# Camper tripping house breaker with all breakers in camper off



## Rickll

I plugged my (new to me) camper in to an outside receptacle last week and all was well, all lights, appliances, and radio worked without a hitch. Last night I plugged it in to the same receptacle again and....pop! Tripped the breaker. Nothing has changed since last week, the camper has not moved, the batteries are charged, no wires look frayed anywhere. Everything works fine when running on battery power. I switched all of the breakers in the camper off and it still trips the house breaker instantly. I would have to assume that a hot wire coming into the camper has become grounded (ghosts maybe?). I have no idea where to look for this short. Cable coming into camper is fine, bought new 30A to 15A adapter and 10awg 25ft extension cord, opened junction box and all looks good, romex out of box looks good, pulled the breaker box out of the wall, everything looks good behind there too. I have a decent understanding of electrical circuits, I was an auto mechanic at one time. I would check for voltage but it won't stay on at all. I checked for continuity at the box and found the hot wire to the breaker for the camper receptacles is showing 2.5 ohms of resistance between common ground, is this normal? None of the other hot wires are giving a reading, they are OL, as I would expect. Does this mean that specific wire is grounded somewhere? Could it be a faulty receptacle? How could this still happen with the main breaker off? Thanks in advance for any advice, I'm ready to start tearing out walls to find this short.


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## Rickll

Nobody has any idea what might be the issue here?


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## snapper388

if it is tripping with the main in the camper off it is probably between the camper breaker box and the house, check the connection to the breaker box and check the cord. I have seen them short inside the plug. from past bad experiences I would not use a 30 to 15 amp adapter. you need a 30 amp service to run a 30 amp camper


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## wecamp04

I agree I installed a 30amp just for the camper


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## Wags

Is this outlet a GFIC, or on a GFIC breaker ? Also the outlet could be wired incorrectly, with hot lead on the wrong connection. The hot should be on the brass screw, neutral on the silver screw, and ground on the green screw.


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## frank-id

*Breaker tripped at source*

Some checking is required with a voltmeter or multimeter. Operate the breaker at the power source. Plug into power outlet and check for power. Check the power cable and check for power at female end. Check the adapter after connecting to power cord. Remove front of RV breaker panel. Look for any burned or black wires. Check main breaker for any voltage. I am not a big fan of RV main breakers as the RV circuit is protected at the power source.
Turn off all RV breakers. Continue checking the breaker box. Call me
208 423 5969 Frank Old electrical contractor about 30 years..


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## Wags

frank-id said:


> Some checking is required with a voltmeter or multimeter. Operate the breaker at the power source. Plug into power outlet and check for power. Check the power cable and check for power at female end. Check the adapter after connecting to power cord. Remove front of RV breaker panel. Look for any burned or black wires. Check main breaker for any voltage. I am not a big fan of RV main breakers as the RV circuit is protected at the power source.
> Turn off all RV breakers. Continue checking the breaker box. Call me
> 208 423 5969 Frank Old electrical contractor about 30 years..


Why you want a main breaker in the RV is, many people will plug an RV that needs 30 amp power into a 50 amp plug with and adapter. if you didn't have the main breaker, you would be putting your RV in a very unsafe situation. You would draw 50 amps of power before the breaker in the pedestal would trip, greatly overloading the wire capacity of your RV. 

As I posted above I would also check your house circuit. If the hot and neutral are connected to the wrong screw on the outlet it will cause these issues. While most things you would normally plug into that outlet would work properly, the way an RV is grounded will cause the breaker to trip. I installed a number of RV outlets for folks in my career. Typically most electricians who are not familiar with RV's get the 30 amp circuit wrong, assuming it is a 240 line rather than a 120 line. Good Luck..


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