Blowing Fuses

[RVfamilyof6]

We traded in our Chateau Sport for a 2011 Greyhawk 31fs. With our old unit we would park turn on the hot water heater refrigerator television Keurig and lights with no issues. With this new rig it seems like all we can have running is the a.c. or we are blowing a fuse. Wondering if we have a problem with the rig or we were just lucky with the old one. I'm finding it very frustrating with the limitations of this one. Thanks for any input.

[Robbbyr]

Just to clarify so that folks may be able to better help - Are you popping circuit breakers or actually blowing fuses? Breakers are on the A.C. (120-volt) side and fuses are on your 12-volt loads.

If it is the breakers, are you blowing the pedestal breaker coming into the coach, the main circuit breaker in your panel, or individual breakers feeding certain loads/appliances? Do you have an onboard generator, and if so do you have the same issues when it is supplying your coach?

One thought immediately come to mind is that your new unit may have a larger air conditioner (15,000 BTU), where your Chateau may have only had a 12K. That is a few more amps right there. Did you have an electric heating element in your former rig's water heater? Many Chateaus only had propane units from the factory (I had one), so that is more load too. Even if it did have electric also, is the new element a higher wattage heater than the old one?

Many variables between coaches, you may have been just below the amperage on your last unit and just over it now.

[RVfamilyof6]

Thanks for the info. Sorry hubby handles the electric. I'm the freaked out wife. Lol. He says be blew breakers at box where we plug in and our breaker. I was thinking that it's higher draw appliances but we have had so many small issues I was concerned. The hot water heater in the old unit we always used on electric as we did refridge. I was in a panic using the Keurig this morning. Lol. It just seems strange that all we can use is the a.c. and right now we have the refridge on electric. Would use propane but worried about running out since we are camping for 2 weeks and are planning on grilling. Thanks again for your help.

[Robbbyr]

If it only is "popping" at the campground pedestal it is possible that the pedestal breaker (due to age/use) may be opening at less than the 30 amperes it is rated for. I have had that happen to me several years back. Fortunately that campground called their electrician and within an hour and he installed a new breaker and I was good. Did not have to move.

If sometimes your panel breaker (inside your unit) breaker "pops" too I am leaning more towards overload. This could be exacerbated by low campground voltage causing your air conditioner to draw more amps than it might if you had (full) proper voltage coming into your unit. So if you have the ability to check your incoming voltage it might be another "clue" to what might be going on.

But my general suspicion is that since you are running several things that "heat" (water heater, refrigerator on AC, Keurig), and an A/C that probably starts and stops its compressor regularly, you are just exceeding a 30-amp electrical systems capacity.

[Fire_Medic]

This was happening to us this weekend with the electric hot water heater. Breaker kept tripping in the unit. We ended up just using the gas. I brought it home to trouble shoot. It ran for about 20-25 minutes before it popped. No other load on the unit plugged into the house. Taking it in on Friday to have it looked at under warranty!

[Griswald One]

My last TT had the electric water heater option... that combined with the A/C always had us at the limit. Any additional appliance pretty much guaranteed popping the pedestal. The keurig in particular is a very high draw.

Additionally, one of the draw backs to campgrounds is they often utilize their breakers as On/Off switches... they are not designed to do this and every time they get switched a little bit more draw is lost.

[hoppers4]

FWIW
electrical - Does turning circuit breakers off cause wear? - Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Bottom line of these comments is that it's OK to use a breaker as a switch. However, repeatedly tripping the breaker with overcurrent tends to shorten it's life.

But then again I also found a contrarian article. So take a Google search FWIW.

[Jagiven]

The pedestal breaker gets a lot of hard use, and do get weak over time. If it is what is popping do not worry, but let the campground know. So are very responsive and some are not.

With the AC running you should have no issues running the frig on ac power. Water heater, I never have any issues, but have heard of other who have.

The Keurig though it will pull a lot of power to heat the water. That I suspect will trip the circuit breaker if the AC is running.

Try to never run the AC with any of the following at the same time; Microwave, electric coffee pot, griddle, hair drier.

As for propane usage, do not worry about it, unless you are using the furnace, or have not filled the tank(s) in a long time. We have two 20 pound tanks on our camper. We typically camp about 40 nights a year, some boondocking, run the frig on propane while traveling, some gas heat, and have never used a full tank in any single year. I do cook primarily outside using my 11 pound propane tank, gas grill and gas stove, and use about 7 pounds of gas in that tank a year.

Time will let know what your typical usage it, there is an adaptor you can get for MHs that will let you use a portable tank (#5,#11,#20 or #35),