15A is not enough!

[hoppers4]

Originally Posted by Jmchiaradio

Had a small appliance plugged into the galley plug to the left of the stove. Knocked the fridge out and the outlet. All breakers and fuses look good. GFCI in the head is ok.. Is there another GFCI that controls the fridge and the galley plug?

Breakers can trip with no indication. It can trip and the handle can still be in the full on position. Reset the affected breaker by turning it all the way off (it'll take a bit of effort) and back on.

You'll get more responses if you start a new thread rather than pick up on existing thread. You can start a new thread by scrolling down, clicking on a category to post it in, and click on "New Thread".

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

We would have to watch how much power was being used, especially in the morning with a small electric heater and coffee pot. Those two would trip a circuit. In the early morning the coffee pot would always win and we'd use some propane with the furnace until the coffee was dripped. (The coffee hot plate alone, after the coffee was brewed, would not trip the circuit when the heater was plugged in.)

An idea gleaned from this forum, I remedied the situation by adding another power source to the trailer. Mounted a high quality covered, weather-proof male end into the side of the trailer and used romex to run it to a separate GFI duplex receptacle. Need to plug in an extension cord (not always possible with some power posts) but we've found it is easy to install and very worthwhile. One of my favorite modifications and the heater likes it too.

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

Jaco only gave you a single 120v 15Amp circuit in your RV? Don't you have a "power Center" that has an inverter?. Can you get to the 120 v line that ran to the furnace? you could run a temporary line.

[cfarrar]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

Most travel trailers are wired with 14 gauge wire, I wouldn't swap out the 15 amp breaker. Why the industry wires them with 14 gauge wire in anyone's guess

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

. Can you get to the 120 v line that ran to the furnace? you could run a temporary line.

I thought most furnaces on trailers were 12 volt DC?

[atmago]

Edpare, I'm still concerned about your heater and the mathematical solution you've decided to apply by running it at a lower level of 900w. Have you tried it at full force in the house? If it trips that 15amp breaker the problem might very well be with the heater and not the rv breakers. If it works, then no harm done, you're back to square one.

Years ago I worked hours to get repair a car ceiling domelight that had died. Change bulb, nope, change fixture, nope, rewire under roof lining, nope, door jam switch changed, nope. A friend came over and while I was complaining about this "crappy" car he just bent over and found the domelight switch turned off in the dash. To this day, I still wonder why I still speak to him!

[Fork in the road]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

Do not replace the breaker. You would risk starting a fire!

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by Jmchiaradio

Had a small appliance plugged into the galley plug to the left of the stove. Knocked the fridge out and the outlet. All breakers and fuses look good. GFCI in the head is ok.. Is there another GFCI that controls the fridge and the galley plug?

Welcome aboard.

Really need to know what you have for a camper.

In general, all 30 amp shore power, units I have seen only have 1 GFCI outlet. 50 amp rigs, I'm not as familiar with, but I suspect they have at least 2 GFCI outlets.

Flip all your breakers off and back on. Then try the GFCI outlet.

[thenne1713]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

1) Identify other loads on circuit and turn others off when running heater; 2) Make sure screw/ wire TIGHT at Breaker (Turn OFF & VERIFY w/ tester to tighten); 3) check for HEAT/ loose wires at Plug/ receptacle; 4) Turn Thermostat DOWN so heater is cycling off/ on, allowing breaker to cool periodically; 5) Buy different heater that has Low/ High, or Low/ Medium/ High wattages? (I Like ceramic DISK, or a HONEYWELL "CHILD SAFE" (you can lay hands on and not get burned). Luck and work safe

[Snow Dog]

Originally Posted by Lake Huron

If I remember right code is 15A circuit is for lighting and 20A is for plugs. To make the job easier for the electrical inspectors 20A plug wire is 12ga and the outside insulation is yellow in color. 15A wire is 14ga and the outside insulation is white. I believe plug and lighting circuits are not supposed to be mixed either. The bigger question is does the National Electrical Code cover RV's? Probably not because I've never seen yellow wire anywhere in mine.

