General Purpose Breaker seems to trip often

[MemphisEco18]

Hi, everybody. Just new to this forum although have owned our Eco for 5 years now. Anyway, my problem seems to stem from the General Purpose breaker when using shore power. Here's the background. When at home, I usually plug to a 15 amp power supply from the house to charge the batteries. Until this year, whenever I plugged it in and turned on the circuit breakers on the Eco, the house GFCI would cut off, so no power from the house. I have isolated it to the General Purpose Breaker. All the other breakers do not have this problem. When I first observed this problem I think the battery was not wired. And when it was put in, I think it had only 37% charge (later on, the guy in Autozone said that it was a dead battery). My questions, Would not having the battery or having a bad battery cause the General Purpose breaker to trip or even trip the house GCFI? What is powered by the General Purpose breaker? ( It seems to be just the lights and possibly the DC part of the refrigerator). Any ideas would be great. Oh, do you think that if it does not work, could I last an overnight with just a fully charged battery to run the lights? Thanks.

[DesertRat]

If you have had the RV for 5 years & that's the battery that came with it, junk it & start with a new one. I would think you house GFI would trip before the RV one would. A fully charged battery should run the lights & the frid side 12v over night with no problem.

[wahoonc]

Does the General Purpose breaker also happen to power the Converter? If something is wrong with that it could be popping the breaker. Also if the battery has an internal short it could be also popping the breaker as well as the GFCI, especially if something isn't quite kosher with the converter. A fully charged battery can usually get you through the night depending on the size of the battery and what you use that puts a draw on it. You DO NOT want to pull the battery down below 50% charge if you can help it (assuming a lead acid battery) You can do it occasionally but it is not good for the battery.

Sounds like you need to do some electrical trouble shooting. Here is a handy chart that I found and printed out. I check my battery with a multimeter at the battery.

Aaron

[MemphisEco18]

Thanks DesertRat and Aaron for your quick replies. Junked the battery and got a new one. Still need to install tonight. Will see what happens. I guess the battery is a big part of the equation with this AC/DC system, Even though I have the RV for 5 years, I have not really tinkered with it myself, until now, with more time at hand, Will keep you all updated as to what happens. Thanks again.

Marwyn
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2010 Dutchmen Eco 718QB
2007 Toyota Tundra SR5 Long Bed

[wahoonc]

Make sure to get the battery polarity correct. There is a circuit breaker/fuse for that, usually mounted on the tongue of the trailer with the battery cable leading to it. If after putting the new battery in your 12 volt stuff doesn't work, or the battery doesn't charge, check there first.

Aaron