Pedestal GFI Pops

[john foose]

I am parked in a RV storage place that has a 20 amp pedestal with a GFI outlet. When I hook it up to my 2008 allegro bus, it lasts for about 20 or 30 seconds and the GFI pops. I reset it and the same thing. the house batteries are new as of last week. I have thot of just hooking up my battery charger and charge the batteries directly, bypassing the bus inner workings. it was previously hooked up to a 50 amp outlet and no problems. Any ideas?? thanks, John

[Old-Biscuit]

Open your AC Panel and then open each CB one at a time until GFCI doesn't trip (helps having 2 people....one opening the CBs and one resetting the GFCI)

If after ALL CBs are open and GFCI still trips...Open the RV Main CBs

Typically it will end up being a heater element ,..... fridge, water heater
They can function A-OK but 'leak' a little current...GFCI senses the imbalance and trips

[twinboat]

If you have built in surge protection, its testing may be another item thats causing the ground fault.

GFCIs are not overload devices, they save you from becoming a conductor of electricity if it gets out of the wires, and leaks to the chassis.

[hipkts2010]

My suggestion is to go to your inverter control panel and turn down the available amps to 20 or 15. It is probably set to either 30 or 50. The inverter is trying to charge the batteries and drawing too much current. IMHO.

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by hipkts2010

My suggestion is to go to your inverter control panel and turn down the available amps to 20 or 15. It is probably set to either 30 or 50. The inverter is trying to charge the batteries and drawing too much current. IMHO.

A GFCI monitors the amount of current flowing from hot to neutral. If there is any imbalance, it trips the circuit. The GFCI senses a mismatch as small as 4 or 5 milliamps, and it can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second.

[garykk]

Yours is one of many complaints about GFIs and Tiffins. They just done work together.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by hipkts2010

My suggestion is to go to your inverter control panel and turn down the available amps to 20 or 15. It is probably set to either 30 or 50. The inverter is trying to charge the batteries and drawing too much current. IMHO.

If you draw to much power, the circuit breaker trips, not the GFCI receptcal. Fact.

[jkorn]

I have the same problem..

It has NOTHING to do with the amount of draw from the RV like several have suggested. There seems to be some leakage back on the third wire ground from the Bus that the GFI outlet does not like, then trips. This is true no matter what amperage the outlet is.

That's what a GFI does, it looks for voltage on the 3 wire ground, which should have none most of the time.

I have had this issue with 50 and 20 amp GFI outlets. At home I have to find a outlet that is not a GFI. There just do NOT work together.

Friend had a 50 amp GFI at his site that I could not connect to either. He finally swapped it to a non GFI and all good.

Jeff

[Talloaks]

Originally Posted by jkorn

I have the same problem..

I have had this issue with 50 and 20 amp GFI outlets. At home I have to find a outlet that is not a GFI. There just do NOT work together.

Friend had a 50 amp GFI at his site that I could not connect to either. He finally swapped it to a non GFI and all good.

Jeff

Jeff, have you and your friend verified that you do not actually have a ground fault condition on your rig?

The GFI receptacle tripping is designed to tell you that you have a ground fault. The subsequent steps that would confirm or dispel this symptom would be to systematically test for a ground fault. If you don't, the next indication would be when you experience the electrical shock. There is typically no other advance warning, because these ground faults, while large enough to injure or kill you or your loved one, they are not large enough to trip the actual circuit breaker, or cause any heating or odor. Your 15-20-30-50 amp circuit breakers are designed to protect the conductors that make up your electrical circuits and prevent them overheating and causing fires. They do not protect people from electrocution. Serious injury and death can result from very small currents, much smaller than what would be needed to trip your circuit breaker. That is what the GFI is for.

Changing to a non-GFI receptacle silenced the alarm that was telling you that you had a potentially lethal condition, but it did not make the condition go away.

Sometimes a GFI receptacle is faulty and needs to be replaced. That happens. But it's not a safe bet to assume the GFI is at fault.

And beware when people say "certain rigs don't play well with GFCI's." That (IMHO) is a copout for not taking the time or having the understanding to actually trace the fault. That also is not a safe bet for you and your loved ones.

Test your rigs electrical systems. It takes a little time but it's not that difficult.

Good luck.

[vettenuts]

I had this issue with my coach at home. This year I bought a US made Hubble GFCI plug, rather then the Chinese POS from Home Depot. Problem is now gone.

Is there another post you can plug into to find out if that particular outlet is the issue?