Shore Power Keeps Tripping

DDD

DDD

New Member
Oct 27, 2012
268
Tampa, FL
Boat Info
2008 45
Engines
Diesel
So my shore power- at the power source/station- keeps turning off, i.e. tripping.
The marina is new, and I guess the standards for tripping are pretty strict, making it sensitive.
Been to older marinas- no problems.

It's 50 amp.
I am only running the Battery Charger, Refrigerator, and AC.
Have a new battery charger, new house batteries, and had problems with and replaced a power module on the refridgerator.

AC has been serviced, and runs okay.

Besides the marina power breaker being sensitive- which I obviously can not change, how would I go about trouble shooting this?

It is very frustrating!!!!

much appreciated, as usual!
 
Try it in an other plug with the marina operator present. If it blows the breaker it is your boat if it does not blow the breaker it is the marina that has a problem. I was in a new marina a few years ago and my breaker on the dock kept popping. When I switched it to my neighbour I did not have a problem. No idea what the marina did to fix my breaker.
Iycould also be your cord has moisture in it.
 
northern said:
Try it in an other plug with the marina operator present. If it blows the breaker it is your boat if it does not blow the breaker it is the marina that has a problem. I was in a new marina a few years ago and my breaker on the dock kept popping. When I switched it to my neighbour I did not have a problem. No idea what the marina did to fix my breaker.
Iycould also be your cord has moisture in it.
Click to expand...


Thanks!
Will try the neighbor's power.

Moisture in the cord?
Just at the plug?
 
Can also try a borrowed cord to see if its your power cord...
 
Mike Blake said:
50 Amp? That boat should have 30 Amp cords. Or are you using a 50 -to- 2 30
Click to expand...

Different boat- haven't updated profile.

It's a 50 amp. Tried a neighbor's power station, still trips. Tried isolating the device that may be causing the trip- still trips.

What about--- If I bought a Y adapter. Maybe taking my 50 amp cord from the boat-- and splitting to 2 30amp to plug in at the shore 30 amp stations?
Would that help take some of the load off?

I am not very good at electrical stuff. The electrocution thing always made me nervous.
 
I assume you have a cord reel to retrieve the cable, down at the barrel that stores it thier is a breaker, turn it off, plug the power into shore power see if it trips, if it trips the problem is in the cord, if it holds,turn the breaker off in the electric panel, turn the breaker on at the barrel see what happens
 
This is going to be very difficult to diagnose online and will probably leave with with a bunch of "try this" 's........so here is one more:

Get the dock master at the marina involved. But first rule out the basics so you can tell him what you do know:

What is the voltage on the 50A line at the pedestal.......check it at the pedestal with a volt meter
What is the voltage at the panel in the boat with the shore power cord connected and all the breakers on the main panel in the boat off......the voltage should be the same, if your panel reads lower of below 110V, the problem is likely yours and it is between the pedestal and the panel.
Read the ammeter on the panel with the breakers off....should be 0
Read the ammeter with your normal load applied.......should be 10-20amps, after the compressor motors kick on.
Determine if your marina has GFI breakers in the power pedestals.......if you do, I'd bet you have one or more of your replaced appliances wired incorrectly with the neutral and hot crossed.


Good luck with it..........
 
I had a similar problem 3 years ago when I changed marinas. It was a very tedious and time consuming problem to resolve. In the beginning I was convinced the problem was in the marina power supply. Turns out the problem was on my boat. The new marina had 30 amp GFCI power supply at the pedestal, my prior marina did not have GFCI breakers.
To make a long story short the problem was that I had disconnected my water heater which had been leaking and insulated the ends of the supply wires. Over several years the wires had corroded over and provided a leakage path to ground even with the circuit breaker turned off. I totally removed the supply wires and problem resolved.
 
I would be looking at the GFCI tripping. It is awfully hard to trip a 50 amp circuit with a load a boat can put on a circuit, especially if the boat doesn't have a lot of stuff turned on. I would shut off all the breakers on the boat first then plug in to see what happens. You should also look at all your AC connections to look for a neutral wire attached to a ground lug or vice versa. Clean all your connections too. the GFCI is looking for a different amount of current in the supply circuit and the neutral return circuit. If there is a difference you have current flowing through ground which is a safety violation and will trip the GFCI. Look at any circuit that has been added recently first.

You may want to investigate the refrigerator to make sure ground Is ground and neutral is neutral. Also it is good practice to keep DC ground and AC ground separate.
mor
I am only running the Battery Charger, Refrigerator, and AC.
Have a new battery charger, new house batteries, and had problems with and replaced a power module on the refridgerator.
 
Last edited:
Stupid question, but could it be on the DC side? Or just something AC.
And is it something where the breaker has to be on?
 
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