Tripping Elect Box at Park - not at home

momthebaum · 05-24-2015, 03:58 PM

We have a flagstaff super light. Last year we arrived at a campsight, hooked up and blew the circuit breaker -- 30 amp. Park ranger came out, replaced their fuse, no luck. So on the way home we stopped at an RV sales/repair, they found nothing wrong with our RV. Second time was last fall at another park, the Park Ranger came out and replaced the panel - all worked great. Then we just went to a third separate park, plugged in and the breaker popped at the parks electrical box every time. Checked all our fuses, checked our power cord - no problems there. This time it was a city park - they sent their electrician who replaced everything in their box - yet it still happened and we spent the weekend running off gas and batteries. We got home, plugged her in, and no problems at all - everything works again. It has a brand new inverter (or is it converter? - hubby knows) and that is our second one in 5 years. We travel to parks probably every weekend of the summer - so the problem seems to be hit or miss. Any ideas? The parks say its our rig, the repair guys say it's the parks electrical boxes. We are stymied.

MooseSuite · 05-24-2015, 06:31 PM

Many older parks have outdated power supply equipment that may cause your situation of overloading the circuit. As well if you you are pressing the limit on your 30 amp i.e. a toaster and a heater that will pop the fuse at the pedestal.
You can buy a device that provides the amperage and no ground at the pedestal before you plug in, for safety sake.
A good surge protector will also give you this information and shut down the power if voltage goes too high i.e. 130 or to low 104, as well as ground fault protection.
Progressive Industries makes an excellent surge protection product that you can hard wire or plug into.
Sounds like it is not a trailer issue.

Bon Chance mes amis.

**wingnut60** · 05-25-2015, 12:17 AM

I agree that it doesn't sound like a trailer issue. Might just be a string of bad elec supply points.
Have you tried plugging into the space next to you whenever you have the problem?
Why not get a 30amp extension cord so you can get power from another pedestal if it trips where you are. That might help point out the problem. You may just be staying at the older/less maintained parks with old wiring.
Joe

MooseSuite · 05-25-2015, 07:04 AM

BTW
We are wilderness park campers and our favourite Park in Northern Ontario Canada,the power can go down to around the 104v every fall when the park is full and with campers using their heaters and electric fry pans. We can't get a toaster to work till after morning breakfast.
As well my last trailer in a camp ground in Cape Breton Nova Scotia the camp power surged so high it fried many 12 volt appliances, cost plenty to fix. Thats when I installed surge protection.

Happy camping.

momthebaum · 05-25-2015, 05:57 PM

Thanks folks! We are going to try the surge protector route along with a new 30 amp cord - just in case. We did try to plug into the neighboring power pole in the park with an extension and had the same issue. We were wondering if there might be an electrical issue between the converter itself to the rv plug causing the issue. But then it would be consistent and not so sporadic over two summers. I tend to think it is an rv park issue also.