add a 30 amp breaker for your rv. You could cause a fire if you continue what you are doing now.
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Offline kelaykay

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2010, 12:59:42 PM »
Thanks for the input!  I will see if I have a 30amp but pretty sure I don't.  I've been planning on adding one for our garage, so ill also add one for the popup.  Great to know! :)
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Offline Rockies Bill

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2010, 01:19:57 PM »
Make sure you get a good licensed electrician who installs it to code. And like most communities you will need a permit from your city. I used to deal in this and have seen many poor quality jobs that don't meet code. I have a dedicated 20amp outside GFI outlet that I use.  If I had AC and/or microwave, it would be a 30Amp. 
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Offline Twisty

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2010, 01:40:28 PM »
Rockies Bill x2!!
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Offline kelaykay

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2010, 01:45:24 PM »
Thanks guys.  DH does rain gutter and hates when people don't have a good ext plug.  He would be very happy if we got one at our new house.  :)

Ill look into getting it done right!
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Online West Coast Canuck

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #6 on: September 11, 2010, 07:12:40 PM »
I sm pretty sure your house breaker is 15 amps if you are plugging into an outlet. The outlet that you plug into should be a dedicated line especially if you are running the AC
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Offline fallsrider

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2010, 07:22:00 PM »
West Coast is probably right. Most outdoor receptacles on houses are only on 15 amp circuits. That's not enough for A/C. Your breaker may hang in there for a few minutes with the A/C running, but it probably starts getting warm and trips because you are maxxing it out. I reserve the right to be wrong, though.    [:D]
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Offline kelaykay

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2010, 09:58:02 AM »
Sure enough... only 15 amps.  But some good news is when we bought the house the guy had a 30amp breaker run for exterior lighting.  But we had to remove all of it to pass inspection since there wasn't conduit.  So... I have the line run outside already. :)  I'll just add the GFCI outlet.  Perfect!
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Offline Cuckoo

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2010, 10:13:30 AM »
I am by no means an electrician....  but if you are going to have an outlet installed one suggestion would be to have the 30 amp receptacle and then a 110 gfi if at all possible. We installed - or "had installed"  [;)] a dedicated 30 amp receptacle in the garage which the pup's cord can reach from the other bay or outside. Works great for doing projects or cleaning inside the camper cause this FL heat will all but drain you in a few minutes in there....
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Offline rjniles

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2010, 03:32:06 PM »
Quote from: kelaykay on September 12, 2010, 09:58:02 AM
Sure enough... only 15 amps.  But some good news is when we bought the house the guy had a 30amp breaker run for exterior lighting.  But we had to remove all of it to pass inspection since there wasn't conduit.  So... I have the line run outside already. :)  I'll just add the GFCI outlet.  Perfect!


A 30 amp breaker never should have been used for a lighting circuit.  Make sure you have 10 gauge cable connected to that 30 amp breaker. You can not add a 120 volt GFCI breaker to a 30 amp circuit.  GFCI receptacles are for 15 or 20 amp circuits (max).

If you have 10 gauge cable on the 30 amp breaker, you can connect a TT-30 RV receptacle to power your PUP. The TT-30 is a special purpose single receptacle dedicated for RV use.  If you want GFCI protection, you will have to install a 30 amp GFCI breaker in the main panel. Receptacle on right:
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Offline darrenandmelissa

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2010, 04:12:45 PM »
No GFI protection is needed on this plug only on 15A and 20A outlets outside.  Everything in your camper should be GFI already.

Make sure the line is 10 gauge because no one should run a 30A circuit for lights, i know you can't in Canada and I'm pretty sure you can't in the USA either.
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Offline kelaykay

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Re: Camper trips house breaker
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2010, 07:32:25 PM »
I see I see....  [RTM]

Okay, to explain more fully, the previous owner of our house had the 30 amp breaker for lights, a mini fridge, etc.  Basically a poorly constructed outdoor bar.

I believe it is 10 guage running from the breaker, out the wall to a j box.  From there he had 12 guage wire (I removed all of this as it was done very poorly), and now that you have pointed this out, I see the problem here.   Its sad that the home inspector never saw a problem with any of this!

I will stick with 10 guage and run to the 30 amp outlet as you show.  I can easily add it outside and I'll just put it in a nice box that will keep the water away.  Then later I'll run a new breaker to power our exterior lights (still not done yet).

It makes complete sense now that you point this all out!

Thanks everyone for the info!  I sincerely appreciate all of the great advice.
 [:D]


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