advice needed please.electric trips out, disabling , fridge,battery charger,fan on fire but fire works without blown air,one socket,water heater doesnot work either.the fault happened a few weeks ago then it went ok.last weekend did it again,tripped out but this time the trip switches did not go down.rang the guy who did our service but he doesnt seem intersted.suggestions please before i have to go to a dealer.
caravan tripping out
- Thread starter david_374478500
- Start date
forgot to mention also drained nearly new battery and taps didnt work either or lights.not much left really but we had some heat and telly.
Damian
Moderator
Hello David,
You have a double problem according to your description, but I think i really comes down to one.
First of all, the trips on the incoming power supply are 230v ,and quite often they will not trip, but the site post will before the van does.
You need to isolate which circuit is causing the problem.
In the incoming main distribution box you will have a main RCD which cuts all mains power to the van and two or three MCB's protecting various cicuits.
Make sure all the circuit breakers are in the OFF position, ie all switches down, and all electric using items in the van are off.
Connect power to the van and put the main RCD to the ON position and see if it trips.
If it does not, switch one of the mcb's On and in turn each item that it protects, see which if any trips the power.
Idf none on the first mcb, do the same on the second mcb and note what causes the power to trip .
The battery is a seperate circuit system and if you lost th echarger, then it will drop its power to the extent that none of the 12v items will work.
Your problem, lies in the mains supply.
If when trying the circuits you discover that either the fridge or water heater causes the trip, then most likely is a failed heating element on whichever item it is.
Come back when you have tried the above and lets know what has happened.
You have a double problem according to your description, but I think i really comes down to one.
First of all, the trips on the incoming power supply are 230v ,and quite often they will not trip, but the site post will before the van does.
You need to isolate which circuit is causing the problem.
In the incoming main distribution box you will have a main RCD which cuts all mains power to the van and two or three MCB's protecting various cicuits.
Make sure all the circuit breakers are in the OFF position, ie all switches down, and all electric using items in the van are off.
Connect power to the van and put the main RCD to the ON position and see if it trips.
If it does not, switch one of the mcb's On and in turn each item that it protects, see which if any trips the power.
Idf none on the first mcb, do the same on the second mcb and note what causes the power to trip .
The battery is a seperate circuit system and if you lost th echarger, then it will drop its power to the extent that none of the 12v items will work.
Your problem, lies in the mains supply.
If when trying the circuits you discover that either the fridge or water heater causes the trip, then most likely is a failed heating element on whichever item it is.
Come back when you have tried the above and lets know what has happened.
Hi, I am wondering if this problem could not be something far more simple as I have experienced much the same from time to time and my van electrics are perfectly good, is it not possible that the first time it happened the van was running too many things and it was simply overloaded so it tripped the van circuit and the same on the second occasion but instead of the van circuit tripping it was the supply post that tripped, I've had it where sometimes the van will trip say if the wife decided to use her hair dryer at the same time as the microwave and the kettle and just the plug circuit will trip and at other times before the circuit can trip the post go's out and you then lose everything including the charger.
BP
BP
Damian
Moderator
I forgot to add in my post a question which is what exactly did you have running each time the trip went?
A list of items would be helpful, ie heater, water heater, fridge, etc etc and what settings?
A list of items would be helpful, ie heater, water heater, fridge, etc etc and what settings?
we normally would have ,heating,battery charger,fridge all on at same time.if we use hot water or kettle we knock one off.all the times we have had tripping problem we have been on cls.last weekend the electric was 10 amp. the difference this last time was when it tripped it would not come back on when we reset it.
Damian
Moderator
Thanks for that David.
What make and year van is it?
I know there is some concern over certain MCB's of inferior quality, and it may be on eof those , is it the same trip falling out each time, and which one?
What make and year van is it?
I know there is some concern over certain MCB's of inferior quality, and it may be on eof those , is it the same trip falling out each time, and which one?
in addition to the advice given,if the circuit breaker will not reset try disconnecting the EHU switch off all devices operated by the affected by circuit breaker,resett the breaker & then reconnect the EHU if the breaker does not trip switch on each device until you find the one that trips the CB again (if its the CB itself it should trip as soon as you reconnect the EHU)
the van is a 2004 compass amazon 535 which was a dealer special based on a compass corona which we have owned from new.we had a new mcb fitted under warranty six months from getting the van.that time it would trip out completely. but it would reset.this time the trip switch for fridge,water heater and battery charger trips.when you try to reset it,the switch stays on for a second or so then flicks back down.also one socket wont work and mains lights.
Damian
Moderator
Hello again David.
As it seems to be just one particular MCB, turn off the fridge and water heater, and if possible the charger, see if the trip will reset.
If it does, switch on one of the items, the charger, and see if the trip falls out.
If it stays on, switch on the water heater (as long as it is full) and see if the trip falls out.
Then turn on the fridge.
If any one item causes the trip to fall out the problem is on that item.
If with all switched off the trip will not reset at all, then the trip is faulty
As it seems to be just one particular MCB, turn off the fridge and water heater, and if possible the charger, see if the trip will reset.
If it does, switch on one of the items, the charger, and see if the trip falls out.
If it stays on, switch on the water heater (as long as it is full) and see if the trip falls out.
Then turn on the fridge.
If any one item causes the trip to fall out the problem is on that item.
If with all switched off the trip will not reset at all, then the trip is faulty
we hv a static caravan and it trips out when we overload it, may sound daft but I thought a static caravan had the same power as a house etc. so was surprised to find it tripping out. The site say its got 16amps which is what we had at times when we had our touring caravan. Must admit though we had managed to use a lot of items before it actually tripped out though. Just surprised thats all.
thanks for everyones help.will bring caravan home at weekend to try out your suggestions.will let you know how i get on.cheers.
