plugging RV into shore power at home blows circuit breaker in house

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dlb
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plugging RV into shore power at home blows circuit breaker in house

Post by dlb »

i'm doing some maintenance on our 1978 bigfoot travel trailer in preparation for our upcoming road trip to alaska and have run into a problem i can't find any online info on. the shore power has always worked fine but last night when i tried to plug it in to an extension cord, the connection sparked and tripped the circuit breaker in the house. the only wiring i've messed with related to the shore power is cleaning some grounds where they attach to the trailer frame so i don't understand why this is happening now. anyone have any ideas?
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irowiki
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Re: plugging RV into shore blows circuit breaker

Post by irowiki »

Are there no breakers or fuses in the trailer itself? Sounds like you have a bad outlet or light, or an applliance is on the fritz.
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dlb
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Re: plugging RV into shore blows circuit breaker

Post by dlb »

there are breakers on the converter/inverter but they were not tripped. i just tested the extension cord and outlet by plugging in a small heater, worked fine. so i disconnected everything from the 12V side of the thing -- hot and ground leads coming from the battery, hot leads going out to various 12V items, hot lead to the converter -- and it still sparks if i plug it in to shore power.

there are two 110V power outlets in the camper. the fridge is the only thing plugged in to one of those so i unplugged it, no change. so i will disconnect the outlets from the power box next.
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Re: plugging RV into shore blows circuit breaker

Post by irowiki »

Might be something wrong where the cord plugs into the trailer, too.
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dlb
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Re: plugging RV into shore blows circuit breaker

Post by dlb »

turned out to be the extension cord, even though it works fine otherwise, is short, and is the thickest gauge cord i have. even with the all the breaker switches on the converter switched off, it would still spark when i'd plug it in. i finally tried another longer cord and it works just fine. all the lights and plugs work as normal.

i read on RV forums to always use the shortest, thickest extension cords possible so this is surprising to me. oh well, glad it's solved and nothing that i messed with on the trailer that caused more problems.
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Re: plugging RV into shore power at home blows circuit breaker in house

Post by Gottolovem »

That's odd short thick cord is good advice :oldgeek:
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Re: plugging RV into shore power at home blows circuit breaker in house

Post by Petros »

you should throw out the bad cord, or cut it up for scrap.
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Re: plugging RV into shore power at home blows circuit breaker in house

Post by Ace »

I have the loan of a friend's old travel trailer (for a guest house) and a previous user replaced the old main power cord. Even though the replacement looked good I discovered the insulation inside (at fuse panel connection) was very brittle, possibly from overheating in a previous use, so I replaced it.

Possibly your cord got pinched or over-flexed somehow.
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