Pedestal 20 GFI Tripped

[Jason Worman]

Hi All,

So I bought a 50 amp portable pedestal surge protector. I plugged everything in and no problems. I woke this morning and the 20 amp GFI plug had tripped and I have not been able to reset it. A strange coincidence? Nothing in the coach is affected, surge protector is operating correctly, maybe plug died? I am using the 20 amp GFI for our
Portable hot tub.

Thank you,

Jason Worman

[Fred Brooks]

   Jason,
Does the GFI reset if the coach is not plugged into it?

[Jason Worman]

Fred

I will give that a try

Jason

[Gene Obie]

I have never been able to power my coach thru GFCI and have been unable to figure out why. Must be leakage somewhere on one of the hot lines to chassis/ground? .... but nothing I'm able to measure. Is this a common problem?

I ve had to use my portable charger at one storage facility to keep batteries up as they only provided GFCI protected power.

[Fred Brooks]

  Gene,
That's where I was going with my question. The ongoing enigma is why. For some reason the return voltage on the neutral is somehow mis interpreted by the GFI and thinks there is an issue or leakage. The other possibility is there IS an issue. Motorhomes are a pretty hostile environment and when you add a surge protector it seems to compound the situation. Fred

[Bill Lampkin]

Here is an interesting article about RV park power pedestals and GFCIs. If you dig thru it, you'll find that the NEC code committee says that "The leakage current allowed by UL for GFCI circuits when all the downstream GFCI receptacles are added together would be enough to constantly trip the pedestal GFCI circuit."

 So even if there are no problems with your shore power cord or other electrical issues, just the fact that your motorhome is already protected by several GFCI outlets (or GFCI circuit breakers) would be enough to trip a GFCI on the pedestal. Maybe this will shed some light on the issue.

https://wizard-of-watts.com/2020/03/15/the-revised-nec-551-71f-for-rv-parks/#:~:text=The%20RV%20pedestal%20provides%20power,B)%20applies%20to%20branch%20circuits.

[Jason Worman]

Hi guys,

I think I was a bit unclear, I plugged our surge protector into the dedicated 4 prong 50 amp plug. A separate power cord was plugged into the adjacent 20 amp GFI plug, that one plug tripped and won't reset.

Jason

[Bill Lampkin]

Check you power cord to the hot tub, commonly, frayed wires at either cord end are the culprit. And I wouldn't plug a hot tub into anything other than a working GFCI.

[Joel Ashley]

GFCI’s come in different qualities, as Ed Buker taught us here some years ago.  Yours may be below par.  Shop Home Depot or Lowe’s for the better ones.

Joel