Bus tripping gfci

steve.barnett71 · June 17, 2016, 05:22:00 PM

My disastrous maiden voyage continues... Damaged a cargo door in my driveway now at the campsite the bus trips the 30 amp gfci. Opened up the electrical panels and see that the previous owner that wired the bus tied all the neutrals and grounds together. I assume the only way to fix it is to install another terminal strips and move all the grounds ??

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DoubleEagle · June 17, 2016, 05:26:17 PM

Yep, the neutrals and grounds need to be isolated from each other. You have a dangerous situation the way it is now. Check old issues of Bus Conversions Magazine or the bulletin board archives. There have been many articles on the subject for decades.

Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM · June 17, 2016, 05:30:12 PM

Or even better, just order this book. It is a PDF and we can ship it out as soon as you order it to solve this problem now and like Barney said "Nip it in the Bud".

http://www.busconversions.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=39&osCsid=772tg8emda9uk78o5fps6fa131

steve.barnett71 · June 18, 2016, 07:11:22 AM

Got my grounds separated and now everything works except the inverter trips the shore power gfci. It is a trip lite inverter. Any suggestions ??

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

sledhead · June 18, 2016, 11:11:16 AM

look in your manual ( inverter ) there should be a way to change it

dave

oltrunt · June 18, 2016, 04:23:02 PM

When you are using the inverter, there should be no connection to either shore power or genny power. The inverter must be a hot, neutral and ground system unto itself (and it's battery bank). Basically, the same holds true for both the genny and shore power as well. From whence commith the electrons there to goith the electrons.

The 12 volt DC battery operated system need not be part of the equation. Jack

DoubleEagle · June 18, 2016, 04:45:42 PM

Quote from: oltrunt on June 18, 2016, 04:23:02 PM
When you are using the inverter, there should be no connection to either shore power or genny power. The inverter must be a hot, neutral and ground system unto itself (and it's battery bank). Basically, the same holds true for both the genny and shore power as well. From whence commith the electrons there to goith the electrons.

The 12 volt DC battery operated system need not be part of the equation. Jack

That sums it up very nicely. If this advice is not heeded, thou will fry and/or bloweth expensive parts.

Dave5Cs · June 18, 2016, 05:32:54 PM

Jack, in most case that is true but in my system we have the Magnum Hybrid 4024 Inverter which share power with all power sources so how does that figure in. I have 15 amp power say coming into shore cord and I need to turn on my A/C. I turn on one and the inverter picks up to difference and I turn on the second and the inverter also picks up that. So wouldn't they both be connected at the same time?

gumpy · June 18, 2016, 05:39:31 PM

If your inverter has a charger in it or does load sharing, then of course it has to be powered.

steve.barnett71 · June 18, 2016, 05:40:14 PM

Why does the inverter have ac inputs then? It has two ac in and two ac out so that it can be connected to the 50 amp service.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Dave5Cs · June 18, 2016, 05:51:43 PM

Yep and it does. I can also run the 7 KW generator and if for some reason it couldn't handle the full load the inverter kick in also as well as the charger kicking in if needed because the genny would be running. It works but confuses the heck out of me sometimes. $:-\$
Dave5Cs

Dave5Cs · June 18, 2016, 05:55:15 PM

I do know that the inverter is made so that the AC actually passes through it and the inverter isn't being used the ground auto disconnects out of that system so the ac can be on its own. I also have 12 volt and 24 volt that is all charged up by it. Still trying to get it all down in my head and it hurts but it all works well!...

Dave

sledhead · June 19, 2016, 05:33:51 AM

Dave on mine ( same inverter ) it only will add power if needed to the a/c side not the genne side ? how did you get it to add the both ? would be nice to have that option

dave

Dave5Cs · June 19, 2016, 08:27:13 AM

Dave don't actually know if it would haven't ever needed that much power but it all hooks up through my Tranfere switch and it has its own transfere switch internally. I do know I think it was Brandon that said he had to test it using the generator to help out a band or something like that when power went down. They had a bunch of power that was needed so they ran off his genny and were afraid it wouldn't handle it and then the 4024 kick in and took the rest. He was amazed by it. That was what got me interested in the 4024 hybrid originally.

Dave5Cs

bevans6 · June 19, 2016, 08:42:49 AM

If you have three sources of power - pole, generator and inverter, you basically need to have two transfer switches. I set my system up with this order of priority - pole first, then generator, then inverter. If I had a hybrid inverter, the inverter would add power as needed to either of the pole power or the generator, because they are both upstream of the inverter. I use a stand-alone ATS fed by the pole and the gennie, and the output of that feeds the inverter, and the inverters internal transfer switch passes the power on to the loads.