That’s why we GFCI.

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ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Doing a service change on a small older home with detached garage. We gave price to instal one light and receptacle in the garage and remove power to the existing wiring. My help plugged in the Food Trailer, Tacos or some such, with it tripping the GFCI immediately. Plugged back into the old wiring he checked the trailer frame voltage to earth. 120v. Owners had left power on to the electric water heater with no water in the tank. There was no EG in the old wiring to the garage.

That is is why we GFCI. They work.
 
I would venture to say, about only 10% of food trailers I've seen are wired correctly.
A whole lot of people in the concession stand industry are gonna get a rude awakening as GFCI rules expand.
 
peter d said:
Wait a second - if there was an EGC in the premises wiring, and the trailer was grounded, the breaker would have tripped.
Click to expand...

If there was no EGC in wiring to garage and there was no bond between outbound neutral and outbound EGC to trailer, then there might not have been enough current flowing through the ground electrode(s) alone to trip a breaker. But there might have been a high step/touch potential around each of the electrodes.
 
so the issue is?? trailers that dont have gfi, or service points that dont have gfi ??

seems like the latter exists everywhere, thus trailers should have a gfi device at its entrance point.

but, still not sure what the point was, we know gfi's work....... most of the time. who uses the "test" feature monthly? and to boot, the "test" feature doesnt tell you much ;)
 
peter d said:
Wait a second - if there was an EGC in the premises wiring, and the trailer was grounded, the breaker would have tripped.
Click to expand...

Not if the impedance (resistance) restricts current flow to a point below the breakers trip curve. Think ground rod. 5 amps are high enough to instantly trip a GFCI, but low enough to never trip a breaker.
 
how exactly was the trailer tripping the gfi? heater fault to frame and then frame jack/hitch to earth ??
 
ptonsparky said:
Doing a service change on a small older home with detached garage. We gave price to instal one light and receptacle in the garage and remove power to the existing wiring. My help plugged in the Food Trailer, Tacos or some such, with it tripping the GFCI immediately. Plugged back into the old wiring he checked the trailer frame voltage to earth. 120v. Owners had left power on to the electric water heater with no water in the tank. There was no EG in the old wiring to the garage.

That is is why we GFCI. They work.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine has a small travel trailer that he had parked on the side of his house and used for a spare room. The guy he bought it from was a handyman type who wired the trailer himself. He made an extension cord with a male connector on both ends to connect a receptacle on the trailer to power. Unfortunately, he got hot and neutral reversed in the cord, and he had connected neutral and ground together on the trailer frame. Fortunately, the way my friend found out was when he was running CATV to the trailer and accidentally touched the cable connector to an aluminum window frame (ZAP!!!), and not by being electrocuted.
 
I'm wondering what a "food trailer" is and why you take one with you on service calls?

If its anything like I'm picturing, you must have some hungry help:)

This one may be perfect for you:

Food-Trailer-Full-Graphic-Wrap.jpg
 
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