Community Forums

time2go · 12-09-2012, 03:12 PM

Staying in a campground in South FL., and have 50amp service. Over the last week when my wife uses the blow dryer in the morning the 50 amp breaker outside feeding our MH has tripped twice. Haven't had any breakers inside our coach trip and have no issues with the a/c tripping the breaker either. Could the problem be a short in her hair dryer??? Not sure why it would trip the breaker outside and not in the coach. She even makes sure the a/c is off when drying her hair. Could the breaker on the pole be getting weak? If so why wouldn't the a/c trip it? Any info or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

docj · 12-09-2012, 03:57 PM

Breakers in park pedestals are routinely used as switches so people can turn them off when plugging in and disconnecting. This is good thing for RVers to do but it is bad for the breaker. Each time a breaker is "cycled" it gets a little weaker. We had a similar situation last year at a park and asked that the management replace the breaker; doing so immediately fixed the problem.

RickO · 12-09-2012, 04:07 PM

Ditto.

Are there two 50 amp breakers ganged together on the pedestal? I think there should be and they're probably getting weak due to cycling frequently. I can't explain why a hair dryer would do it and not the AC though.

Good luck.

Rick

doublechevy · 12-09-2012, 04:45 PM

It also could be a loose or burnt wire connection at the breaker or a burnt buss bar at the breaker connection place your finger on the breaker to feel if it is warm or even hot to the touch if so contact park manager

itdave · 12-09-2012, 05:34 PM

Most hair driers have a built in GFI could that be causing the problem. For a test if you have a 50 to 30 amp pigtail and a 30 to 15 amp adapter you could plug the hair drier directly into the 50 amp breaker to see if it still trips. The other test would be to turn off the breaker and turn on the gen use the drier to see if it trips the breaker on the gen.