Hi Huron, I am sorry to say (and don't mean to offend) but most of your post is incorrect or misleading. The wire color part is right though (if you use romex-type wire).

[Edpare]

ATMAGO: found a solution that might please Mr.Occam. We change to gas for the hot water heater and Norcold fridge at night while we use the 900W oil heater and reverse during the daytime. The 1500W oil heater will trip the breaker if any other load comes on the circuit every time.

[Vicr]

Originally Posted by Snow Dog

Hi Huron, I am sorry to say (and don't mean to offend) but most of your post is incorrect or misleading. The wire color part is right though (if you use romex-type wire).

Actually nothing in his post is correct. The NEC does not require NMB to be color coded to AWG wire size.

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

Years ago, our first PUP had the noisiest furnace ever. Every time it started, it woke us up. We got a Holmes Ceramic heater to use when we had shore power.

I added a dedicated outlet for the electric heater and ran a dedicated 12/3 extension cord directly from the outlet to the pedestal. If possible, I ran the rig on the 30 amp connection, and I ran the heater outlet from the 15 amp connection on the pedestal. I located the special outlet in the dinette area, under a seat. That seat just so happened to have an outside hatch for cargo access, so all I had to do was coil the cord and throw it inside the cargo hatch.

The pedestal seemed to always handle the loads with ease, and the rig was never starved for power because I was hogging close to 15 amps to run the heater.
Worked like a charm.

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

Originally Posted by jimmoore13

Years ago, our first PUP had the noisiest furnace ever. Every time it started, it woke us up. We got a Holmes Ceramic heater to use when we had shore power.

I added a dedicated outlet for the electric heater and ran a dedicated 12/3 extension cord directly from the outlet to the pedestal. If possible, I ran the rig on the 30 amp connection, and I ran the heater outlet from the 15 amp connection on the pedestal. I located the special outlet in the dinette area, under a seat. That seat just so happened to have an outside hatch for cargo access, so all I had to do was coil the cord and throw it inside the cargo hatch.

The pedestal seemed to always handle the loads with ease, and the rig was never starved for power because I was hogging close to 15 amps to run the heater.
Worked like a charm.

X2

[BCx213]

Originally Posted by Edpare

Our 2019 Jayco SLX Baja/Rocky Mtn 248RBSW has ALL 7 available double 120V AC outlets running through one 15A breaker. Since our Dometic furnace quit working, we are trying to use a 1500W oil radiator and it keeps tripping the breaker. Now I know this is dangerous heresy, but is it possible to replace the 15A breaker with a 20A so we don't freeze at night?

You need 12 gauge wiring to install a 20 amp breaker, typically 14 guage wiring is used and is too small of gauge wiring to handle 20 amps. That it asking for a fire..

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by cfarrar

Most travel trailers are wired with 14 gauge wire, I wouldn't swap out the 15 amp breaker. Why the industry wires them with 14 gauge wire in anyone's guess

cuz 14Ga is cheaper than 12 Ga. This is the same reason they would put 7 circuits through one 15A breaker.


IMO a reasonable design engineer would look at the fixed loads (Furnace, Refrig, microwave and their load and keep them on separate circuits. I would want to offer at least 5A simultaneous capability at each outlet and then do the math.
BUT that assumes the company actually has a degreed, knowledgeable engineer involved with the process. If however you have a bookkeeper doing the design you get the lower cost system even if it makes the RV less than livable.


This iw why for years so many RVs had tire load capacity so low you could easily overload the tires with just normal loading of stuff.

[RetiredOne]

I like that idea of putting in a separate 115 inlet to run a space heater and keep the load off the main line. Having a 30 amp system in my rig, I can see the benefit of plugging into the 115 volt 15 amp outlet in the pedestal.

