Electrical problem

[Citrus breeze]

When I plug my Oliver into shore power, it blows the circuit on the shore socket!  Suggestions?  I have checked the GF under dining table’s right side.  I have checked that no Oliver circuit breakers were tripped.  My front hydraulic lift is working on and off.  Possibly there’s a short in there.

 

[Mike and Carol]

Before you connect your power cable to the trailer check each of the three lugs on the trailer to ensure they are tight.  I had a loose one and it ended up melting the connections on both the cable and the trailer.  If they are tight I would track the cable where it enters the trailer (under the back dinette seat) and start checking connections along the path to ensure none are loose.  Mike

[jd1923]

1 hour ago, Citrus breeze said:

When I plug my Oliver into shore power, it blows the circuit on the shore socket!  Suggestions?  I have checked the GF under dining table’s right side.  I have checked that no Oliver circuit breakers were tripped.  My front hydraulic lift is working on and off.  Possibly there’s a short in there.

It "blows the circuit on the shore socket." What exactly blows? Does the 30A breaker on the pedestal blow? If so, you have a dead short in your shore power cable, the receptacle, or in the EMS (given you have one, more info below).

The GFCI is after the fact. If wiring past the GFCI get a short, it will trip and all outlets are after a 15A circuit breaker. The jacks are 12VDC, so running off battery. If your jack has a short the yellow-jacketed 30A 12VDC fuse will blow. These items cannot be your issue.

Do you have an EMS with a display? The display might be in the attic. If so, when you plug into shore power check the display for an error code. The display shows 4 readings for a couple seconds each. It shows voltage present and Hz, amperage being used, and error codes. If you see E0, it means no errors. If you have anything but E0, you have an issue with incoming power. The error code definitions are on the cover of the EMS. This is a picture of our EMS and our display (I installed ours in the trunk, readout in picture is showing 123V actual).

We'll know more when you answer my first question and your EMS status...

Edited Friday at 11:58 PM by jd1923

[Steph and Dud B]

What are you plugging into? I assume it's a campground 30A receptacle, right? If it's only a household outlet you could easily be overloading it with normal Oliver things like the water heater, fridge, battery charger, etc.

But this did happen to us once at a campground. We had a loose connection at the water heater. Don't know why it blew the 30A breaker at the pedestal and not the 20A breaker inside the trailer, but it did.

Anyway, check everything mentioned above first. If you don't find anything wrong in the shore power connections as mentioned above try this: while unplugged, turn off every breaker in the Oliver breaker box under the dinette, then try plugging in again. If you blow the pedestal again you've got a short in the cable connections or EMS. If the pedestal breaker didn't blow, turn on the 30A main Oliver breaker. If that's ok, keep turning on Oliver breakers one at a time until you find the one that's tripping the pedestal. 

[John Dorrer]

16 hours ago, Citrus breeze said:

When I plug my Oliver into shore power, it blows the circuit on the shore socket!  Suggestions?  I have checked the GF under dining table’s right side.  I have checked that no Oliver circuit breakers were tripped.  My front hydraulic lift is working on and off.  Possibly there’s a short in there.

 

If you are plugging into a GFCI at home, that is more than likely your problem. Get a dedicated 30 amp (120/single phase for RV).

 

What are you plugging into and where? Did you test the shore power plug with a 30amp ot 120 tester to make sure the shore power is safe?

Edited 17 hours ago by John Dorrer
Updated Comment

[Citrus breeze]

I checked the cable contacts and the contacts where you attach the cable to the trailer.  All seemed tight, with no wiggle room.  I also tried throwing all the circuit breakers under the left dinette seat.  When I plugged into shore power again, it still blew the GF on the barn plug.  Does that definitely mean the cable is bad?  I have used the barn plug other times with no trouble.  Never blew the GF.  

[Citrus breeze]

On the Dometic control behind the rear dinette seat, I’m getting a E1 error (Reversed polarity?) .  How would I have reversed polarity, and how would I correct it.  Batteries read real low … As low as 3.7 V. But now 4.9 while solar charging.  Checked wires under left dinette seat.  All seem tight.

[John Dorrer]

3 hours ago, Citrus breeze said:

On the Dometic control behind the rear dinette seat, I’m getting a E1 error (Reversed polarity?) .  How would I have reversed polarity, and how would I correct it.  Batteries read real low … As low as 3.7 V. But now 4.9 while solar charging.  Checked wires under left dinette seat.  All seem tight.

You should have these testers to check the shore power before you plug into your trailer. You have been asked where your trying to plug in, home, campground, 30amp, 120, 120 with GFCI. You should never plug your trailer anywhere without testing the shore power.

 

Edited 11 hours ago by John Dorrer

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, Citrus breeze said:

it still blew the GF on the barn plug.

It appears you are plugging into a 15A GFCI outlet in your barn, and this outlet blows. If so, this has nothing to do with the Oliver except that it is pulling more than 15A.

@Steph and Dud B mentioned this above. A 15A household circuit may not be enough to handle the load internal to the Oliver. Also, don't ever use a GFCI outlet as a source for shore power as they are designed to blow in milliseconds.

Throw ALL the 120VAC breakers in your Oliver panel under the dinette seat. Connect shore power to another household circuit. Not a GFCI outlet and if you have a 20A circuit choose that over a 15A. Many of us have installed proper 30A outlets where we park our Olivers. Something to think about, relatively simple to install or hire an electrician.

After connected to a proper circuit. Turn on your 30A main breaker and then one at a time turn ON and OFF each other breaker. When ON see if the named appliance is working that is connected to that breaker.

