Kirk W

I haven't used my Surge Guard with the Honda as yet as I've only had the Honda for about a month but will make up a bonding connector if I must. Testing is on my agenda but hasn't happened yet.

I am but I have not yet operated the a/c on the generator but have done so several times from a typical 15a outlet from shore power. We spend time at my aunt's farm and have operated our a/c there from an adapter connected to a 15a outlet for as much as a week at a time and in some pretty hot weather. I always keep my portable Surge Guard, line monitor between the RV cord and the outlet's adapter so I know that the start surge is not pulling the voltage down there. What I don't know is the power ratings of our a/c unit and I need to investigate that first.

All that you need is the smallest one, at $299. If you choose to go with the Easy Start, then I suggest you buy only one and make that the Honda 200i or possibly the Yamaha of that same type.With either one of these, you can later buy a second one and a parallel kit if you should choose to get more power supply.

The a/c is the largest power used but the microwave would be next. I highly doubt that you have anything other than the a/c which my little 2kW set would not supply as I know that to be true for our 19' Sportsman.

If you remove the inside cover you should find a data plate that will list the run current. I'd bet that a smaller generator, say 2000 would carry it but the issue will be the starting current for the compressor in the air conditioner as the start current is several times that of the run current. I too have a Sportsman (19') and have been looking into this issue as I presently own a Honda 200i generator. I have never attempted to use the a/c while running on the generator but if I choose to do so, I am also considering the addition of a Micro Air, Easy Start device to be sure that the starting surge will not cause a problem. There are three major differences between an inverter generator and a portable generator like used by construction crews and such. An inverter-generator uses a DC generator and then uses a built in inverter to supply 120V-AC power to the output. It does this to save fuel and lower the noise level because the construction generator must run at a constant speed in order to produce 60 Hz power that your RV requires. An inverter generator is far more efficient and makes much less noise, but it also costs far more to buy. A construction generator costing $400 will be of similar output to the inverter-generator that costs $1000+. But you will have many unhappy neighbors due to noise if you use the construction type and you many not want to listen to it either. As to your question of trailer amp rating, that means that your RV has a power cord that can supply no more than 30a of current from any outside power supply, which should be plenty for an RV as small as yours. Your 30a power cord could supply a maximum of 3.6 kW of power.

Remember that the GFI you connect the shore power cord to is then experiencing all of the leakage currents in the entire RV, while those inside of the RV are only impacted by parts of it. The leakage is there even for your RV circuits that are not working if the related circuit breaker is closed. The leakage currents are cumulative and thus the reason that adding more to a GFI can cause it to trip even if none of the individual appliances or circuits it is supplying exceed safe limits.

It sounds like you have eliminated the main culprit. All electrical equipment has some level of leakage current which is the reason that the NEC does not require that every outlet for 120v power be GFI protected. In RV manufacturing the design tends to be doing required things by the cheapest means possible. As a result, it is not uncommon for all of the outlets in an RV to be GFI, even though not required. Some 50a RVs have two circuits with outlets, one GFI and the other not. GFI should be there for any outlets in the bathroom, kitchen, outside, or in places like the back of an RV refrigerator. If you string enough devices the downstream side of any GFI protection device you can reach a point where leakage current will exceed the design limit of 5 mA even though no single device in the string exceeds the safe limits. The more outlets that are strung below and protected by a single GFI device, the more probable it is that you will cause it to trip without any real safety issue. Under ideal circumstances, each GFI outlet would be wired independently and protect only that one supply, but because they cost more, it is far more typical to connect them to protect every outlet in that circuit, even though better ones have a place to connect the downstream circuit so that it will not pass through the GFI. The 5 mA limit is intended to be for each device our outlet and not for an entire circuit. You are probably experiencing the effects of using single outlet protection limits for a series of outlets.

GFCI outlets are not designed to be current limiting but only trip on a differential current between supply and return legs of the circuit. If excess current is triggering the trip then for some reason you have a differential that is typically greater than 5 mA. I suggest that you might want to take some time and read Chasing "Ghost Trips" article from the makers of Fluke test equipment. While I would not panic at this point, I also would not ignore it.

It certainly does sound like you do and that could very well be your GFI problem. If there is a 120V circuit breaker for the water heater that would also point to an electric element since the water heater controls are all 12V~DC power from the batteries or converter and would be fused, not a circuit breaker.

