Breaker keeps tripping for no apperant reason, 2016 308bhts

[Seabass]

Hello,
We just recently bought a new to us 2016 308bhts TT. All the electrical outlets inside worked, then one day we came back to the trailer, there's a breaker that tripped, and it can not be reset.
This is the one that is labeled as receptcles.
I thought maybe it is a bad breaker. So then I replaced the breaker with a brand new one, still happens.
After that I thought well that it must be the outlets, I started disconnecting these outlets, the ones that are not usable are follows, the one next to dinette slide, the one next to the pantry(not kitchen island, but aft of the pantry.), the one to the left side of the bunkhouse door, and one that is in the outside kitchen for the refrigerator. I tried disconnecting each outlet and it seems if I disconnect one the breaker won't trip and some outlets would work. It feels like there's a part of the circuit that is shorting but I cannot seem to find it.
Any ideas? Maybe there is a piece of appliance that this circuit is connected to that I do not know about?
Thanks a lot guys!~

[Casa_Woody]

@Seabass.
You are on the right track. Keep the breaker off. No need to keep tripping breakers or cause a potential fire due to a short circuit. Don't use the breaker as your test devise.

Do you own a Volt/Ohm meter? Do you feel comfortable with electrical work?
If so:
Unplug everything from all your outlets. Make sure nothing is plugged in outside or in any of the storage compartments.
Using the meter measure for voltage in each outlet and verify no power. Open the outlet and disconnect the wires. Visually inspect for charring and discoloration.
Using the meter measure for continuity between the hot and neutral wires for each set of wire going to / from the outlet. They should read O.L.
High resistance could mean something is still plugged in. Low resistance would be a short. Keep following the wires that are shorted. They will lead you to the issue.
You may find that it's not an outlet but something between them like a pinched or damaged wire.

Hope this helps and good luck. Let us know what you find.

[Casa_Woody]

@Seabass.
One more thing. Cycle your slide one at a time and see if the issue corrects itself. Indication of a damaged wire in one of the slides.

[Seabass]

Will do that, I did not find any charred outlet and I do have a multi meter. When I turn it on to resistance mode, without connecting it to anything, it already reads "OL."
When I go and do this, as I understand it, I take the outlet off the wall, take the back cover off. There are two sets of 3 wires, hot neutral and ground. I seperate these two sets, and test resistance between the hot and neutral in each set, correct?
btw how high would be high resistance and how low would be a short? Would it simply go out of range of the multimeter?

On another note, I found a outlet where if I disconnect this one, all the others work. I was thinking about just not using that one outlet, and use electrical tape to tape off the two sets of 3 wires and call it a day. Is there any disadvantages to this method other than loss of function of that one outlet? Would I cause any hazard?
Thank you!~

[Casa_Woody]

Will do that, I did not find any charred outlet and I do have a multi meter. When I turn it on to resistance mode, without connecting it to anything, it already reads "OL."

OL is OverLoad. it is reading infinite resistance which is higher than the meter can read.

When I go and do this, as I understand it, I take the outlet off the wall, take the back cover off. There are two sets of 3 wires, hot neutral and ground. I seperate these two sets, and test resistance between the hot and neutral in each set, correct?

Correct. Just be sure no voltage is present before disconnecting the wires. You can leave the ground wire (green) connected if desired.

how high would be high resistance and how low would be a short? Would it simply go out of range of the multimeter?

Greater than 10K ohms would be high. This would not cause a breaker to trip. Less than 1K ohms is problem, and can cause heat and fire. These levels are subjective and others may have some good input here.

I found a outlet where if I disconnect this one, all the others work.

Good place to start. Was there only one set of wires connected to this outlet? If so, it may have been at the end of the line. Are you sure EVERY other outlet was working after you disconnected it? My recommendation is to find and fix the issue. Don't work around it. That normally lead to other issues in the future. There are proper ways to dead end wires. Electrical tape is not the proper way. Hopefully we wont need to go there.

[Tom Traveler]

On another note, I found a outlet where if I disconnect this one, all the others work. I was thinking about just not using that one outlet, and use electrical tape to tape off the two sets of 3 wires and call it a day. Is there any disadvantages to this method other than loss of function of that one outlet? Would I cause any hazard?
Thank you!~

When you say “all the others work” do you mean that the breaker doesn’t trip anymore when you turn it back on? If that’s the case, you’ve gone part of the way to isolating the problem. If there are two sets of three wires in that outlet, it means that there is something else, another outlet or device (most likely another outlet), beyond that outlet. If the breaker doesn’t trip when you disconnect the wires from that outlet, either the outlet is bad or there is a problem beyond that outlet. I’d start by finding out what else doesn’t work when you disconnect that outlet.