I don't know enough about GFCI outlets, but I'll bet @Snackchaser does! Hopefully, Geoff will chime in. Using a GFCI outlet as a shore power connection could be your sole issue.

Edited 12 hours ago by jd1923

[John Dorrer]

1 minute ago, John Dorrer said:

You should have these testers to check the shoe power before you plug into your trailer. You have been asked where your trying to plug in, home, campground, 30amp, 120, 120 with GFCI. You should never plug your trailer anywhere without testing the shore power.

 

 The black one is a Progressive 30-amp tester. Never rely on any shore power without testing it.

[Snackchaser]

21 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

It appears you are plugging into a 15A GFCI outlet in your barn, and this outlet blows. If so, this has nothing to do with the Oliver except that it is pulling more than 15A.

I don't know enough about GFCI outlets, but I'll bet @Snackchaser does! Hopefully, Geoff will chime in. Using a GFCI outlet as a shore power connection could be your sole issue.

I'm late to the party, but just reading this real quick it sounds like the GFIC outlet is tripping.  

This has nothing to do with over current, it's completely different than a overcurrent device such as a circuit breaker or fuse.  Rather it detects an imbalance in the circuit.  So if either the hot side or neutral side of the circuit has a path to ground, it sees an imbalance and trips the GFIC.  This imbalance can be as low as 4 milli amps, so even a little moisture is enough to trip it.

You should be looking for any dampness on your main power cord and where it plugs into the outlet or trailer.  Look for cuts in the cord, not ones that are a direct short, but ones that can use current leakage to ground.  Someone suggested that you turn off each breaker in the trailer, I assume you did that and eliminated any trailer issues.  

I seem to recall writing something about GFIC's in the past, perhaps JD could find it.  Good luck, Geoff

[Citrus breeze]

John, 

      I did check the shore power.  However, when I opened all the circuit breakers in my Oliver, the shore EFCi still tripped.  So, that should indicate that the electric power cord itself is bad, or the adapter that you attach to it to plug in a normal plug is bad.  After disconnecting the power cord to the camper and just plugging in the adapter and the clean power checker I had, the shore circuit still tripped.

      So, I’m suspecting, and hoping it is just the plug adapter that is bad, not any circuit of the camper itself.  What do you think?

[Citrus breeze]

John,

    I do use a voltage checker on shore power.  I’m not sure I have the ones you are showing.  I’m not near it right now.  It is yellow though.  I am plugging into a power plug in my barn where I store the camper.  It is a 15 amp circuit.  Don’t you think that if I have opened all the campers circuit breakers, that it must be a problem before the camper?  The electric cord or the piece you plug that into to use house current?

[Citrus breeze]

Btw:  How do you lubricate the front hydraulic lift?  I probably should look at the manual.

[John Dorrer]

30 minutes ago, Citrus breeze said:

Btw:  How do you lubricate the front hydraulic lift?  I probably should look at the manual.

 

32 minutes ago, Citrus breeze said:

John,

    I do use a voltage checker on shore power.  I’m not sure I have the ones you are showing.  I’m not near it right now.  It is yellow though.  I am plugging into a power plug in my barn where I store the camper.  It is a 15 amp circuit.  Don’t you think that if I have opened all the campers circuit breakers, that it must be a problem before the camper?  The electric cord or the piece you plug that into to use house current?

GFCI's fail frequently. You need to find another place to plug in. As mentioned previously get a 30 amp (120/single phase) installed in your barn.

[jd1923]

55 minutes ago, Citrus breeze said:

However, when I opened all the circuit breakers in my Oliver, the shore EFCi still tripped.

Again, the first thing I would do is connect to a non-GFCI outlet. 30A outlets at campgrounds are not GFCI. I've heard new homes have nothing but GCFI circuits in the garage. What a pain! Our 1980 built home only has one GFCI breaker that feeds the outlets in three bathrooms. I wire outlets in the garage wherever I need one. Add a new breaker and run new wire.

You could use a 10 AWG extension cord to reach a non-GFCI outlet for testing purposes.

48 minutes ago, Citrus breeze said:

Btw:  How do you lubricate the front hydraulic lift?  I probably should look at the manual.

This first post below was started by @John E Davies. Check page 2 for the jack service I performed. I believe I'm the only one who has performed a full service where I disassembled the head, degreased all parts, and got new grease UNDER the gears. Your hull is 5 years old, so it's a good time.

Do NOT follow the maintenance video shown in Oliver University! Do you know the saying, "**** on a bull?" It's better to leave it alone than to work this procedure! The second post is where I rebuilt the rear jacks which shows lubricating the full 18" lift gear.

Edited 10 hours ago by jd1923

[Steph and Dud B]

1 hour ago, jd1923 said:

I've heard new homes have nothing but GCFI circuits in the garage. What a pain!

Yes, our new garage has only GFCI protected outlets. We are able to plug our Oliver into them during storage by changing the Xantrex settings (specifically #28 to 15 or less) and it does not trip the GFCI. 

 

1 hour ago, Citrus breeze said:

After disconnecting the power cord to the camper and just plugging in the adapter and the clean power checker I had, the shore circuit still tripped.

I think the OP has a bad adapter or faulty GFCI. He also needs to manage his loads in the Oliver before plugging into that 15A circuit via the Xantrex settings.

[Tom and Doreen]

If your batteries are very low your Xantrex is likely attempting to apply full power to charge your batteries thereby exceeding the power available from your shore power source. It may have worked just fine previously if your batteries had a better state of charge, requiring less demand on your source, but with really low state of charge more demand is required of the source. Decrease or turn off your Zantrex’s max charge current setting or plug into a higher power source. In addition, as others have said, make sure your source is wired correctly and test for faults.