50 amp breaker trips

[RTJERRY]

Anyone have experience with 50 amp breaker tripping when you use the hydraulic jacks. 395M
Anyone change to 80 amp?

[xrated]

There are a bunch of us that have changed out the 50A breaker to an 80A breaker. I have a 394M (same trailer as yours only no 1/2 bath in the rear) and Grand Design will likely send a replacement to you free of charge. It's a known issue. I took an amp reading with a DC ampmeter on mine while I was raising and lowering the landing gear. About 68A raising the trailer and about 70A lowering the trailer. If you change out the breaker, it's a good idea to upgrade the wiring going from the battery to the breaker. Also from the other side of the breaker to the directional switch on the pump motor, and finally the ground wire from the directional switch to where it attaches to the trailer frame ground. The present wire used is 6ga and you can either run 4ga wire or do like I did. I bought some more 6ga wire and ran parallel cables on all the places I just mentioned. 6ga is easier to work with and make sure you buy the crimp lugs that you will need for whatever size wire you decide to go with...and have access to a crimping tool for the lugs.

[RTJERRY]

Thank for the reply. GD sent me a 50 and an 80 bit said this Isn’t a common issue. Maybe not but sure is PIA when it happens to you. Are the amp readings constant or spikes? Just curious, will upgrade wire gauge.

[xrated]

Thank for the reply. GD sent me a 50 and an 80 bit said this Isn’t a common issue. Maybe not but sure is PIA when it happens to you. Are the amp readings constant or spikes? Just curious, will upgrade wire gauge.

Either they are new there and just don't know, or they are trying to save face. It is a very common issue on the hydraulically operated systems....slides and leveling gear. I've seen bunches of folks reporting the problem; here, the other G.D. forum, and many of the Grand Design facebook pages that deal with units that use the hydraulic system for slides and leveling. The current values that I watched while running the landing gears up and down stayed pretty steady on the current the whole time of the travel. Current may have fluctuated an amp or so, but mostly it was a steady reading the whole time the motor was running and the landing gear was moving. It only gets worse as the temperatures drop outside. The viscosity of the hyd. fluid thickens a bit and the current goes up even more. 50A is just out and out too small for that circuit, as evidenced by my reported numbers.

[RV Tech]

Use to be a Lippert Dealer...even Lippert stated the RV manufacturers are not setting up the rigs correctly and under sizing the breaker....the 50 amp will work for a while then starts to go bad so you can either replace with a 50 every year or so (depending upon how often you use your rig) or up it....for the most part the wiring should be okay, it's more spikes....

Mark

[RTJERRY]

Thank you both for your service and the reply!

[jneubig]

Just to echo what was said above, I too swapped mine to the 80 and have had no more issues.