Troubles with shorepower
 

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 21:25:32 -0800 (PST), Itinerant
wrote:

......
cord. If the shore breaker trips, you have a wiring problem in the 30
- 15 amp adaptor, the dock outlet (unlikely) or on the boat (also
unlikely, if things worked when plugged into a 30 amp outlet.)

WE DID TURN EVERYTHING OFF AND PLUGGED IN AND TRIPPED THE BREAKER ON
THE DOCK.

......


Here's a lifeline: if you blow a shore supply breaker when your stuff
is all OFF, you have the famous "American Neutral to Ground"
connection.

That's the way American consumers are wired, after all!
Get an electrician to fix it up for preference

Regards



Brian Whatcott Altus OK

Troubles with shorepower
 

"Paul Cassel" wrote
after shutting off all breakers in the 120 v circuit, put a voltmeter
inline with the pigtail to see if, in fact, you are still drawing current.

Volt meter? Inline? To measure current? Huh?

Troubles with shorepower
 

On 2007-12-10 08:30:09 -0500, Paul Cassel
said:

Ernest Scribbler wrote:
"Paul Cassel" wrote
after shutting off all breakers in the 120 v circuit, put a voltmeter
inline with the pigtail to see if, in fact, you are still drawing
current.

Volt meter? Inline? To measure current? Huh?

Yeah, stupid me. I mean multimeter.

Hmmm. You have a multi-meter that'll directly measure more than a few
milliwatts?

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Troubles with shorepower
 

On 2007-12-09 14:46:19 -0500, Brian Whatcott said:

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 21:25:32 -0800 (PST), Itinerant
wrote:

.....
If the shore breaker trips, you have a wiring problem in the 30 - 15
amp adaptor, the dock outlet (unlikely) or on the boat (also unlikely,
if things worked when plugged into a 30 amp outlet.)

WE DID TURN EVERYTHING OFF AND PLUGGED IN AND TRIPPED THE BREAKER ON THE DOCK.

Here's a lifeline: if you blow a shore supply breaker when your stuff
is all OFF, you have the famous "American Neutral to Ground" connection.

I've found it impossible to respond to the posts with much of that
shouting, but a test I'd like to see is what happens if the cord isn't
plugged into the boat, but both pigtails on shore (if I'm reading
things correctly) are. If that trips the breaker, the problem is one of
the outlets OR the pigtail itself, nothing on the boat.

If the breaker trips only when plugged into the boat AND the boat's
breaker doesn't trip, I'd carefully examine from the plug to the
distribution panel for a shorted wire. The receptacle is the most
likely culprit, but there could be chafing down below.

I'd also test to see if another boat successfully plugged in elsewhere
could draw from his.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Troubles with shorepower
 

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:57:32 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2007-12-10 08:30:09 -0500, Paul Cassel
said:

Ernest Scribbler wrote:
"Paul Cassel" wrote
after shutting off all breakers in the 120 v circuit, put a voltmeter
inline with the pigtail to see if, in fact, you are still drawing
current.

Volt meter? Inline? To measure current? Huh?

Yeah, stupid me. I mean multimeter.

Hmmm. You have a multi-meter that'll directly measure more than a few
milliwatts?

Mine is a digital with a ten amp fuse on the Amp function. Fluke 87 as
a matter of fact. All the professional heating and cooling guys, and
the appliance repairman, seem to have one like it.

Casady

Troubles with shorepower
 

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:57:32 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2007-12-10 08:30:09 -0500, Paul Cassel
said:

Ernest Scribbler wrote:
"Paul Cassel" wrote
after shutting off all breakers in the 120 v circuit, put a voltmeter
inline with the pigtail to see if, in fact, you are still drawing
current.

Volt meter? Inline? To measure current? Huh?

Yeah, stupid me. I mean multimeter.

Hmmm. You have a multi-meter that'll directly measure more than a few
milliwatts?

Multimeter? In-line? To measure power? Huh?
:-)
Ho-hum....A 10 Amp range is not unusual in a digital MM
But a power scale is rather unusual - except the dB scale that makes
some load presumptions - that you may be referring to?

Brian W

Troubles with shorepower
 

Thank you for all of your posts, and sorry again for SHOUTING!

We tried many different senarios with no luck, we believe that we have
ruled out the cords and the pigtail. We have not tried to plug in
without being plugged into the boat ... interesting we may have to
take a walk tonight to try that out. We qustion that it would be the
receptacle as the 30 Amp worked fine on the other dock. Today when we
were at the boat we turned the battery seletor to off, and made sure
all circuits were off and both main switches and it still tripped the
box on the dock (instentaniously, before the plug was even half way
pushed in). We are starting to think that all it could be is a ground
problem -- possibly "American Neutral to Ground" as mentioned above.

We are currently running an outdoor extention cord from the dock to
our cabin heater. The system was just installed this past April and
we have found the mechanics receipt (yippy!), so tomorrow we will try
and get in touch with him to see if he can help us out.

Craig & Tanya Petterson
Vancouver BC Canada

Troubles with shorepower
 

"Richard Casady" wrote
Mine is a digital with a ten amp fuse on the Amp function. Fluke 87 as
a matter of fact. All the professional heating and cooling guys, and
the appliance repairman, seem to have one like it.

That's well and good, but an ammeter with a 10A fuse may not be very helpful
in a circuit that's tripping a 15A breaker. I think I'd start by removing
all the power and using the 87's ohm meter function.

Troubles with shorepower
 

"Brian Whatcott" wrote
the famous "American Neutral to Ground" connection.
That's the way American consumers are wired, after all!

Say what?

Troubles with shorepower
 

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 22:29:15 -0500, "Ernest Scribbler"
wrote:

"Brian Whatcott" wrote
the famous "American Neutral to Ground" connection.
That's the way American consumers are wired, after all!

Say what?


What is it that you don't understand? See code of practice for first
drop at domestic distribution transformer.....

Brian W