Question for you guys in the know regarding the wiring in the pedestals. I've seen the three outputs in them: the standard 15 amp duplex, the 30 amp (like my rig takes), and the 50 amp for the big rigs. Does anyone know how those three are actually fed with power? It it one dual 50 amp line feeding it all?

Does one line come in to the pedestal, and piggybacked to all three, with the idea that you're only going to plug your rig's power cord in one, and the other two aren't normally used? Or, are there 3 separate feeds to the pedestal?

So, if I plug in my 30 amp, and run the electric water heater and A/C and misc items, I'm using close to the 30 amp, looking at my EMS. Plugging in the coffee maker or wifey's curling iron pushes it over the 30 amp. So, if I ran a separate 20 amp cord to the duplex outlet in the pedestal, to power the addon aux recepticle in the rig, is that still pulling from the same single inlet power line in the pedestal?

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

I like that idea of putting in a separate 115 inlet to run a space heater and keep the load off the main line. Having a 30 amp system in my rig, I can see the benefit of plugging into the 115 volt 15 amp outlet in the pedestal.

Question for you guys in the know regarding the wiring in the pedestals. I've seen the three outputs in them: the standard 15 amp duplex, the 30 amp (like my rig takes), and the 50 amp for the big rigs. Does anyone know how those three are actually fed with power? It it one dual 50 amp line feeding it all?

Does one line come in to the pedestal, and piggybacked to all three, with the idea that you're only going to plug your rig's power cord in one, and the other two aren't normally used? Or, are there 3 separate feeds to the pedestal?

So, if I plug in my 30 amp, and run the electric water heater and A/C and misc items, I'm using close to the 30 amp, looking at my EMS. Plugging in the coffee maker or wifey's curling iron pushes it over the 30 amp. So, if I ran a separate 20 amp cord to the duplex outlet in the pedestal, to power the addon aux recepticle in the rig, is that still pulling from the same single inlet power line in the pedestal?

Don't know for sure but bet there is only one feed to pedestal for a max of 50A @ 129v. Your 30A electric heater is sure a power sucker. If you want to run other stuff like hair dryer, you would need to shut off the heater.


I don't have your problem as I heat with propane. I do have a small 10A heater but have to shut it off if I want to run the Microwave or toaster or coffee maker as those 3 are on the same circuit.

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

Originally Posted by RetiredOne

I like that idea of putting in a separate 115 inlet to run a space heater and keep the load off the main line. Having a 30 amp system in my rig, I can see the benefit of plugging into the 115 volt 15 amp outlet in the pedestal.

Question for you guys in the know regarding the wiring in the pedestals. I've seen the three outputs in them: the standard 15 amp duplex, the 30 amp (like my rig takes), and the 50 amp for the big rigs. Does anyone know how those three are actually fed with power? It it one dual 50 amp line feeding it all?

Does one line come in to the pedestal, and piggybacked to all three, with the idea that you're only going to plug your rig's power cord in one, and the other two aren't normally used? Or, are there 3 separate feeds to the pedestal?

So, if I plug in my 30 amp, and run the electric water heater and A/C and misc items, I'm using close to the 30 amp, looking at my EMS. Plugging in the coffee maker or wifey's curling iron pushes it over the 30 amp. So, if I ran a separate 20 amp cord to the duplex outlet in the pedestal, to power the addon aux recepticle in the rig, is that still pulling from the same single inlet power line in the pedestal?

Mighty good question! I have always guessed the power leads are separate at least for the 30 and 50 since quite a few campgrounds have a shared pedestal for two sites. So far I have had no trouble plugging into 30 and 15. I wonder if you could safely use an adapter to plug a 15A 14 gauge cord into a 30A or 50A source. Hmmm... Would be good to know. Will need more investigation.

[Tireman9]

Here is a wire size (ga) / length / Amp chart. Do not exceed these ratings unless you like fire.