we took the camper out, everything was going fine till we had to power, at the connection box the service disconnect breaker tripped, we had the a c on and i also had the electric water heater on. the guy on the next site helped me out and with his volt meter the plug for the 30 amp spot at the post showed 113 volts, the 50 amp showed 225 volts, i have a 30 amp system and my plug when we unplugged it was hot hot hot , no breakers in the camper were tripping just the service disconnect at the post, my question is should that 30 amp plug on the post been showing 120 volts and since it was showing 113 is 7 volts to low cause the breaker to trip and the plug get hot????
i have a 2003 prowler 25 j all i know the sticker is showing the water heater uses 11 amps not sure on the a c any idea ?????????
First even tho one should assume you are talking about the sites at FW since this is what this forum is for, I just doubt this was where you had problems since all sites I know of have 50A service and if you were having power problems I would think a call to the front desk would get you all the help you would need. Thus I will assume this was not at FW and my comments below are for that scenario.
While this is only a guess you might have two problems going on here. The 113 you saw which I assume was w/o you being plugged in might be a tad low, but it will drop even more under a load, but as long as it stays above about 105 volts everything should work. The problem is that the ability of a particular CG power system to provide sufficient voltage can vary even site to site and can depend on who is ahead of you and is running what since many CGs daisy chain their electrical pedestals and it's sort of like a long watering canal where farmers all draw water from it. If too many between you and the water source for the canal are using too much water you won't have enough.
1. A lot of 30A receptacles on the power pedestals basically become wore out because they are loose and can cause heat problems due to the "loose"connection between your power cord and the pedestal. Just drawing 25 or even 30 amps should not produce the heat you are describing IMHO with a good connection.
2. I have no problems running my A/C and WH on electric along with all my normal lighting, TV etc. When these two high amperage items are running I'm drawing between 25 and 28 amps. This means I can't use any other high amp items like the microwave, hair dryer, etc. You were obviously drawing more power than the circuit breaker on the pedestal could provide and again the reasons why the pedestal circuit breaker only was disconnecting and not any of your breakers in the trailer could be due to a couple of reasons. One there is a slight variance in exactly when circuit breakers will trip and over time just like the 30 amp receptacle can get worn out.
Now for solutions or ideas to consider.
1. Because the newer A/Cs, refers, and electronics can be damaged by low voltages and CGs can vary so much in what they can provide, I installed an EMS system like the one
EMS-HW30C. The remote display shows volts, Hz, Amps being drawn, and any fault codes in a rotating fashion so I know exactly how many amps my drawing all the time. We know if we plan to use the microwave or any other high amperage draw device we simply turn off the WH if we are using the A/C.
2. For the inherent potential problems with the 30A receptacle and circuit breaker at the pedestal I always try and get a 50A hookup and before I converted my trailer to a dual 30A service, I would use a 50A to 30A dogbone and plug in my trailer cord to that. The 50A pedestal plugs are not used as much as the 30A, are designed to provide 50A of 110V power between each hot and neutral and you're only using 60% of the designed capacity. The 50A breaker is only an issue if something goes wrong between the pedestal and your power distribution in your trailer since everything after that is protected by the circuit breakers in your trailer and you won't draw more than 30A because of what you are running in your trailer. Your trailer breakers will trip before the pedestal breaker does. I have never heard of an issue or problem using the 50A to 30A dogbone and you should have one anyway IMHO.
Larry
