Shore Power Oddity w R25 sc.

[portlandtug25]

Has anyone else had this issue?
I plugged in to shore power at a nearby public marina. After paying, and seeing that the power light was on at the source I flipped the breaker to "on" on the pedestal. Then turned on the battery charger to keep the refer going. Immediately the breaker at the supply pedestal tripped, and I lost power to the boat. I rechecked all connections, and checked all breakers on the boat (It's a 2015 R-25SC), and tried again. Again the breaker on the supply pedestal tripped. I tried the whole process again--same result. I could only get power to the boat when there was no load-- as soon as I put load on it tripped the breaker at the pedestal.

The marina later sent an electrician down, and we tried a different supply pedestal, and amazingly had continuous power, with the charger on the boat "on."

THE UPSHOT: The electrician said that some of the breakers on the dock were GFI and others not. The first one was a GFI and he said the fact that it tripped indicated an electrical fault on the boat. The second pedestal, he said, was not a GFI breaker.

So I am left wondering: 1. where such a fault could be on an essentially new boat with presumably an electrical system as up-to-date as any could possibly be? and 2. why, if there is a fault on the on the boat, it doesn't trip any breakers on the boat side?

This has never happened at any other marina I've plugged in to. Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Irish Mist]

Perhaps the Marina has wired it wrong on their end, Or it just could be a breaker that got overloaded from previous boater and is no good now with a load.

 

[scross]

We had the same thing happen at Friday Harbor last summer. Power at our slip tripped the breaker on the pedestal but the one next to it worked just fine. Marina electrician came out and replaced the female plug receptacle on the pedestal and all was good. Electrician said the old part was probably 20 years old. They just kept using the old parts until they failed. Not sure I'd believe what you were told about the issue being with your boat.....

 

[doke01]

Sometimes daisy-chaining GFI outlets causes a problem. You are only supposed to have one on a circuit. I've seen the type of activity reported when the shore power GFI didn't react well with those on the boat. So far the shore power outlet has been the problem.

 

[portlandtug25]

So the consensus is that it is in fact a problem with the power supply, and not the boat?

 

[Levitation]

That is the most likely situation.
But, you can test that.
Turn off ALL breakers in the boat AC and DC including the AC Master
Plug in the shore power
Turn on the Master AC breaker
Turn on each AC breaker one at a time (leave on)
Turn on the battery switches and put them batteries in parallel
Turn on each DC breaker one at a time (leave on - except the back up bilge pump which would be running dry)
Let us know :mrgreen:

 

[stwendl]

We had the same thing happen at Friday Harbor last summer. Power at our slip tripped the breaker on the pedestal but the one next to it worked just fine. Marina electrician came out and replaced the female plug receptacle on the pedestal and all was good. Electrician said the old part was probably 20 years old. They just kept using the old parts until they failed. Not sure I'd believe what you were told about the issue being with your boat.....

Same problem happened to me at gig harbor public Marina. On one pedestal 2 outlets caused the problems 2 others did not and those were 30a individual circuits. Looks rather new too

 

[dwaindumas]

I recentry had a similar problem with my '08 R-25 at Ft Pierce Marina in FL, where they had installed all new pwr pedestals with extremely sensitive GFI breakers. I hired a very good ABYA certified electrician. He found that the common AC ground and the DC grounds which are normally supposed to be tied together were tied through the Battery meter on the AC panel. It was actually going through the meter movement, which caused a slight difference in potential and subsequently caused the GFI TO trip. We removed the connection and replaced it with a direct new wire connection. End of problem!!!

 

[ddenver]

Good day.

Just as a follow-up to this thread, the issue of experiencing GFI problems at marinas is likely to increase - as I understand it - since ALL new and remodeled marinas (including some in the local Salish Sea waters such as Winslow Wharf Marina on Bainbridge Island, WA) now have GFIs installed as a standard in the marina power pedestals as per this article from the good people at the Waggoner Cruising Guide website......
http://waggonerguide.com/new-shore-...il&utm_term=0_ef6b3dfd1a-81b4fcc6e1-120273053

I know that when I have tried to plug our boat (i.e. Echo, a 2011 R-27 Tug w/ the Pro Mariner True Power Combi QS2500 inverter/charger installed) in when on the trailer while we store the boat on our property in the boating off-season I have NOT been successfully able to utilize a GFI installed outlet and have instead been forced to plug it in to a non-GFI outlet.

Apparently, this issue will now become more common at the newer marinas. Has anybody else run into this issue and if so what have you done to resolve this problem?

Thanks for your feedback and stay safe out there!