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I agree with you that if the swirch is off, why would the heating element (bad or good) trip the circuit breaker?
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101 and Digger -
You may be right - since the heater element looked brand new, but disconnecting its wires fixed the problem, then the problem was almost certainly in the heater element. But since turning off the switch didn't affect the problem, it is not a hot-to-ground short. My money is on a neutral-to-ground short.
In the experience of many on this board, the breaker that trips is a GFI breaker, either in the campground or in the garage. The way to confirm this is to disconnect shore power from the TM, disconnect the white wire from the water heater element (leaving the black wire in place), and then reconnect shore power. And this is kind of what you did, 101, and it worked.
So my guess, based on the experiences on this board, is that your water heater element has an internal fault - a leakage path between neutral and ground. There are other mechanisms for tripping a breaker, of course, but you're describing the classic symptoms.
For the die-hards, here's a technical discussion.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=7220
and the thread that confirms
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=7209
Bill