Hi, I think you have to establish if the circuit breaker is tripping because it is simply overloaded or tripping on 'earth fault' ie the RCD which is part of the same circuit breaker.
If that can be established then you can go down the road of finding and fixing the problem.
If that can be established then you can go down the road of finding and fixing the problem.
I wasn't going to bother replying to this post again as I think it's one of those problems where unless you know exactly what happened and how it happened as in whether it was the van that tripped or the post that tripped, what was in use at the time of tripping out etc etc, there are so many variables and possibilities that pinpointing the exact cause on here is gonna be difficult, I often have to fault find on cars and caravans as part of my job and often it's not just what the owner says but what they dont say that helps to get to the bottom of things, apologies now for this being a long reply.
It seems to me there have been 2 different things happen, on one occasion the van tripped which gave you some electrics working but not all, as for the trip not resetting again there are 2 possibilities, firstly what ever caused it to trip in the first place is still present so as soon as you flick it up it just trips out again, also I have found in the past that when a switch trips in my house which will happen on my lighting circuit when a bulb blows, you can't simply push it back up but first have to take it further down and then it will allow the switch to be reset.
Then there was the time your electrics went but you say there was none of the switches tripped in the van, are you aware there is a trip switch also on the supply post and if so did you check to see if that was tripped? The post tripping out would give you the scenario of the battery going flat and certain things working until such time as it had run down with eventually everything packing up once there was no electric from the post to recharge the battery.
When you said the breakers would not reset I assume at some point that they did reset or you would still have no electrics or at least some would not still work if it was only one of the caravan breakers still tripped, so if they eventually reset how did you do it?
Re why sometimes the van trips and other times the post. Hypothetically.
Scenario one. The max you are allowed to use from the post is 10 amps, any more and the supply post will trip, with all the stuff in your caravan switched on you pull 12 amps so the post trips, simple, turn some stuff off and reset post trip.
Scenario 2. Max allowed from post 8 amps, you have two 5 amp breakers on the caravan, one pulling 2 amps and the other pulling 6, the post won't trip as you haven't exceeded the 8 max but one of the van breakers will because you have exceeded the 5 for that circuit, that leaves your other circuit still running so you have partial electrics to your van and were then back to why the breaker would not reset, I can definitely say that with a breaker it is sometimes required that before you can move it to the up/reset position you have to push it all the way down before it will allow you to do it.
As I said I think it pretty impossible to get to the bottom of this completely and all we can do is try to imagine various what if situations and then make a guess at it, another big variable is how sharp is the original poster re electrics and then trying to work out what we don't know.
Anyway I've rambled long enough so best of luck in sorting your problem if in fact you even have a problem at all.
BP
It seems to me there have been 2 different things happen, on one occasion the van tripped which gave you some electrics working but not all, as for the trip not resetting again there are 2 possibilities, firstly what ever caused it to trip in the first place is still present so as soon as you flick it up it just trips out again, also I have found in the past that when a switch trips in my house which will happen on my lighting circuit when a bulb blows, you can't simply push it back up but first have to take it further down and then it will allow the switch to be reset.
Then there was the time your electrics went but you say there was none of the switches tripped in the van, are you aware there is a trip switch also on the supply post and if so did you check to see if that was tripped? The post tripping out would give you the scenario of the battery going flat and certain things working until such time as it had run down with eventually everything packing up once there was no electric from the post to recharge the battery.
When you said the breakers would not reset I assume at some point that they did reset or you would still have no electrics or at least some would not still work if it was only one of the caravan breakers still tripped, so if they eventually reset how did you do it?
Re why sometimes the van trips and other times the post. Hypothetically.
Scenario one. The max you are allowed to use from the post is 10 amps, any more and the supply post will trip, with all the stuff in your caravan switched on you pull 12 amps so the post trips, simple, turn some stuff off and reset post trip.
Scenario 2. Max allowed from post 8 amps, you have two 5 amp breakers on the caravan, one pulling 2 amps and the other pulling 6, the post won't trip as you haven't exceeded the 8 max but one of the van breakers will because you have exceeded the 5 for that circuit, that leaves your other circuit still running so you have partial electrics to your van and were then back to why the breaker would not reset, I can definitely say that with a breaker it is sometimes required that before you can move it to the up/reset position you have to push it all the way down before it will allow you to do it.
As I said I think it pretty impossible to get to the bottom of this completely and all we can do is try to imagine various what if situations and then make a guess at it, another big variable is how sharp is the original poster re electrics and then trying to work out what we don't know.
Anyway I've rambled long enough so best of luck in sorting your problem if in fact you even have a problem at all.
BP
Our van used to trip out the electrics, we found that one of the internal electric sockets had a pinched wire, and would short out, before it finally seperated, before it did we could not guarentee if we would have electrics or not.
Connie.
Connie.
did as advised ,tried everything one by one and problem seems to be battery charger.if i disconnect it all other things work.no name or number on it though.anyone know what i should order for 2004 compass corona.thanks for all help given anyway.
Damian
Moderator
Hello David,
If it is a stand alone unit which can easily be removed, send it to Dave Brannon an he will repair it for you at a very reasonable cost, and normally a 3 or 4 day turnaround.
His contact details are here: http://leisureelectronicrepairs.co.uk/
Make SURE you know what wires go where for reconnecting..take a photo before disconnecting any wires and label each wire.
If it is a stand alone unit which can easily be removed, send it to Dave Brannon an he will repair it for you at a very reasonable cost, and normally a 3 or 4 day turnaround.
His contact details are here: http://leisureelectronicrepairs.co.uk/
Make SURE you know what wires go where for reconnecting..take a photo before disconnecting any wires and label each wire.
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