Electrical tripping

[Rob_5041373]

I have a Bailey Senator Montana with unusual electrics. For no apparent reason the 10 amp circuit keeps tripping, sometimes with no load placed on it, and at times possibly after many hours of continued use. I am always careful not to overload the circuit taking care to switch off items such as heaters etc when boiling the kettle. Has anyone else experienced this frustrating problem. I have already replaced three of the MCB`S in this van.Help

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Excuse me for asking BUT are you using a low wattage kettle designed for caravaning?

 

[VIP2006]

The trip in your supply unit can be activated by load and/or EL fault.

Please check after a trip event whether it is the MCB that has tripped (a MCB is a miniture circuit breaker which trips after a overload has occurred

If the circuit has tripped through earth leakage it means that on of your circuits or appliances ha a fault or an intermittent fault ( some Electric Kettles sometimes trip on EL due to the element being immersed in Water

If this is happening get it checked out by a competent and qualified electrician

One good about the situation is that it is failing safe.

 

[Hamer_5041128]

I also had this problem on my 2004 Wyoming. On 2005 models Bailey have changed the 10amp MCB for a 15amp MCB. My dealer fitted a new 2005 electric box with 15amp MCB and this has solved the problem. The 2004 and 2005 mains electric boxes are interchangeable. The other MCB remains at 6amps. I wonder why Bailey changed the amperage!!!!

HAMER

 

[michael_5041344]

hi,we had this on our van,it turned out to be a hair dryer that was faulty,some times tripped out the site one too..check all electrical goods used.

 

[Steve L]

We had a simlar problem that turned out to be a pinched cable. Either do it yourself if you feel able, or get an electrician to trace all the 240v cables from the input socket on the side of the van right through to the appliance sockets to see if there is a trapped wire. It sounds to me like there is a cable being pressured. For instance it may be where it passes through a cuboard wall. If the hole is tight on the cable it will compress the plastic insulation and when the cable gets a little warm there could be an electrical leak to the earth lead causing the circuit breaker to trip out.

 

[PaulG_5039855]

Hi tryed out my new Bailey Pagent at the weekend, and also tripped the site elec.

when check the uses mannual found out that the Elec heater use 8amps the fridge uses 4amps the TV uses 2 amps, this meens disaster on a 10amp site, The RCD unit in sid the caravan did'nt trip, there for we over loaded the site supply

 

[gary]

Paul,the problem with these figures is they are wrong?. The heater will take 8amps at 2kw but the fridge is 125watts and needs approx 0.4amps not 4, similarly 0.2amps for the TV.

Rob says he has changed "three MCB's",I am assume the same one three times? so can we discount the MCB being at fault in this case??.. but many lower amperage 'site' MCB's are tripped on a regular basis and become over sensitive under these conditions.

Some problems I come across in caravans are, MCB's are designed to take an overload for a time and are rated A,B,C,D, accordingly. The most common 'B' takes 1.45 it's rating for some considerable time...go over that even a little and the time reduces dramatically.

Most manufactures use good quality breakers which should work as designed but sometimes they are over sensitive from new...I found the lightest tap with a screwdriver handle tripped one of these instantly. Another problem I found was a bared wire folded over the insulation before connection and resultant poor connection caused the breaker to overheat..this was straight from the factory!!

One more thought, Hamer has had his breaker 'upgraded' to 16amps, personally I am stunned by this as a 10 MCB is there to protect the circuit as designed?. To allow more than that though it without a thorougher investigation as to the suitability is folly indeed...and as from Jan 1st this year..illegal