Post by 61 Shasta on Feb 4, 2015 11:53:15 GMT -8
I thought I would pass along an electrical issue I encountered when I finished by rebuild and plugged into the first GFCI outlet. IT TRIPPED!
Well being an electrician by trade I thought "how could that happen". When I did my rewiring I installed a new square d 60 amp distribution panel so I would have more than just 2 spaces although I didn't intend to exceed the original 30 amp capacity and shore power cable. I installed a used converter that I had acquired from a friend and of course battery (12 volt power). I made all the proper connections (I thought), made sure my frame ground wire was properly attached. I installed 3 new 12 volt lights in the unit along with 2 110v outlets. Once all this was installed and secured, I did all the testing and checking to make sure everything worked properly. The plug-in I was using for testing purposes was not a GFCI outlet and I didn't think much about it at the time.
So, off we went on our "test run". A 12 hundred mile round trip through Idaho. The first night out we stayed at Farewell Bend State Park in Oregon. The camp spot had electricity so I plugged in! Viola, it tripped. That didn't make sense so I checked what I could, didn't see any problems and did some ground testing with my trusty multi-meter and everything looked and tested good. It just would not stay reset. So, we decided to just dry camp for the rest of the trip rather than try to deal with it now.
When we got home I removed all of the electrical box covers including the converter and started a systematic test of all my connections.
The problem: I had installed an equipment grounding buss separate from the neutral buss as required and attached all of the ground wires including the frame ground to it. However, for some reason I forgot to remove the bonding screw that bonds the neutral buss to the box and since the equipment grounding buss I installed is attached directly to the box frame they were still tied together. Once I removed the bonding screw everything worked properly.
I still don't know why this occurred. Even with the bonding screw in place, it takes some kind of an electrical feedback to cause the GFCI to trip. To try and isolate the issue, I removed all of the ground wires and utilizing my very accurate multi-meter, I checked from both the equipment ground and neutral buss to each wire. I could measure absolutely no back feed. I disconnected the battery and converter thinking perhaps something was feeding back from them, nothing. The trailer was not connected to the tow vehicle so that was not an issue.
Since the system works fine now and I have no "hot skin" problems and my GFCI doesn't trip I am just going to go with it. Suggestions?
Well being an electrician by trade I thought "how could that happen". When I did my rewiring I installed a new square d 60 amp distribution panel so I would have more than just 2 spaces although I didn't intend to exceed the original 30 amp capacity and shore power cable. I installed a used converter that I had acquired from a friend and of course battery (12 volt power). I made all the proper connections (I thought), made sure my frame ground wire was properly attached. I installed 3 new 12 volt lights in the unit along with 2 110v outlets. Once all this was installed and secured, I did all the testing and checking to make sure everything worked properly. The plug-in I was using for testing purposes was not a GFCI outlet and I didn't think much about it at the time.
So, off we went on our "test run". A 12 hundred mile round trip through Idaho. The first night out we stayed at Farewell Bend State Park in Oregon. The camp spot had electricity so I plugged in! Viola, it tripped. That didn't make sense so I checked what I could, didn't see any problems and did some ground testing with my trusty multi-meter and everything looked and tested good. It just would not stay reset. So, we decided to just dry camp for the rest of the trip rather than try to deal with it now.
When we got home I removed all of the electrical box covers including the converter and started a systematic test of all my connections.
The problem: I had installed an equipment grounding buss separate from the neutral buss as required and attached all of the ground wires including the frame ground to it. However, for some reason I forgot to remove the bonding screw that bonds the neutral buss to the box and since the equipment grounding buss I installed is attached directly to the box frame they were still tied together. Once I removed the bonding screw everything worked properly.
I still don't know why this occurred. Even with the bonding screw in place, it takes some kind of an electrical feedback to cause the GFCI to trip. To try and isolate the issue, I removed all of the ground wires and utilizing my very accurate multi-meter, I checked from both the equipment ground and neutral buss to each wire. I could measure absolutely no back feed. I disconnected the battery and converter thinking perhaps something was feeding back from them, nothing. The trailer was not connected to the tow vehicle so that was not an issue.
Since the system works fine now and I have no "hot skin" problems and my GFCI doesn't trip I am just going to go with it. Suggestions?
