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Old 09-01-2019, 06:27 AM   #21
JRTJH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
If I connect the neutral to the neutral bar on the converter box and the positive to the breaker, the microwave is already wired into the path of that breaker. My question is, where the ground is wired inside the trailer. Is my thinking off. When I get to a camp ground want to plug in this new circuit at the pole power box 15A or 20A plug.
If I understand what I "think" you're saying, you are "fixin' to make a mess"...

You can't "add a line" to the converter buss bar. The 20 amp breaker in the converter power unit connects to the buss bar that runs behind all the circuit breakers. It gets power from that buss bar and the neutral (white wire) connects to the neutral buss which is alongside the circuit breakers. Attempting to wire a circuit breaker with an individual source of power, then plug it into the 30 amp buss will give you 230 volts and probably make one "helluva spark" and then a lot of smoke......

If you do what I think you're trying to do (incorporate a separate 20 amp supply line into the 30 amp bus bar circuit breaker line-up) it not only won't work, but it'll burn up something (s) in the process......
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Old 09-01-2019, 06:29 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
If I connect the neutral to the neutral bar on the converter box and the positive to the breaker, the microwave is already wired into the path of that breaker. My question is, where the ground is wired inside the trailer. Is my thinking off. When I get to a camp ground want to plug in this new circuit at the pole power box 15A or 20A plug.
If your wanting to connect to the microwave in the power panel then you will have to disconnect the wire from the breaker that feeds the microwave circuit and connect the hot lead to that wire. You can't feed the microwave through the breaker in the panel. The panel will have a neutral bus bar where all the neutral wires will be connected and a ground bus bar where all the ground wires will be connected.

Be careful because it's clear to me that you are not familiar with how all this works.
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Old 09-01-2019, 08:20 PM   #23
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After some thought on this, if you are wanting to connect the new hotleg from the 20 amp pedestal breaker to the same lug on the microwave breaker that would feed the microwave from the panel source, you are going to have a hot terminal in that new 20 amp outside connection always when you are connected to pedestal power with your shore cord and have the breaker turned on for the microwave, which is a dangerous condition. Also, if by chance the hotleg from the 20 amp outlet at the pedestal is different from the hotleg feeding the 30 amp outlet at the pedestal, you could have a direct short circuit at that breaker terminal, and that could make a lot of smoke and fire. Hopefully, a breaker would trip before things got too crazy.
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Old 09-02-2019, 02:03 PM   #24
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Skip it.... once I started working on it, it became clear that my initial schemes were kind of dumb. No need for the breaker in the converter at all. I took off the black feed wire to the 20A breaker that had fed power to the 20A microwave breaker. I then went to the neutral ground bar and pulled out each white wire, one at a time testing continuity to the microwave wall plug neutral ground and then pulled the ground wire off. There were about 2 feet of yellow Romex. Stripped the ends and used wire nuts to connect to about 4 feet of spare yellow Romex and fed this through the hole under the kitchen cabinet where the 30A power cord comes in.

I bought a 20A Marinco power inlet nearly identical to the one shown in one of the previous posts. That one was a 15A. That is what I should have bought as the True Value doesn't carry 20A extension cords. The neutral ground on the inlet I bought sits perpendicular to the hot and this means I would have had to cut off the end of a 20A extension cord and use a 15A plug on the end to plug into many pedestals. I am sending back the 20A in favor of a 15A. When it arrives towards the end of this week, I will drill a 1 7/8 hole about six inches to the driver side of the 30A cord, run my length of Romex out the back and connect the new plug. There is a big nut on the back that can be used to fasten the plug to the back wall or they give you three screws to screw it in place. I think I can get my fat fingers in back there through the removable panel over the water pump. Will also buy some of that disgusting yellow crack fill foam and fill some of the large voids that have been there since manufacture.

Thanks for the heads up before me going off and smoking my converter. I probably would not have done that since once i saw things, it was clear it was best to divorce the 20A microwave from the converter totally. Will post a pic at some point.
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Old 09-16-2019, 10:50 AM   #25
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Just a follow up. The fix suggested by John was to put a Marinco 15A outlet on the outside of the trailer and connect our microwave directly to this outlet then connect directly to a pedestel via an extension cord. Did this and thought I would follow up.

To install, I first installed a new residential style outlet up where the microwave plugs in and verified end to end continuity of the ground, neutral ground (white) and positive (black) wires. The wires run from the microwave electrical outlet to the rear of the power converter area. I disconnected all three wires from the power converter and used wire nuts to add an addition 5' or so of 12 ga. Romex which I ran through the bottom rear of the trailer to about 14" from the main power cord location where it comes into the trailer. It is just a big empty area there with the power converter to the left and water pump to the right. For some reason, Keystone had a panel stapled in place between the water pump and where the power cord lives when it is tucked into the trailer. I pulled the panel out as it made access a chore; not sure why they cut a 4" hole for the water lines to go through but they did.

Once the panel was out of the way, I measured and then drilled a hole in from the outside where I thought the new outlet should be located. I used a hole saw to make a hole in the fiberglass outside wall and from the outside I used a 1 3/8" hole saw to make a hole through the inner wall. There is a bit of insulation between the panel walls and outside wall. Looks like a bit like fiberglass but is white and not scratchy so not sure what it is but it sure can't work great as insulation as it isn't dense at all. In any case...

Fished the extended wire leading to the microwave through the new hole and installed the new plug on the Romex ends and then used some of that gray putty tape stuff to ensure the plug was water tight. Using three screws. The screws they supply are dark so I used some spare white ones like on the rest of the trailer. Went in the trailer and cleaned up my mess and put the access panel back on after making sure the new wire and the main 30A power cord wire would not interfere with each other.

Now we can microwave stuff and not have to shut off the A/C when cooking!
Also changed the double breaker (30A main and 20A that was microwave) for a new one in the event it was tired.
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Old 09-16-2019, 01:13 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
For some reason, Keystone had a panel stapled in place between the water pump and where the power cord lives when it is tucked into the trailer.
Doubtless to keep a loop of power cord from twisting during insertion and lassoing the water pump and associated piping, followed by a "Large Occurrence" when the owner yanks the cord at the next stop to get the full length out.
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Old 09-16-2019, 01:27 PM   #27
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Doubtless to keep a loop of power cord from twisting during insertion and lassoing the water pump and associated piping, followed by a "Large Occurrence" when the owner yanks the cord at the next stop to get the full length out.
May be. Will be easy enough to stick a bit of the partition back in and tack it to keep this from happening. I broke the partition to pull it out top to bottom about 3 or 4 inches in as it wouldn't fit through the opening over the water pump.
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