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Deborahheinz

No Shore Power

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I just returned from a 2 week trip and had no problems. I ran the generator for approximately 4 hours while on the road. Turned the generator off and went to plug into power at home and the breaker continued to trip. Turned the generator back on and no problem.

I called an electrician thinking there was something wrong with my home outlet. It is a 30 amp outlet and I use an adapter for my 50 amp MH. Electrician found no problem. I called an RV repair service thinking the transfer switch was bad. No problem there either.

After trying many options the tech removed the inverter and the circuit breaker was OK. I have had the MH plugged in for 24 hours without problem. RV tech bench tested the inverter and it worked OK. Now what? replace the inverter anyway? Thanks for any ideas.

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You need to identify exactly what is blowing the 30 amp breaker. Go to your coach 120 VAC breaker box. Turn off the main breaker. Plug in and see if it trips the shore breaker. If not, turn off all the individual breakers and then turn on the coach main breaker. If OK, start turning on breakers until you find the one that trips the shore breaker.

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Debroah,

Checking things the way Brett mentioned is a start.

While you where on your trip, did you use the 30 amp to 50 amp adapter?

Removed the Charger / inverter and now shore power beaker does not trip.

Thought process!

You mentioned that you have no issues when running the generator and the RV service could not find any issues with the Transfer switch.

With the inverter removed it sounds like things work, correct?

There is the possibility of a Coach battery being Bad. this could place an larger then nominal load on your 30 amp service. One has to remember that the 50 amp service supplies 50 amps on 2-120 volt circuits for a total of 100 amps. The Generator would supply the same current level as a 50 amp service and this problem would not surface.

Thinking that you would have 2-120 volt circuits supplied through the charger /inverter and with the inverter disconnected, one of these circuits might be pushing the load over the 30 amps available.

The 30 amp. service could be overloaded by the combination of the normal items you run by choice and that extra load placed on the charger by a now bad battery.

Rich.

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Thank you for the comments. We went through the process of isolating the coach breakers to try to identify the source. The only coach breaker tripping is labeled "general purpose" and is tied to the inverter. With the inverter out nothing trips so the tech thought the inverter was bad. However on the bench test it was ok. Perhaps one of the coach batteries has gone bad. We will check there next. Thank you!

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Peter,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum!

I kind of eliminated to pig tale because with the charger / inverter removed, the circuit beakers do not trip!

Rich.

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If your house batteries are not charging while driving, the inverter charger will draw more amps while in bulk charging. Try slow charging the house batteries with separate charger overnight. Then you can try plugging in in the morning. If OK afterwards then check charging system on the coach. I got caught with a bad boost charging solenoid that would boost starting but not engage to charge house batteries. Must of had something to do with the vibration from the engine to the battery compartment. New solenoid fixed it.

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Most inverter/chargers also have a "power save" or "power share" feature. It limits the amps of 120 VAC that can be used by the charger portion of the inverter/charger.

If on limited shore power, set it to 5 amps so that you will have power available for other things.

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This is why I would always recommend installing a 50 amp when doing the initial wiring at home. Hope you find the culprit soon.

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