help with a 50amp breaker.

[firemanpat2910]

I am installing a 50 amp 220 plug for an RV. from my main Power 200 amp box I have attached 6ga wires to the lugs on the bus bar. these go to the double 50 amp gfci breaker lugs. The white wire in my main power box is connected to the same connections as ground, there is not a seperate neutral bus. then from each breaker i ran a 6 ga wire to my rv plug, red to one side black to the other, white to the correct place and ground to its place. Plug has the correct power, red to white 120, black to white 120, red to black 220 white to ground 0. BUT when I plug in the rv it imediatly trips the breaker. can the gfci work correctly when white and ground are tied together?

 

[xrsrfn]

You may already know this but.....

PLEASE DO NOT STOP USING GFCI because it trips. Family, friends and your safety depends on the protective device to function correctly. You could have a small leakage from one of the hot wires to the frame of the RV and you may not realize that touching the door nob could electrocute you or someone you care about.

A GFCI circuit breaker continuously measures the differential current in the circuit branch. Any time there is an improper ground, or ground fault, and the differential reaches a preset threshold, the breaker trips, cutting off all current to that circuit branch. Sometimes, a pulse in the current can create a differential large enough to trip the breaker. There is a lag of several milliseconds between the time the fault occurs and the time it is detected and trips the device. Since a circuit breaker is located farther away than a receptacle, the delay will be increased by the time it take the current to reach the breaker.

What that means is you have another path for current flow other than your neutral that the GFCI breaker feeds. I would turn off all the electrical breakers in the RV and then energize the GFCI breaker, if it trips immediately you have current flow from one of the Hot wires to ground somewhere in the RV so look at whether there is a jumper from neutral bus to ground bus in distribution panel in RV.
If the GFCI breaker doesn't trip turn on individual breakers in RV until you find the one that does trip the GFCI breaker, then you can follow normal troubleshooting steps until you find the culprit.

 

[BeezFun]

The curly white wire from the gfci breaker should go to the neutral bus in the box. The return white wire from your outlet should go to the neutral terminal on the breaker. The way it works is the gfci is measuring the current going out of it's hot wire and comparing it to the return current on the white wire. If it isn't connected to the white wire, it thinks it's out of balance and trips.

Ground wire has no bearing on the operation of a gfci (but it should still be hooked up properly).

 

[Gator6x4]

I am assumning you have a plug with with four slots and you are using # 6 wire with four wires. Two hots, one ground and a neutral ground. Start at the breaker in the fuse box. Connect the RED wire to one leg of the breaker, connect the BLACK wire to the other leg of the breaker, connect the WHITE wire to the Service Panel ground and the bare wire or green wire to the Service Panel neuteral ground. If the GFI has it's own ground wire (WHITE) connect it to the service panel ground where the white wires are connected.

Most plugs are labeled, red, black, white, green. Make sure the female plug is wired correctly. Take a volt/OHM meter probe the red and white wires you should have 110 volts. Probe the black and white wires you should also receive 110 volts.

Now check your RV plug and MAKE SURE - MAKE SURE you are plugging black to black, red to red, white to white and neutral or green to green.

You may have to slip the cover on the male RV plug back to expose the connectors to determine how it is wired. Some RV plugs are wired strange.

 

[firemanpat2910]

ok thanks. my curly white is connected to ground in my 50amp breaker box not the white bus. I will change it and then if still popping I will try turning all the breakers in the rv off. I am pretty good at trouble shooting wires but between shore power, generator leads, inverters, and a "Smart box" I was alittle over welmed. Ans a heat index 0f 111 and a face full of north fla gnats and I got flusterd pretty fast

 

[aczlan]

ok thanks. my curly white is connected to ground in my 50amp breaker box not the white bus. I will change it and then if still popping I will try turning all the breakers in the rv off. I am pretty good at trouble shooting wires but between shore power, generator leads, inverters, and a "Smart box" I was alittle over welmed. Ans a heat index 0f 111 and a face full of north fla gnats and I got flusterd pretty fast

White should be on neutral bus, Neutral should be on the Neutral terminal of the breaker (if so equipped), green/bare should be on the ground bus and black/red should be on the hot terminals of the breaker.

Anything else WILL cause the GFCI to trip.

Aaron Z

 

[pnhd65]

STOP!!

Before you kill yourself!

I'm not an electrician, nor do I know the latest info in the electric code.

But I do perform a fair amount of electrical work, have installed services and sub panels.

It's hard to tell what you're doing from your original post, or how far your plug is for your RV from your main panel.

BUT NEVER TIE INTO THE MAIN BUS BARS WITH A DIRECT CONNECTED LUG!

You need to install a double pole, 220V breaker made for your service panel.

You can get a GFI breaker, although I'm not sure if they're available in your amp size.

Or you can put a GFI plug for where your RV is going.

BUT YOU NEED TO TAKE OFF YOUR DIRECT CONNECTIONS ON YOUR MAIN BUSSES! THAT ENTIRE WIRE RUN IS UNPROTECTED THAT WAY!

You install a double pole breaker to supply the RV plug, should be 4 conductor wire, black, red, white, bare,(ground).

You already had your panel open, I obviously don't know the manufacturer or model. But your bus bars should look like fingers where the breakers snap in. By putting in a double pole breaker, the breaker should attatch to a 'finger' from each bus bar. Not 2 'fingers' from the same bus.

I don't know what type of wire you've used, if it's aluminum, make sure you use noox on all connections.

If all your outlets in your RV are GFI, you don't really need a GFI breaker or
plug.

You should have 120V at your plug from each hot lead, hot to neutral or hot to ground.

I don't know what kind of volt meter you have, but I would never place lead to terminal, hot to hot on a volt meter.

I hope this helps. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, PLEASE STOP AND GET SOMEONE THAT DOES.

 

[gengine]

I don't know what kind of volt meter you have, but I would never place lead to terminal, hot to hot on a volt meter.

Hot to Hot is how you get 220v. The red lead flows at the opposite end of the spectrum from the black lead, completing the circuit. Putting a volt meter between the two will give you 220v. I don't know if I have ever seen a volt meter that doesn't read 220v, I think all of them are a minimum of 600v, but just check your meter before you try. Electric codes require them to be marked. Anyway, back to subject, if the black and red wires are connected to the same lug, they will individually give you 110v when tested to a ground. if you put the meter between the red and black, you won't get anything. However, if they are connected to seperate lugs, you get your 220v by tesing red to black. I just wanted to clear that up.

 

[hosspuller]

As I've read your problem, the GFCI supplying your outlet trips when the RV is plugged in. I would check the RV wiring. The neutral and ground in the RV must be separated. And kept separate all the way to the outlet you're plugging into. Otherwise the supplying GFCI senses the imbalance and trips.

 

[hayden]

I too am confused by what you've done in the 200A main breaker panel. And do you have a separate sub panel for the 50A breaker?

As I understood your post, you wired directly to the power bus in the 200A panel and somehow took those wires to a 50A breaker. That's a big no-no. The ONLY way to bring power out of a breaker panel is via a breaker plugged into the panel. In your case, that would be your 50A breaker. Is that what you did? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding.

From there I'd guess that you either have the wrong type of GFI breaker (you need to 2 pole, 220V that also has a neutral connection), or you have it wired up incorrectly.