Household GFI keeps Tripping when plugging in to a Non-30 Amp circuit

I have a 2005 Phoenix Cruiser 2550.  Every time I plug into a regular household GFI circuit it trips the supply GFI on my house.  If I plug into the 30 Amp service everything is fine with the shore power connection.  When I bought the rig it worked when plugging into the regular household GFI.  Now it trips it every time.  I am not running the refrigerator, AC, heat or hot water when this happens.  Plugging into the regular household circuit is just for storage.  Does anyone have any suggestions??

I assume it is tripping the GFCI not the actual circuit breaker, yes?

If so then there are a number of things it could be:
1) Your GFCI receptacle might be getting weak.  If they trip a lot they tend to get more sensitive over time.  That is possible but unlikely.  Test that by plugging into a different GFCI.

2) Your extension cord might have an issue.  A frayed place in the insulation might let enough moisture in to trip the GFCI.  Test by trying a different cord.

3) Your extension cord or adapters might not be making contact properly.  If the plug is worn and has overheated it might be arcing internally.  It could also be the input port on the rig where the extension cord plugs in.

4) GFCI's trip when there is an imbalance between hot / neutral.  So you could have a neutral wire in the rig touching ground someplace.  Possibly in the circuit panel or converter.  Hopefully not in the wall someplace.

5) Your converter might be causing the issue.  Some converters leak enough voltage to ground to set off a GFCI.  Not much you can do about that except replace the converter.

6) RV's rattle everything in them so it might be a loose wire someplace.  Check the breaker panel and tighten down anything loose.  WITH THE POWER OFF!

To see if you can isolate the issue turn off all breakers in the RV.  Plug in and see if the GFCI trips.  If so that indicates an issue before the circuit panel.  If it doesn't trip then one by one turn on the breakers until it does trip.  Then figure out what is on that breaker.

Jatrax,

I really like your detailed list of things to check and why, and also in the order/priority to check.

 
Ron

I had that happen in the RV I owned before I bought my PC.

It was the transfer switch.  I am not sure what caused it but the neutral and ground shore power input were cross wired and burned.   I believe they became burned when a year or so earlier, lightning struck nearby to a shore power pedestal I was plugged into.   That pedestal quit working but a different pedestal worked fine.    But after that I had the same issue you have.   Would blow the shore power breaker if it was a GFI.   NON GFI protection breakers for shore power were fine.

I ended up replacing the transfer switch and removing the burnt input piece of the shore input line.   Solved the problem.

Don

Thanks Ron!  High praise from the guy who always has a good answer.

I'll credit my dad who was logical and methodical in solving such problems.  He instilled that thought process in all us kids.  Start at the beginning, remove as many variables as you can and test one at a time until you get to the end.

Sometimes drove us crazy, when the answer seemed obvious he would just ignore it and go through his process anyway.  Often the obvious answer was correct.  But often enough his process found something unexpected that we wouldn't have seen by jumping to conclusions.

I'll credit my dad who was logical and methodical in solving such problems.  He instilled that thought process in all us kids.  Start at the beginning, remove as many variables as you can and test one at a time until you get to the end.

Sometimes drove us crazy, when the answer seemed obvious he would just ignore it and go through his process anyway.  Often the obvious answer was correct.  But often enough his process found something unexpected that we wouldn't have seen by jumping to conclusions.

If your 2005 has an inverter try switching that off. Since you already turned off all the other high current loads, that leaves the battery  charger section of the converter as the only other constant load. The oem Parallax converter has a single stage dumb charger that never shuts off. With the gfi constantly tripping the batteries are being drained, so try connecting them to an external charger to check for a shorted cell. If the gfi is tripping instantaneously you will have to try plugging into a 30 amp post to check for at least 13.4 V charging voltage at the batteries or a buzzing sound from the converter to indicate if it’s the culprit.

If your 2005 has an inverter try switching that off.

Phoenix started installing a whole-house inverter, the 2000w Tripp-Lite version in late 2006 so there are very few 2006's out there with one.  Every 2007 and thereafter has one unless special-ordered without one.

Anyone here own a 2006 with the Tripp-Lite whole-house inverter?