Newell Gurus

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Does anyone have problems blowing breakers on the pole while camping?
No, but I have had problems with the voltage being below 110. I then start the gen.
I have had some issues when running all 3 ac's in older parks. Usually just cut mid AC back in that situation. Or shut one down while drieiing clothes.
It is very easy for me to trip the parks breaker when running all four airs plus the load from the charger, lights, the refrigerator, tv's, etc. Some parks have weak breakers anyway, so tripping them isn't hard during hot weather. I don't have a power shedding system on mine so I have to watch the loads, especially if I am running the dryer or the cook top with three or four airs on..
i know alot of us are very proud that we have a 15 or 17.5 or 20 kw generator. but....the fact is, if you have a 50a main breaker in your coach panel, you are still only going to get 50x2x120=12,000 watts of consistent power. a breaker has a tripping curve where it can sustain more than its rating for a few seconds, but they will trip if you go over the rating for very long.

on the all electric coaches of my vintage, newell put a safety relay that doesnt allow you to opererate the aircon if the electric hot water heater is on. they also distribute power needs amongst the 2 legs of the incoming 50a service. it is assumed you will never operate everything at once. a simple but not very scientific look at it is to go look at all the breakers in your panel. if you add them all up, they will go well over your incoming power. granted, not all of them are loaded to capacity and you will not operate all of them at once, but you get my point.

if you operated all 4 aircons. that is roughtly 50a or half of your avail power. now through in the dryer and cooktop and hot water heater, that will throw you quickly over the top and trip the breaker. add in other draws....the fridge when the icemaker is heating to release ice, or the defrost, and you are cranking your home theatre up, a fridge/freezer in the bay, a toaster, your gigawatts of computer gear (michael), your 120v air compressor (which draws between 5-10 amps) and running your charger for your house batteries,

it is very easy to trip the main breaker if you are not at least slightly managing your power.

and....like michael says, breakers can get weak. and when they do, what i believe typically happens is their ability to handle higher than rating loads or near for the rated trip curve is dimenished and it will trip much faster. or the breaker could just be totally failing. if people dont turn the breakers off at the pole and plug their coaches in, the arcing can wear the breaker down faster than treating it a bit more carefully.

or just tell your wife not to run 4 hair curlers and a couple of hair dryers at once.

thats my 2 cents worth and i am stickin to it. or most of it

tom
In Toms calculation that is equal to to a 12kw generator. On 50 amps of power that is equal to about 45amps of sustainable power on each of the 2 legs of power feeding the coach. A long term 50 amp draw will trip a 50 amp breaker. When you first plug in the battery charger draws more than after it's been running a bit. I have had my issues with park power over the years and for sure when a breaker is overloaded it gets weaker and if this happens a half dozen times it will need to be replaced. The standard reply from the campground is "it's never been a problem before", however we all have been there resetting breakers a bunch if times until we figure it out. You need to be aware and proactive in managing your power consumption. Newell has tried to take a lot of the thinking out specifically on my coach.
What is weird is I'm not breaking the breaker at the pole at 2 seperate camp grounds it is tripping at the central junction box for my site. Weird..
Marc

The pole breaker is a different spec and more of a disconnect with overload protection then the specs on a breaker. That being said it does not surprise me that the main distribution box in the campground is the one tripping. You draw a large load and if others before you gave tripped this then it's weak and you are just pushing the limits. You will need to be more aware of the power needs. I did not realize that the dryer vent shut 2 AC's off and while in Branson at 97 outside the coach got up to 82. So in a 100 plus I am sure you need all those AC's. I have the coach plugged in to a 30 amp 220 at my home and have to be very aware of the power draw. I think you need a 50kw gen in the stacker to supply your coach. No more breaker issues?
That's pretty good Doug. We had our '92 in Phx in summer at 108-115 outside. Running all 3 ac's we saw max of 83 inside. But, we are cooling a lot less volume at 42' & no slides. Next time we had put window awnings on west side of coach & it kept temps inside to about 75-78 on hot days. We now have cellular blinds & new black out drapes so we are in hopes summer inside temps will be even easier to maintain.
My Newell has 60 amp main breakers in the box so I can easily trip the parks circuit without tripping my internal breakers.
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