Shore power tripping

tonystoy

I know I’m no longer a Rinker owner, but this site is 100x better than the Four Winns forum…so I’m hoping someone can steer me in the right direction bc I’m not the smartest when it comes to electrical!?!

I will try to make this as short as possible 
My power pedestal has newer gfi breakers for shore power. My boat is now tripping the breaker when there is a large draw. I’ve tried my neighbors outlet that has a gfi breaker with the same result. I tried two other power pedestals that don’t have gfi breakers and they never trip. So tonight I went down, shut off every breaker on the boat to try and isolate the issue, with no luck. 

Just turning the battery charger on trips it. 

Turning on all of the ac systems except the battery charger is fine, until I turn on the battery charger 

Turning on all of the ac systems except the battery charger, then turn the air conditioner on is fine as long as it’s just the fan. When the compressor kicks in, it trips.

It seems like when there is a large draw is when it trips. 

Any suggestions? 

tonystoy

I forgot to add, that I’ve tried multiple shore power cords too with the same result 

Aqua_Aura

I posted about this a few years ago as I had the same issue on my 280. I never fully resolved it since I didn't make it back to the marina with the new GFI breakers that would trip, however I did find my neutral and ground shared a bus bar so the power wasn't equal on the hot wire and neutral which causes the breaker to trip. 

If it looks like your neutral and grounds in your 120v panel are not shared then make sure there is not a bonding bar connecting the two bars together. 

You should be able to check continuity at the shore power plug on your boat and see if there is continuity between your neutral and ground as well. 

Ground and neutral should only be bonded at the very beginning of the source such as the main breaker at the marina not in anything downline from that. Me and another member went thru every panel at our club and fixed everything we could find wrong and here we are a year later working on the last offending wires and panels. 

tonystoy

@Aqua_Aura thanks for the reply! I looked at that post. The difference is, this is my home marina and these gfi breakers have been in for 3 years now at my dock. Also, whatever is happening, it’s progressively getting worse. Last week, the breaker tripped once and I was able to reset it and it stayed on. Then, earlier this week it tripped, I reset it and it stayed on for a few hours. Now, as soon as I turn the power on it trips. Is this something that I have to worry about a fire on the boat if I’m not plugged into a gfi breaker for shore power?

Aqua_Aura

In this case I would check your wires for corrosion and bad connections behind your panel and also check your shore power from the panel all the way to the plug for any corrosion or bad connections. Also check your main breakers on your boat as they could be bad internally. I just replaced a breaker at my house for my car charger as it was internally bad. 

If anything being turned on trips it that leads me to working around the shore power connections on the boat and also the bus bars. 


You said the panel has newer GFI breakers so I thought this was a new install at the marina. 

davidbrooks

that happens on my dock on one circuit. In my case though I am go a blame it on old wiring to the outlet I am using. I stopped using it till I get a chance to rewire that circuit. So many projects so little time. The last circuit I did I pulled new wire from the breaker box to rewire the lift from 120 to 240. The old wire had 8 burnt spots or bare spots where the wire staples wore through the insulation.

davidbrooks

I would get an amprobe and verify the amps your boat is pulling when it trips. It may not be the boat.

tonystoy

So here is an update and I’m hoping someone can shed some light on this…
it turns out it was a bad heating element on the water heater. Here’s where I get lost…it would trip the breaker even when the circuit breaker was off for the heater. I actually found the answer to this problem on the Se* Ra* forum. I have been stumped for weeks now. I am certainly not an electrician, so I am wondering how it would trip the breaker with no power going to it. The other forum said they had the same issue.

LaRea

Any failure that creates a connection between neutral and the safety ground will trip a modern pedestal.  I'm not sure exactly how the heating element could fail that way, but it's good to hear that your dock's system did it's job.  

Ian

The HW breaker only switches the active so I am thinking there is stray current on the neutral that’s tripping the GFI. 

Aqua_Aura

Yes what he said above.