Remember, one set of those wires is hot when the breaker is switched on. If you don’t have the wires hooked up and protected, turn a wire nut onto the end of each black, white, and red wire, separately (there probably won’t be any red wires). Make sure that the wire nut becomes tight, is secure, and completely covers the bare wire. Don’t trust electrical tape to protect yourself. People die doing this stuff. If you aren’t confident in your ability to work around hot wires, I would call an electrician.

If you are confident and have experience, find out, using your voltmeter, which of the two sets of wires is hot when you turn the breaker back on. One should be hot, the other should not be. Turn the breaker back off, reconnect the hot wire set to the outlet but not the other one. Turn the breaker back on. Does it still trip? If it does, the outlet is bad. If it doesn’t, the outlet is OK and the problem is downstream somewhere on the other wire. Try to work downstream and repeat this process.

[Seabass]

OL is OverLoad. it is reading infinite resistance which is higher than the meter can read.



Correct. Just be sure no voltage is present before disconnecting the wires. You can leave the ground wire (green) connected if desired.



Greater than 10K ohms would be high. This would not cause a breaker to trip. Less than 1K ohms is problem, and can cause heat and fire. These levels are subjective and others may have some good input here.



Good place to start. Was there only one set of wires connected to this outlet? If so, it may have been at the end of the line. Are you sure EVERY other outlet was working after you disconnected it? My recommendation is to find and fix the issue. Don't work around it. That normally lead to other issues in the future. There are proper ways to dead end wires. Electrical tape is not the proper way. Hopefully we wont need to go there.

Ok, I see.

Was there only one set of wires connected to this outlet? No all the outlets that I took out to look at had 2 sets of wires.
Are you sure EVERY other outlet was working after you disconnected it? No, but there is one outlet where if I take it out all the other ones that I know of works.
I see. I will start to test it today with the multimeter.
Thank you.

[Seabass]

When you say “all the others work” do you mean that the breaker doesn’t trip anymore when you turn it back on? If that’s the case, you’ve gone part of the way to isolating the problem. If there are two sets of three wires in that outlet, it means that there is something else, another outlet or device (most likely another outlet), beyond that outlet. If the breaker doesn’t trip when you disconnect the wires from that outlet, either the outlet is bad or there is a problem beyond that outlet. I’d start by finding out what else doesn’t work when you disconnect that outlet.

Remember, one set of those wires is hot when the breaker is switched on. If you don’t have the wires hooked up and protected, turn a wire nut onto the end of each black, white, and red wire, separately (there probably won’t be any red wires). Make sure that the wire nut becomes tight, is secure, and completely covers the bare wire. Don’t trust electrical tape to protect yourself. People die doing this stuff. If you aren’t confident in your ability to work around hot wires, I would call an electrician.

If you are confident and have experience, find out, using your voltmeter, which of the two sets of wires is hot when you turn the breaker back on. One should be hot, the other should not be. Turn the breaker back off, reconnect the hot wire set to the outlet but not the other one. Turn the breaker back on. Does it still trip? If it does, the outlet is bad. If it doesn’t, the outlet is OK and the problem is downstream somewhere on the other wire. Try to work downstream and repeat this process.

Yes, some outlets, when I take it out, a couple do not work. But there is one outlet if I take that out, all others work. By working, I mean the breaker does not trip anymore and I can draw power from these outlet.
I will try doing that today. Thank you

[Redapple63]

Yes, some outlets, when I take it out, a couple do not work. But there is one outlet if I take that out, all others work. By working, I mean the breaker does not trip anymore and I can draw power from these outlet.
I will try doing that today. Thank you

Sounds like you found the bad outlet. [emoji16]
Bill

[xrated]

OL is OverLoad. it is reading infinite resistance which is higher than the meter can read.



Correct. Just be sure no voltage is present before disconnecting the wires. You can leave the ground wire (green) connected if desired.



Greater than 10K ohms would be high. This would not cause a breaker to trip. Less than 1K ohms is problem, and can cause heat and fire. These levels are subjective and others may have some good input here.



Good place to start. Was there only one set of wires connected to this outlet? If so, it may have been at the end of the line. Are you sure EVERY other outlet was working after you disconnected it? My recommendation is to find and fix the issue. Don't work around it. That normally lead to other issues in the future. There are proper ways to dead end wires. Electrical tape is not the proper way. Hopefully we wont need to go there.

Actually, in the case of a multi-meter being set on the ohms scale, an "OL" reading means Over the Limit...the rest of your statement is correct.