20 amps no longer enough

**surfintom** · 06-28-2020, 09:29 AM

hey y'all.
Two weeks ago before our trip, I plugged into my garage which is a 20 amp circuit. The A/C ran all day keeping the camper cool while we loaded.
One week ago between our two state park reservations down in Austin, we plugged into my son's patio outlet which was 15 amp. That wasn't enough. It kept tripping the breaker. At first, it would take several seconds, but after a bit, you couldn't reset the breaker at all. It was as if something happened in the RV that made it draw more current immediately.
Now we're home and the 20 amp breaker at my house trips after 10-20 seconds. The RV seems to be needing more current now than it did two weeks ago.
Thoughts? Could something have fried when I was plugged into the 15 amp outlet? What should I be looking at in the RV?

**surfintom** · 06-28-2020, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

hey y'all.
Two weeks ago before our trip, I plugged into my garage which is a 20 amp circuit. The A/C ran all day keeping the camper cool while we loaded.
One week ago between our two state park reservations down in Austin, we plugged into my son's patio outlet which was 15 amp. That wasn't enough. It kept tripping the breaker. At first, it would take several seconds, but after a bit, you couldn't reset the breaker at all. It was as if something happened in the RV that made it draw more current immediately.
Now we're home and the 20 amp breaker at my house trips after 10-20 seconds. The RV seems to be needing more current now than it did two weeks ago.
Thoughts? Could something have fried when I was plugged into the 15 amp outlet? What should I be looking at in the RV?

Let me put out a theory.
It's possible - now that I think about it - the fridge may have been on propane two weeks ago. At some point, I noticed it was set on propane and switched it to Auto. Then it went on AC. But it may have been on propane the whole time I was loading the RV that day. In fact, the water heater may have been off too. I'll go switch them both off and see if I can get my A/C to run. I'll get back to you. I may have answered my own question.

**surfintom** · 06-28-2020, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

Let me put out a theory.
It's possible - now that I think about it - the fridge may have been on propane two weeks ago. At some point, I noticed it was set on propane and switched it to Auto. Then it went on AC. But it may have been on propane the whole time I was loading the RV that day. In fact, the water heater may have been off too. I'll go switch them both off and see if I can get my A/C to run. I'll get back to you. I may have answered my own question.

OK - asked and answered.
I switched the fridge back to gas and turned off the electric water heater and it looks like the A/C will run all day! I wonder if we could have run the A/C on my son's 15 amp circuit. Darn it!
I would have just deleted this thread as a waste of time, but maybe someone will benefit from my learning experience.
If you're tripping breakers, switch the fridge and water heater to gas and you may get by!

**Always Learning** · 06-28-2020, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

OK - asked and answered.
I switched the fridge back to gas and turned off the electric water heater and it looks like the A/C will run all day! I wonder if we could have run the A/C on my son's 15 amp circuit. Darn it!
I would have just deleted this thread as a waste of time, but maybe someone will benefit from my learning experience.
If you're tripping breakers, switch the fridge and water heater to gas and you may get by!

Another big power draw is your converter. If your battery is low and the converter is running hard to charge it you might not be able to run the air conditioner.

**Ynot4me2** · 06-28-2020, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

OK - asked and answered.
I switched the fridge back to gas and turned off the electric water heater and it looks like the A/C will run all day! I wonder if we could have run the A/C on my son's 15 amp circuit. Darn it!
I would have just deleted this thread as a waste of time, but maybe someone will benefit from my learning experience.
If you're tripping breakers, switch the fridge and water heater to gas and you may get by!

Lol but dont delete. Glad you found the issue. You can probably run the water heater on propane also along with the fridge. I'll have to test that also the next time we're preparing to take off.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

**surfintom** · 06-28-2020, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Always Learning

Another big power draw is your converter. If your battery is low and the converter is running hard to charge it you might not be able to run the air conditioner.

Good to know. It shouldn't require hard charging. We just got home from Austin TX and it was plugged in the whole time. I may have disconnected before I levelled and slid the kitchen out part way - so some usage.
There's nothing you can do about that is there? You can't turn off the converter. Maybe wait for the battery(s) to get charged and then have better luck with the A/C.

**xrated** · 06-28-2020, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

Good to know. It shouldn't require hard charging. We just got home from Austin TX and it was plugged in the whole time. I may have disconnected before I levelled and slid the kitchen out part way - so some usage.
There's nothing you can do about that is there? You can't turn off the converter. Maybe wait for the battery(s) to get charged and then have better luck with the A/C.

There should be a breaker in the 120VAC breaker panel that is labelled....converter/charger or something similar. If you turn that breaker off while running the A/C unit, the converter will not work. Just make sure that at the end of the day, when you no longer need the A/C to be running that you turn the converter/charger breaker back on and let it do it's thing charging the battery(s).

**Always Learning** · 06-28-2020, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by surfintom

Good to know. It shouldn't require hard charging. We just got home from Austin TX and it was plugged in the whole time. I may have disconnected before I levelled and slid the kitchen out part way - so some usage.
There's nothing you can do about that is there? You can't turn off the converter. Maybe wait for the battery(s) to get charged and then have better luck with the A/C.

The converter is probably on a circuit by itself. Check your AC panel you should be able to turn it off. Just don’t forget to turn it back on or you will have a dead battery and if you run your battery completely dead it may not hold a charge after that so be careful. As I recall converts will require 800-1000 watts but only when they are max charging. Where you might have a problem is if you pull your trailer out of storage and your battery is low and you take it home plug it in and start the AC. Then both the AC and the converter would be drawing a big load.

**Strider711** · 08-13-2020, 07:10 AM

I've recently had a similar situation. When we got out camper my plan was to install a power pole with at least 30 amp service but in the interim I used a heavy duty extension cord and an adapter to plug in to the 20 amp outlet in the pole building next to my camper. This worked for several months with no problems. A couple of weeks ago our power went out and since then we had problems running out AC. We had been running the fridge and AC with no problem. I could get it to run after turning off all the breakers, letting it sit for 5 min. or so, and turning everything back on but eventually the AC wouldn't run. I switched to another extension cord that was identical to the other and that seemed to do the trick. By now I was sure the problem was not with the camper but the power supply. After close inspection I realized the extension cord was a 14-3 cord so I check some tables to see what this would support and what the voltage drop would be. I have now moved up to a 10-3 extension cord that is rated at 20 amps. No more problems. I watched my EMS readout with the AC running for both cords and that verified the voltage drop difference between the 2 extension cords. I may still put in a power pole but I am at least comfortable with the current setup until I do.

**SolarPoweredRV** · 08-13-2020, 07:45 AM

SurfinTom, Your experience is a perfect example of how we all need to actively manage electric usage in our RVs when plugged into an outlet that is less what our RV was designed for (i.e.: 30a or 50a). As an example; if the RV has a 50a power cord and you only have access to a 30a outlet, you are going to have to give up some of your electrical appliances, (at least not run them simultaneously) in other words, don't run the Microwave if you are running the A/C and have the water heater on electric. Same goes if your wife or daughter want to run that 2000 watt deluxe hair dryer while the A/C is on.

The good news is; we can offload the job of refrigeration and water heating onto our Propane tanks and save the Electric for the important stuff like A/C and Microwaves, just not simultaneously.