davidbrugger
all over
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my white nuetral once broke away from my 50 amp plug, this caused a surge of power to fry my converter. I did not have 110 at this point. there is a black wire that runs from on of your breakers to power the converter you can cut this to isolate the converter. You would have to charge your batteries with a charger now. Not sure if this is your problem but thought i would throw it out there. Check and make sure your plug wires are all connected if thye are all not factory sealed. good luck
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nbounder
Arizona mountains
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First off, get yerself a Digital Volt Meter (called, strangely, a DVM-no connection to a veterinarian) Harbor freight has them on sale for $2. Buy 2 in case one breaks. Then, with the trailer plugged in, stick one probe onto the chassis firmly, and stick the other probe into the dirt.(Don't laugh) the meter should show durn near zero volts. If it shows more than one volt, you got yer self a problem. Get competent help. I'm assuming that if you don't own a DVM, you don't have the experience to take this much further - no insult intended - trying to be safe.
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Stu
Utah
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No offense taken bounder. However, I am a trained aircraft electrician. I know electricity in general, but the house stuff is weird to me. It seems like it should be more simple but it still kicks my arse a little bit.
That being said; well gents, I isolated it down to the breaker marked, "General." That breaker services the converter and something else (maybe the reefer, because there was not a breaker for it). I isolated each of the two wires and each one, on its own, tripped the GFCI when the breaker was closed. I do not believe the breaker is faulty because I temporarily rewired the A/C into that breaker and it did not trip the GFCI when closed. It seems to me now, that both the converter and whatever component the other Romex leads to have a ground fault. BTW, I plugged the trailer into a non GFCI outlet and it all still works like a champ...just like it has for the past 6 years. Any ideas for the next step?
Thanks,
Stuart
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CA Traveler
The Western States
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Remove the wires at the converter end and confirm that one problem is the converter. Post converter model.
Trace the other wire. Find out what doesn't work with the wire disconnected. Or buy/borrow a wire tracer.
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Bob
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CA Traveler
The Western States
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The prime GFCI suspect areas are anything related to water and the converter. ie Outside plug, refer and HW.
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Sandy & Shirley
North East, MD
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This sounds a lot like the same problem we had with our 32 foot Trojan when we were RV'ing on a liquid surface. We ran a GFI outlet down to the pier and tried to plug in the boat and it popped the GFI. It took quite a while, but eventually found a receptacle that was wired with the ground and neutral connected to the same post. A GFI works by measuring the amps going out the black wire against the amps coming back on the white wire. IF the white and clear ground wire are crossed anywhere in the RV, some of the current will come back on the ground wire. This causes an imbalance and pops the breaker.
First thing I would try is to pop all the breakers in the panel in your RV. Hopefully you can plug in without popping the GFI. If that works, try turning on each circuit one at a time until you find the one that pops the breaker. Then trace down that circuit to see if anything is cross connected.
One way to find out what is on that circuit is to turn on all the rest and see what does work!
Hopefully you won't have as much trouble finding it as we did on the water.
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Wayne Dohnal
Bend, OR.
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Quote:A GFI works by measuring the amps going out the black wire against the amps coming back on the white wire. IF the white and clear ground wire are crossed anywhere in the RV, some of the current will come back on the ground wire. This causes an imbalance and pops the breaker.
With this mechanism the GFI couldn't detect a downstream ground-neutral connection unless the circuit was loaded. In practice, they detect it with no load by injecting a 120 Hz. signal on one of the lines and trying to detect it on the other. If there is a ground-neutral connection, flipping breakers will not isolate it. Isolation requires disconnecting neutral and/or ground wires in the breaker box.
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cwit
Upstate New York
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You may find the gfi's in the trailer are tripping the gfi in the house. I had this same problem with my 5er took the gfi out of the house and all is well.
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leghorn204
center of the continent
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I find it strange that the bathroom GFI circuit would be a part of the what I asume is the outside plug you are using for the 5th.
Is the GFI in the main panel or did someone instal a GFI recepticle in the batroom?
Basic design of the converter will fool the GFI. Have you tried a circuit without a GFI, does it trip?
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smkettner
Southern California
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You are close. Now just a few more items to eliminate. 
I would continue the quest until you are able to repair the culprit.
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