Trips house gfi when closed

rmfuke · 07-02-2018, 07:13 PM

I have my 2619 parked at my daughters in Arkansas and am on the way down to see them. I asked my son in law to hook up the TM to the house current to get the refrigerator to start cooling. He says it trips the outlet gfi every time. Son in law doesn't know how to open and set it up.

When we were last there in April the gfi didn't trip when the TM was opened. Never tried hooking up to electric when closed before this. Any thoughts? I hate to have a hot refrigerator when we get there Tuesday July 3 but it looks like we will.

Thanks

**Bill** · 07-02-2018, 08:54 PM

I don't think that "open" or "closed" has much to do with it. This sounds like the water heater electric heating element was turned on when there was no water in the tank. When this is done, the heating element very quickly destroys itself, and the debris causes the house 's GFI to pop. The reason that this causes the GFI to pop is a bit involved technically, but is explained in some detail in
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=8101
Assuming this is the problem, the process for replacing the heating element is here.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=11489

For your upcoming trip, you can run the refrig on gas (propane) while you are camped.

Bill

tentcamper · 07-03-2018, 06:05 AM

Only thought I have is maybe the 120V Air condition wires going to the via the outer arm has rubbed a wire through the insulation. That is the only 120v wire I can see that changes by open and closing. Quick test, torn off the aircon breaker and open and close. IF the gfi still trips, it not that wire.

**Bill** · 07-03-2018, 07:01 AM

tentcamper -

Your idea is a good one and easy to check. Along with it, I think another easy step is to confirm or eliminate the "TM Open" vs "TM Closed" idea, without turning off the airco breaker in the TM. Does the GFI breaker in the house really trip only when the TM is closed? Or does it also trip when the TM is open? I know it never tripped before when the TM was open, but a lot could have changed since then - including chafing of the wire you mention, and burning out the water heater element.

Bill

BrucePerens · 07-03-2018, 08:54 AM

Mike, the risk here is that you would plug the trailer in to an outlet that doesn't have a GFI, and you'd have "hot skin", a shock hazard. A person who touches your trailer on the outside could be killed.

Bill is correct that the water heater element is the most common cause. This would have tripped only when closed if you left the electric element on when you closed the camper. The water heater dried up, and the element burned out and shorted to ground. Pull the plug to the camper, disconnect the element and tape up the leads, and see if that stops the GFI from tripping. You have to disconnect both leads.

And when you get a chance, put Dual Function AFCI/GFI breakers on the two branch circuits in your converter. This protects the people in the camper from various shock hazards when you plug into a 30 Amp shore circuit, which is rarely protected by a GFI or AFCI.

**Bill** · 07-03-2018, 11:17 AM

By any chance, is your son-in-law using a 3-pin-to-2-pin power adapter when he plugs the TM cord into the house's power outlet?

Bill

**Bailey'sMom** · 07-03-2018, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrucePerens

Mike, the risk here is that you would plug the trailer in to an outlet that doesn't have a GFI, and you'd have "hot skin", a shock hazard. A person who touches your trailer on the outside could be killed.

Bill is correct that the water heater element is the most common cause. This would have tripped only when closed if you left the electric element on when you closed the camper. The water heater dried up, and the element burned out and shorted to ground. Pull the plug to the camper, disconnect the element and tape up the leads, and see if that stops the GFI from tripping. You have to disconnect both leads.

.

this is the first thing I would check. I think it’s the most likely. I remember when I first got my trailer and was having all kinds of electrical issues and everyone kept telling me to check this. I was busy and frustrated and didn’t listen and didn’t check this. When I finally calmed down and looked at the water heater electrical element and tested as Bruce suggests here.....low and behold that was the problem.

To this day the wires are taped off since I only use propane to heat the water.

I didn’t think it could possibly have anything to do with the issues I was having, but I was wrong. That corrected all the issues that I was having.

BrucePerens · 07-04-2018, 01:41 AM

I got a spare element for a whole $11. And $7 for the special wrench. Works great in trailer parks. Got to remember to throw that switch, though.

rmfuke · 07-04-2018, 06:26 AM

Thanks everyone it was the water heater. I had switched to electric to run the water heater on our last trip in April and only turned the water heater off using the switch by the kitchen sink (and I'm not sure why that didn't work). When I turned off the electric using the switch from the outside for the water heater, the problem went away.

I bought a replacement element (is Camco 1500 watt the right one) but decided not to change it this trip as it is 100 degrees here in Arkansas. I didn't even open the propane tanks as we shower in our daughter's house and the water is pretty warm now anyways.

What a great forum and thanks everyone for your help.

**Bill** · 07-04-2018, 09:03 AM

Quote:

I had switched to electric to run the water heater on our last trip in April and only turned the water heater off using the switch by the kitchen sink (and I'm not sure why that didn't work).

The water heater can run on two different heat sources (or both) - gas and electric. The outside switch, hidden in the water heater compartment, controls the electric part of the heater. The inside switch controls the gas part of the heater. That's why turning off the inside switch didn't turn off the electric heating element.

Bill