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?

[Daboss]

Same issue with a Tiffin Allegro RED QSA. The 50 AMP GFCI ran fine for about 20 min then tripped. Called Tiffin and explained the situation. House GFCI trips immediately cant run a thing. I went in the coach and turned all circuit breakers off with 50 AMP disconnected. (No power or manual cord reel Tiffin asked as these are problematic if not wound /mounted obviously). With circuit breakers and everything set to off I connected the 50 AMP to power box and it tripped the GFCI. Now I wondered did I have a bad Transfer Switch? Called Tiffin again they said remove the Power Cord connection to the (4 center wires) WITH THE 50 shore power cord disconnected 1ST ! from GFCI 50 AMP Pedestal) so you live to tell about the next step. Then after the 4 cables to the transfer switch were removed I taped the exposed wires so they couldn't touch each other or ground or energize anything (AKA Welding)! Then Tiffin said to plug the cord up and see if it tripped the GFCI with only the RV 50 amp cable plugged in. It did not trip the breakers so everything was good to the transfer switch. I unplugged the 50 AMP cord to the House pedestal and re connected the 50 AMP cable to the transfer switch. Others looked at their transfer switch and found burnt cables but mine all looked pristine so I figured it was time to suspect from the TRANSFER SWITCH to FUSEBOX connection as a slide might have pulled it loose/sloppy. this is the 2 Legs/POWER connections that come out on either side L OR R on the Transfer Switch. Where these cables entered the RV they removed the outside sheathing and just had the individual cables sheathing. I thought how unimpressive/poor design to remove the protective main sheathing and run the wires thru the side wall with only a strain relief to rub the cables cover down to the metal! There was a big was of the foam sealant over these connections where the wires went into the outside wall. I knew then I was probably looking at the issue. When I pulled these wires about 1/2 inch out from the outside wall (Leg 1 and Leg 2) I figured I'd run a zip tie around the cables so they couldnt creep back in to the wall and trip the 50 AMP GFCI at the pedestal. (the coach never tripped a single breaker anytime in the cloth set). I left the coach circuit breakers all off then plugged up the power and reset the GFCI. The GFCI is now holding AHA moment! I went and turned all the bedroom breakers on and then had power finally. The power cables barely fit thru the RV wall so the installer removed the sheathing! Then covered the problem with foam sealant to hide a lousy installation that just needed a few miles of rubbing on the stress to cause a bare wire grinding on the chassis. Corrected the L1 and L2 power leg entry points to the wall and life is good! No more grounding out !
1 more suggestion. NEVER plug into a pedestal and assume its wired correctly! I have seen folks burn their electrical system up. I camped at a place with a 30 amp plug. I came back and the campsite next to me was on fire by the pedestal headed for my unit. The guy who applied the electricity (notice I didn't call them an electrician) had it wired wrong and about sat everything on fire. (never use water on an electrical fire) !
2. Camped at another new place that had a New 50 AMP Installed (Warning signs went off naturally) got out my surge protector and plugged it up. Nothing and surge said it had no power as well. Pedestal surge was on so I reset it. Called the campground guy and he said Hmm just paid to put it in and I told them the box front wasn't on right either. The called the electrician and he wouldn't answer. We got another electrician to come out to see what the issue was. The other electrician had put up a breaker box on a 4x4 post and ran the wire underground about 6 inches below ground for about 3 foot out underground and had not wired it to ANYTHING! Buy an RV electrical surge protector and protect yourself and property from people who call themselves electricians! They are just "welders" who don't use any welding rods! HA imagine that...

[jkorn]

DONT DO THIS

I finally cut off the third wire plug on my 30 amp to 20 adapter at the 20 amp side and gfi quit popping. I tested chassis to ground. No voltage. Jeff

[vsheetz]

RVs and GFCI protected shore power often do not play well together - usually due to ground fault situations that can be inherent to RVs.

Best to swap out the GFCI or use different non GFCI protected circuit.

If you want to try to isolate a ground fault source. Drop all breakers in the main/sub breaker panel. Then bring them on individually until it trips.

A ground fault likely is occuring when the inverter relay transfers the neutral/ground bonding. It may be timing sensitive - so occurs intermittently.

Note. GFCI do not trip on excess power draw, rather a ground fault. Unless - its current sensor has saturated (ensure charger shore setting is reduced, no air conditioning on, etc). So excess current us a possibility. Ensure all high power draw items are turned off when connecting shore power.

[twinboat]

So we don't want to cut the ground pin off the adaptor, which will prevent the GFCI tripping, but its OK to remove the GFCI receptcal ?

I would leave the GFCI in place and cut the ground pin off. That way, if I found my body being the conducter of current, the GFCI would trip.