I cannot plug in without tripping my circuit breaker.

[TNFSolitude]

Thanks Jim. Yes, there is continuity between 2 posts. The top round and the 3:00 prong as i look at it.

[TNFSolitude]

For Howard post 14 the cord is good, all combinations are open.

[TucsonJim]

Thanks Jim. Yes, there is continuity between 2 posts. The top round and the 3:00 prong as i look at it.

Okay, this shows that there is a direct short between hot 1 and ground. Not good. Next step. Remove the cord from the wall, and repeat the tests at the prongs on the recepticle on the trailer. This will let us know if the problem is in the RV or the cord.

Jim

[howson]

For Howard post 14 the cord is good, all combinations are open.

OK--well that's good. Your original post said you'd tried multiple adapters on the male end of the cord, so highly unlikely it's an adapter issue.

That points to the connection on the side of your trailer or at the power distribution panel. I'm not 100% sure (I have a strong suspicion) on how to check the camper's outlet, so will again back off this conversation.

[TNFSolitude]

It's the rv. I have continuity between 1 prong and ground. I assume it's ground, it's the flat piece of metal on the inside wall of the receptacle.

[TucsonJim]

Sending you a PM with my phone number.

[TNFSolitude]

Further, i removed the cover from the breaker box to expose the wiring. I show continuity across everything.

[howson]

Sending you a PM with my phone number.

Party foul! (Just kidding.) Please post what you guys find...

[ncitro]

It's the rv. I have continuity between 1 prong and ground. I assume it's ground, it's the flat piece of metal on the inside wall of the receptacle.

Good luck, you’re in good hands.

[TucsonJim]

Okay, for an update. Tom's meter is showing continuity between ground and Hot 1 (Black wire).

I had him remove the hot 1 wire from the 50 amp socket on the exterior wall. He still had continuity between the black wire and ground. This rules out the shore power cord and the 50 amp socket as the short circuit pathway.

Next, he removed the face plate on the breaker panel, removed hot 1 (black) from it's breaker, and tested for continuity between the black wire and the ground bar. This also indicated a direct short. This rules out any issues in the breaker box as the cause of the problem.

Tom then inspected the wiring in all the nooks and crannies he could get to. There was no sign of visible damage such as chaffing or a mouse chewing the wires.

We've isolated the problem to a short circuit between hot 1 (black) and the ground in the wiring between shore power recepticle and the breaker box.

The next steps are to trace the wiring to find the source of the short circuit. Since this is a 2013 Solitude 369RL, it will require dropping the coroplast to locate the issue. This is more than he wants to tackle, so he's going to either take the rig to his dealership or contact a mobile RV tech to take on the job.

He promised to update us once the issue is resolved.

Jim

[ncitro]

That’s rough for sure. The main writing under the rig must be nicked somewhere. If I had to guess I’d say near a slide, but could be anywhere. Let us know what the tech finds. Short term you could tape off the black wire and you’d have power to half the bus?

[howson]

TucsonJim -- there are often discussions on the forum about "bonding plugs" for generators (I have one of the plugs I made from one of your "how to" posts, if I remember correctly).

Does that mean that when checking the camper's wiring (without anything plugged into from the outside), from the 50A (or 30A) socket on the outside of the camper to the power distribution panel there should be an open from ground to neutral?

I'm pretty sure you're going to write it should show open on the multimeter--but not 100% sure so while this thread is fresh wanted to ask.

[TucsonJim]

Howard - Yes. The bonding would take place at the shore power source. There is no bonding connection in the RV. Per code, you can only have one bond connection. That is already in place via shore power.

The reason we need a bonding plug with many generators is that they are not bonded either. If you didn't use a bonding plug on the generator, an EMS would see no bond, and flag it as a ground problem.

Jim

[Canyonlight]

Maybe Tom will find out that one of his irons fell out of the bag and rubbed through a wire causing a short........darn clubs ! You guys are good.......will be good to know what Tom finds out. Slide out wiring is a good side bet as Neil shared.

Dan

[TucsonJim]

Maybe Tom will find out that one of his irons fell out of the bag and rubbed through a wire causing a short........darn clubs ! You guys are good.......will be good to know what Tom finds out. Slide out wiring is a good side bet as Neil shared.

Dan

It wouldn't be the slide out wiring. We completely removed the main hot wire from the circuit breaker panel and it was still shorted. So the short circuit has to be in the main wiring between the power cord socket and the panel. Tom doesn't have a transfer switch or hard wired EMS, so those were ruled out as the source of a short circuit.

Neil may be right on that one of the slide mechanisms may have nicked the wire.

TNFSolitude - One more test you may want to try is to run your slides to the opposite direction to see if the short circuit goes away.

Jim