The water heater lighting will cause it to trip? Can you isolate your converter from the 120V system either by a circuit breaker or power plug?

I think that you might find this book on RV electrical systems & trouble shooting them to be helpful.

I agree with this comment. There are a couple of things which cross my mind that you may not have checked. My RV sources tell me that the most common cause of GFI problems in an RV is the electric element in the water heater, so if you have one and have not checked that, you may want to do so. They say that to be sure, lift the leads to it not just opening the power supply. Another thought which I recently got from my sources is that it might be something as simple as a reversed polarity issue in the RV. He suggests using a cheap polarity checker from most hardware stores and if the plug on the shore power cord has been replaced, check it first. I'll also take the risk of starting a technology war again with this thought. Because GFCI devices trigger at current leakages above 5 milliamps they can cause a problem for RVers that have switching type Power Converters in their RV's. These switching type power converters usually have built in input RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) suppression filters to keep high-frequency energy off of incoming wiring. During normal operation of the power converter, these RFI filters will exceed 5 milliamps of current leakage causing GFCI Devices to trip. If you have not done so previously, try connecting the RV to a GFI source with all of your 120v breakers off and then turn them on, one at a time. That should help to isolate the problem you have.

If you are thinking of connecting the output of the inverter to part of the 120v system, most inverter owners do so via a sub-panel but part of the issue is what inverter you have as they are not all created equal.

A while back I replaced the original, flimsy metal one with a larger, solid wood rod and support system. Last trip some of the clothes hangers jumped off so today I drilled holes in the end supports and installed a removable rod to keep them in place. The rod was cut from an old tent pole.

We manage that part to some degree by spending part of the year in our travel trailer, somewhere else! But most of us eventually stop RV travels due to the physical limitations that come with age.

Current forecast is for high temperatures in the mid to upper 80's. We are thinking of going over too. I'll PM you.

The same is true for us. We lived in Denver area for 3 years followed by 18 in Cheyenne, WY and as much as we loved the state of WY, we can't handle their winters.

I chose the Goodyear Endurance tires for our little travel trailer.

I don't know just where you are looking for a home, but if you are not fixed on a location, I think that you might find the community where we home-base to be more to your liking.We are an RV community, but with houses and it was begun as a place for fulltimers to transition back into fixed home living once more. We are located just a few miles from Tyler, TX which is a major medical center and has all of the healthcare facilities most people ever need, including 3 teaching hospitals. At present, there are several homes for sale in our community so feel free to contact me if you happen to be interested in joining us!

Adding some to what Charlied has posted, the extension cords will cause a voltage loss and with any alternating current motor, the lower the voltage supplied, the higher current it will draw so if the voltage falls too low the circuit breaker will trip. The fact that your circuit breaker in the house tripped just shows that it was doing it's job and if it had not tripped you might have had a fire. If you don't have one, I strongly suggest that you buy a reasonably good volt/ohm meter and take the time to learn to use it. Welcome to the Escapee forums! Feel free to start your own threads in any of the forums for questions at any time.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! I visited the link that you posted and it is a great review of the on faucet filter systems. Thanks for posting it and join in often.

I made a cover for our sink from a good quality, plastic cutting-board and it worked out well. I'm still studying the stove top cover. What did you make yours from?

No need as it did relate to the subject. Since it was quoted, fortunately, it still shows.

The Class A forum has an interesting thread of this same subject, so I thought that I might start one for those of us with bumper pull RV's. In the past, Pam & I have done quite a few modifications to our little 20' travel trailer like shelves in the cupboards and the closet, a much stronger clothing rod in the closet, all new window coverings and several other interior changes. Our latest is that I replaced the manual tongue jack with an electric one and we had a Fan-Tastic vent fan installed in our bathroom. How about sharing your latest projects?

As a service tech for 40 years, I tend to agree with that but there is a lot which many RV owners can do. All that you can do is to give what you believe is the best advice for the person asking and hope that he has the ability to sift out what is valid and what is either wrong or beyond his abilities. Sometimes too much information is just as bad as too little, but you and I can't make that call. I have come to where I stay out of some discussions of issues that I have experience with for those reasons.