So my electric works with no issues except one I can't figure out.

No problem with 50 amp directly plugged in.

No problem with 20 amp 110 plugged into adapter on 50 amp cord into a standard 20 amp 110 outlet.

Now plug that same cord into a ground fault 20 amp outlet and pop goes the ground fault.

I thought no problem I will just shut all the breakers off and then turn them on one at a time to see what trips the ground fault. Problem is it trips the fault with all the breakers off.

The only places it can be is the transfer switch or the main 50 amp cord. Neither is a cheap replacement. How do I check?? How do I find a ground fault?

I am usually full of ideas on what to check but I am not sure what to check seeing everything works on a normal outlet. This is not a problem at my house but anywhere you go the 110 is ground fault protected per code on outside outlets.

Got me stumped?

Perhaps you should try to put your levelers down to add an additional ground giving you an "Earth Ground" and then see what happens.

Inside your motor home, ground should NEVER be tied to neutral. The tie together is outside the Barth. If ground and neutral are tied together anywhere the ground fault will trip.

So unplug your Barth and use an ohm meter between neutral and ground at the plug. The meter should show an open. If the meter goes to zero you will need to find where they are joined.

BTW throwing the circuit breaker will not help as it only works on the hot side.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Carter:
Inside your motor home, ground should NEVER be tied to neutral. The tie together is outside the Barth. If ground and neutral are tied together anywhere the ground fault will trip.

So unplug your Barth and use an ohm meter between neutral and ground at the plug. The meter should show an open. If the meter goes to zero you will need to find where they are joined.

BTW throwing the circuit breaker will not help as it only works on the hot side.

Gary
I think you are right on the money. It should be easy to test if that is the cause. Unplug and then disconnect the ground and neutral wires after the transfer switch. Temporarily tape them off and re-energize via 110 ground fault outlet. If it does not trip then I can check all as you suggest. If it still does then...........?

I'm not sure that's the problem; I plug mine into a 30/20 adaptor to a 10 ga extension which is plugged into a 20A GFCI, with no problems.

I also do not have a problem and I do have the ground and neutral tied together inside the main AC panel inside the RV just as it is in my home main breaker panel.

Have you verified that the 110VAC cord you are using has a good ground connection at both ends? Perhaps the ground is compromised somewhere either at the plug end or the 50 amp adapter or along the cord. Things will work fine without a good ground for the 110VAC (just neutral and hot) but if the ground is compromised anywhere along the path it will throw a GFI.

I recently discovered my that the 120 volt receptacle in the well control box does not have a neutral. The well is 240 volts, using two hots and a ground, with no neutral. The neutral of the 120 V outlet is connected to the ground, and the hot, of course, is connected to one of the hot legs. I don't remember if the receptacle ground is connected to the ground, or not.

I suspect this was done for the convenience of the barn erectors in lieu of a proper outlet post.

This caused me to check other outlets, and all are OK.

I understand this is common in rural areas, but I am sure it is not according to code. None of my neighbors think it is a big deal. One opined that the 120 volt outlet might be for heat tape in winter.

Gary it is not the grounds or neutral problem in the fuse box. Completely disconnected from box. Same kicks the ground fault. By the way they are completely separate.

Ed all cords a-okay. 50 amp cord is a-okay no issues. I had already checked them.

I have eliminated everything except the transfer switch (PS-250) which in looking thru the post, looks like most have replaced. It buzzes and has since I got it. I unhooked and rewired all the wires and still trips ground fault and buzzes when energized.

Looks like the replacement of the transfer switch is my option. I want to be able to plug into 110 when I visit the folks, the kids and other places that don't have 50 or 30 amp RV plugs wired for me to visit.

If the government wasn't protecting us from ourselves I'd be golden. Everywhere outside outlets are ground fault. How did we ever survive this long!

Thanks for the suggestions

Or, you could try "The Cord" that dares not speak its name.

Dana, are you sure there is something wrong with your Barth? sometimes, ground fault interuptors get weak. I have a 50 amp ground fault breaker for my hot tub, and I had to replace that breaker because it became weak.
good luck and keep us posted.
ken

Could be your auto transfer switch, I'd check to see if the auto switch has a ground wire if it does disconnect it. And then see if it trips the ground fault. The auto switch monitors voltage coming in and if anything within the switch leaks to ground it would trip the ground fault.

And like Kenny said they do go bad so I'd check the ground fault. Thats why you never plug garage refrigerators or freezers into a ground fault, they can trip and leave you with some stinky food, the electrical code has exceptions for appliances on ground faults.

Back in the day when ground fault receptacles first came out, we found out you couldn't use the old wiggins tester with the internal voltage coil. Every time you tested a circuit to ground the ground fault would trip. Flustering at times but I'm sure a few lives have been saved along the way.

Good Luck.

Sometimes you can use a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter to fool the GFI.

As a side note, many of the federal and state campgrounds have install GFI on the 30 amp circuit. So far 50 amp outlets are GFI free.

Bill_NY
Have checked all the cords

Kenny
New Ground Fault 20 amp outlet

Tom
Dewired=rewired and tried everything in the Transfer switch that wasn't part of the circuit board. Disconnected the generator still not right.

Gary
actually had tried the cheater plug because I had that work on another project one time. No Joy

I bypassed the transfer switch and everything worked fine.

I guess it is the transfer switch

If you aquire a new transfer switch, I will do dibs on the old one.

Sorry Gary I have a plan for the old one.

New transfer switch is in and wow absolutely silent and all is great. No clunk, no buzzing, no more ground fault.

Thanks for everyone's ideas and suggestions. It still turned into eliminate things one at a time until you have eliminated everything but one.