2015 Casita convertor question

[JKME]

Hello, my husband and I have a 2015 Casita, which is new to us as of July. We live in Maine and have done only dry camping or boondocking, we love it! Question, when we plug into our shore power and the convertor breaker is on, the shore power breaker trips.Do we need a new convertor?
Battery is new and all connections have been tightened.
Thank you and looking forward to your thoughts

[dmad1]

Are you plugging it into shore power at your home or campground?

[stevebaz]

on your new battery did your breaker trip on the old battery? what color wires are on your battery connection on each post? if you are factory wired the black is positive post and white is on the negative post. its not like car wiring.

[JKME]

Originally Posted by dmad1

Are you plugging it into shore power at your home or campground?

Home garage and it has 20 amp.

[JKME]

Originally Posted by stevebaz

on your new battery did your breaker trip on the old battery? what color wires are on your battery connection on each post? if you are factory wired the black is positive post and white is on the negative post. its not like car wiring.

Thanks. We do have the battery wiring correct.

[stevebaz]

If this was me and my trailer this is what I would do

the first thing to suspect is a ground fault issue. turn the trailer off and un plug. now reset the house breaker. plug in trailer does the house breaker trip?
turn off everything the converter is powering and turn off any breakers and pull fuses keep them in order. now if I turn on converter does the breaker trip?
if not i turn on on the breakers in the trailer and see if the house breaker trips.

do the same on the 12 volt side and see when the house breaker trips. then at lease I will know where the fault is. and where to look for repairs.

or plug the trailer in to a non GFI circuit. and the non tripping circuit will probably go away. when I started swapping in led lights I had problems with the lights as several of the lights were wired backwards swapping hots and grounds. 12 volt lights can tolerate this but leds are polarity sensitive and will not accept a cross wire.

if you are not comfortable with working with electrical seek help from a professional. I am not a professional and do not profess to be.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by JKME

... when we plug into our shore power and the convertor breaker is on, the shore power breaker trips. Do we need a new convertor?..

When you say "Trips" that could mean an overload trip (i.e. standard breaker over current condition), or a Ground Fault trip (i.e. a ground fault breaker bad ground condition). So we need to be establish that. (There are also arc-fault breakers but I for one have never seen that at campsites). Is this shore power 15, 20, 30 or 50 amp supply?

Also from your post it sounds like the shore power breaker trips when your converter is on (breaker is on), but it does NOT trip when you connect to shore power and the converter is not on (converter breaker is off). Is that the case?

What I am getting it is trying to establish if its a ground fault problem or a over current problem, and is it only with the converter in use.

But if this problem occurs at multiple locations an electrician might be the best option.

[JKME]

Originally Posted by gordon2

When you say "Trips" that could mean an overload trip (i.e. standard breaker over current condition), or a Ground Fault trip (i.e. a ground fault breaker bad ground condition). So we need to be specific about that. (There are also arc-fault breakers but I for one have never seen that at campsites). Is this shore power 15, 20, 30 or 50 amp supply?

Also from your post it sounds like the shore power breaker trips when your converter is on (breaker is on), but it does NOT trip when you connect to shore power and the converter is not on (converter breaker is off). Is that the case?

What I am getting it is trying to establish if its a ground fault problem or a over current problem, and is it only with the converter in use.

But if this problem occurs at multiple locations an electrician might be the best option.

Correct, the breaker in our garage trips when the convertor breaker is on, but the garage breaker does not trip when convertor breaker is off.
We are are currently on the road and will be staying at our first campground with power, so we'll plug in and see what happens. The home garage is 20 amp

[computerspook]

Does the breaker trip or does the GFI trip. A lot of converters are wired such that the common is used for a ground and that trips a GFI.



If the breaker is tripping you probably need to find why and I would start with disconnecting the 12 volt wiring and seeing if the converter has a problem.

[DJD]

Solved your mystery yet? This is basic, but I don’t know your level of experience, so please forgive if not relevant: Your camper is rated for 30A and your plug is different than a 20A receptacle found in houses and garages. I’ll guess you are using an adapter but are all you electrical demands eliminated other than the converter? 1) frig off? 2) ac/ heat off 3/ water heater off? The converter should run fine from a 20A outlet if those other conveniences are off. Have you checked the adapter itself? Once you get this solved, it’s a good idea to have a plug-in module that monitors the current at campground outlets and indicates faults as well as protects from surges. Progressive Industries is known to make decent equipment. It can save your converter.