240V service tripping

[OBXTucker]

Got a call from the marina today saying an alarm was going off on the boat. Got there and found the alarm was a fault trip on the 240 service. At first, I thought the shore power had worked loose (high winds over the last 24 hours), but after getting a good connection, it still tripped.

I cranked up the genset set and switched over - and it continued to trip.

The only thing on Service 2 is the CruiseAir and that is off. Service 1 runs the fridge, micro, washer/dryer, stove, etc. Service 1 is working fine.

Any thoughts on what would be tripping it?

Thanks!

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Is it a ground fault breaker with the little white fault breakers next to the big multi-pole black breaker?

 

[OBXTucker]

Yep. I've got two white trip posts.....it's the left one (fault, I think). It trips, then trips the main 4 pole black posts.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Yep. I've got two white trip posts.....it's the left one (fault, I think). It trips, then trips the main 4 pole black posts.

It's probably gone bad. If you only have the A/C units on that particular ships service panel, you can bypass the ground fault. It's just a matter of opening up the panel and removing one wire. I can't tell you exactly without looking at it, but if you call Roger at Jarrett Bay, I'm sure he'll walk you through it.

We had to do this on a 1978 60C. It's just one little control wire that has to be removed. The hardest part is getting all of the screws out so that you can open up the panel.

 

[OBXTucker]

Thanks, I'll give them a call tomorrow. The previous owner left me with about a 6" stack of old workorder invoices from Jarrett Bay, so I'm sure they're familiar with the boat!

 

[SKYCHENEY]

In the mean time you can turn off the alarm for that panel. There should be a toggle switch for each panel that arms or disarms the A/C power fail alarm.

 

[OBXTucker]

HA! Funny you mentioned that. My neighbors in a blow boat, on their way to the islands from Chicago, had to listen to the alarm for 8 hours last night.....nice folks, I owe them a bottle of scotch for offering to keep an eye on her (and for keeping them up all night!).

Of course, the marina couldn't find my key.....

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I never leave any of the A/C power fail switches enabled for just that reason. A bilge alarm or fire alarm is a serious thing. Power fail really isn't as long as somebody is checking on her at least once per week.

 

[MicroKap]

I had the ground fault on my service panel #4 tripping. Don't be fooled into thinking that the breaker just went bad. Salt Shaker, on this forum, got me in touch with his friend, a very knowlegable electrician, and he was able to track down a bad ballast on an engine room light that was tripping the fault even when the breakers on the subpanel were all turned off.

Says a lot about electricians when the electrician that redid the dock electric told me that he could just replace the main breaker with a pool breaker and "fill in" the extra space on the panel with a cover, or bypass the main breaker upstairs and make a new "remote" breaker down in the pump room, near the subpanel, so I could leave the original look to the electric panel. Needless to say, I ran for the hills after the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

I had spoken to Roger W. at Jarrett Bay. If it is infact a bad breaker, he does have a solution, but it's not a quick fix by any means as there is no supplier for replacing the main breakers with the fault switches as Airpax no longer makes it.

I would first trace for shorts and then look at the alternative.

 

[rwetherington]

Please call me and i can help on this.

 

[OBXTucker]

Thanks Roger. I'll give you a buzz in the morning.
Jeff