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Tripping 50 amp breaker
We are in Kerrville, TX until Friday, plugged into 50 amp shore power, but we keep tripping the breaker. We are running 1 RVAC, and both cruisairs are off because they are broken POS. In spite of just using RVAC (which btw can barely get us to 85 inside in the salon during the day), we are still tripping a 50 amp shore breaker. It looks like the RVAC is using around 18/16 amps, but I think the inverters are trying to use another 15/15 or so amps to charge the battery. I adjusted the shore power cable settings in the trace inverters to 40 amps, but we still tripped. Does adjusting this alter how much current the inverters use to charge the batteries? Should I lower that setting even more? Oh yeah, it’s 104F outside!
btw, we do have the generator available, but I smell a bit of exhaust from it on the inside when it runs, so I’ve been hesitant to run it all the time right now until I figure out if I have a leak.
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11 Replies
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Andrew, how do you know your bus is the problem? It could be the Campground pole. I have stayed at many campgrounds with too many campers on one breaker. The other issues i see a lot of now is busses not acting nice with GFI receptacles on the pole.
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It probably is the power pole, but I doubt there’s much I can do about that. I just wanted to see what was under my control (the electrical load). I did lower the shore power cord thing down to 30 amps and so far no tripping.
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A properly working 50 amp power pole allows 50 amps on 2 separate circuits for a total of 100 amps. If the power pole is tripping when you are only using 30 or so it must be the power pole.
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Every once in a while I trip my generator 50A breaker. I finally figured out that in my case it was the water heater. I was dry camping and turned the generator on in the evening. In my head I knew the A/C and Chargers were a load to watch and completely forgot about the water heater. Big “aha” moment.
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Also you need to look at your amp meters if you have them? On my Royale it has 3 roof AC’s front and rear are on leg #1 middle AC is on leg #2 the Electric part of the Aqua Hot 12 amps is on leg #1 plus a few other things Inverter/chargers are split leg #1 and #2 so on mine with all 3 AC’s and Aqua hot on, leg #1 was pulling like 38 Amps and leg 2 was 18 amps then if coffee pot or Micro Wave leg #1 was pushing the limit. so 1st thing I did was move the Aqua Hot to Leg #2 and Coffee maker to Leg #2 now when it’s hot out and running all 3 AC’s,Aqua Hot and she is making her afternoon cup of coffee leg #1 is around 30 Amps and Leg #2 is about the same. You need a couple of good digital amp meters to watch. If you have a older Refrigerator it will pull quite a few amps, My new Refrigeratorusing very little, It runs more but very few amps.
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We left Buckhorn Lake Friday after 3 days of that 100+ heat. We had no power issues and ran all 3 roof a/c units constantly. We were pulling between 30 and 40 amps per leg with no issues on our Newmar King Aire. We were able to use the microwave too. We got close to 45 amps once and it was still okay.
You could have a bad breaker at your site or something in the bus is kicking on at times that take you over the capacity of the breaker.
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It looks like setting the shore power cord and size to 32-35 amps is working, which suggests this is a breaker issue. The front cruisair started working after dark, and I am able to compare total amps on the coach electric panel to the inverter’s charge, load, and total amps. When I increase the load, for example, when turning on the front cruisair, I can see the inverter charging amps drop in order to attempt to keep under the power cord size I have set. We’ll see if the cruisair will continue to work as the day gets hotter (probably not).
of course setting that power cord size will do nothing to prevent loads to exceed the amperage I set, but at least it seems the throttle the battery charging load. So, for that reason, most of the time all circuits are disabled except the RVAC and the front cruisair.
I seem to have other problems like the HH water pump not working, and I had a high pressure hose pop off (fixed the hose), but I’ll try to keep that in another thread (eventually, as I probably don’t need the pump at the moment).
thanks for all the help!
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First, no matter what the breaker capacity rating is, the true limit is 80% of that rating. That is the industry standard for acceptable performance. Then add to that poorly maintained electric distribution maintenance, such as loose or corroded connections and the ability to handle loads diminishes to an extent.
To add to the issue, summer current draws on the system increase, voltage decreases, which in turn increases the amps on the current draw.
When voltage drops 10%, amperage drawn increases proportionately, so if the norm is 120, and the voltage supplied is 105 the current draw goes up.
This is not exclusively related to the coach, or the power outlets, or the campground, but may also include power company providing the power. All you can do is make sure the coach has good clean tight connections and then manage your loads. All other reasons are outside the scope of your ability to cure the problem.
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What buck horn lake were you at?
There is a Buckhorn lake in Wilson NC, just 25 miles from where I live.
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Kerrville, TX is where we were. Buckhorn Lake is the resort name.
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I like that Place
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