Hello,
I bought a 1992 caravan, which is in exceptional condition, and when using for the first time on a site all mains power went off after having been operating for several hours without any problems. I tried resetting all the individual RCBs and also the main RCB in the caravan, which led to the parks electrical hookup point throwing its RCBs. After much headscratching and retrying by myself and the park owner, I contacted the person who I bought the caravan from who offered this explanation and cure.
The explanation was that the problem was not with the caravan but with the sites plugin point, and that there was an earth leakage in the sites plugin point, which could be caused by something as simple as humidity or a little condensation. He then told me to look near where the electrical control panel in the caravan was and I would see what was a large black jackplug,which was wired into the earth wiring system, and to pull this out and try resetting the RCBs, this cured the problem and the electrical supply was then OK to the caravan.
Further explanation was that these "devices" were fitted to caravans by the manufacturers several years ago for this specific purpose, as it was found that caravans were "tripping out", because of this earth leakage problem on some sites, and that when the jack plug is removed from the jack plug socket, the earthing is then through the caravan to earth, as this is the easiest route, and to prove that the caravan was electrically safe as far as earthing went to test the RCB circuitry by operating the "test" button on the caravans electrical panel, which I did and which worked perfectly and tripped off the power.
The site owner said he had never came across this problem or this "device", and reckoned it was some sort of "home made device", which of course concerns me.
The final "test" the site owner and I tried the following morning was to reinsert the jack plug and try again, with the same result as previous, all the RCBs in the caravan "tripped", and then I asked to be plugged into another site electrical point that he and I knew had been in use the previous evening, and the electrics worked perfectly (with jackplug inserted, i.e. normal use), which would appear to prove the info given to me was correct by the previous owner.
My questions are, is what Ive said seem OK, has anyone had experience of similar, were these devices indeed fitted by manufacturers (Abbey), and most important, when this jackplug is removed, is the 240 volt electrical safety in anyway compromised.
Many thanks for any info, explanations received, as I'm a novice at caravans.
Annbank
I bought a 1992 caravan, which is in exceptional condition, and when using for the first time on a site all mains power went off after having been operating for several hours without any problems. I tried resetting all the individual RCBs and also the main RCB in the caravan, which led to the parks electrical hookup point throwing its RCBs. After much headscratching and retrying by myself and the park owner, I contacted the person who I bought the caravan from who offered this explanation and cure.
The explanation was that the problem was not with the caravan but with the sites plugin point, and that there was an earth leakage in the sites plugin point, which could be caused by something as simple as humidity or a little condensation. He then told me to look near where the electrical control panel in the caravan was and I would see what was a large black jackplug,which was wired into the earth wiring system, and to pull this out and try resetting the RCBs, this cured the problem and the electrical supply was then OK to the caravan.
Further explanation was that these "devices" were fitted to caravans by the manufacturers several years ago for this specific purpose, as it was found that caravans were "tripping out", because of this earth leakage problem on some sites, and that when the jack plug is removed from the jack plug socket, the earthing is then through the caravan to earth, as this is the easiest route, and to prove that the caravan was electrically safe as far as earthing went to test the RCB circuitry by operating the "test" button on the caravans electrical panel, which I did and which worked perfectly and tripped off the power.
The site owner said he had never came across this problem or this "device", and reckoned it was some sort of "home made device", which of course concerns me.
The final "test" the site owner and I tried the following morning was to reinsert the jack plug and try again, with the same result as previous, all the RCBs in the caravan "tripped", and then I asked to be plugged into another site electrical point that he and I knew had been in use the previous evening, and the electrics worked perfectly (with jackplug inserted, i.e. normal use), which would appear to prove the info given to me was correct by the previous owner.
My questions are, is what Ive said seem OK, has anyone had experience of similar, were these devices indeed fitted by manufacturers (Abbey), and most important, when this jackplug is removed, is the 240 volt electrical safety in anyway compromised.
Many thanks for any info, explanations received, as I'm a novice at caravans.
Annbank
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