Shore Power Problem

[RobertS]

Boat is on land still. I had no problems using the shore power last year, but now the (shore breaker goes) when I try to light up either side of the main power.
Tried both sides, same result. All the breakers are off. I'm stumped.

[P-Dogg]

How about some details? Single 30A? Twin 30A? 50A?

[prowlersfish]

Try turning off the cross over switch ( between the 2 mains ) I assume you have twin 30 amp service .

Is the land breaker a ground interrupt type ? I have issues with them when the boats on land

[captainmaniac]

Does it happen regardless of whether the cable is plugged in to your port or stbd receptacles? If it does, the problem is the cable or something on the boat. If it only happens with one receptacle, you have a bad or shorted receptacle.

If it's on the boat - are you scabbing power off to a battery charger before the breaker panels, and if so is the charger on by default with no batteries in place (hence maybe shorting out)?

[RobertS]

Does it happen regardless of whether the cable is plugged in to your port or stbd receptacles? If it does, the problem is the cable or something on the boat. If it only happens with one receptacle, you have a bad or shorted receptacle.

If it's on the boat - are you scabbing power off to a battery charger before the breaker panels, and if so is the charger on by default with no batteries in place (hence maybe shorting out)?

It's happening with both sides and all the breakers are off. That leaves very few places where a short can occur. The shorted port or stbd receptacle is a possibility. I will investigate that.

Everything that can be off is off. No chargers on the system, I have removed the unit that was in place to clean and check it, so that may also be a clue... shorts by default if no batteries or charger?
The whole boat is almost unchanged since day 1 - 1969.

Thanks for the tips all.

[Commissionpoint]

If its on the hard, try grounding your neutral side to the earth. Otherwise, I'd suspect something afoul between your shore power inlet receptacle(s) and the panel itself, receptacles included. It sounds awfully like a neutral or ground issue. I'd be curious to know if it behaved the same way in the water as on land.

[RobertS]

ShortSol.jpg (108.49 KiB) Viewed 10177 times

I solved the shorting problem by working backwards, first disconnected the feed wires to the panel from both side shore power feeds from the main power selector switch and powering those up one at a time. As soon as I reconnected though, the short happened again. It seems there was a feed added to the main power selector to power the battery charger below deck and the wires were shorting.
Red marks on the picture indicate the problem wires.


Another problem I found was some seriously loose connector terminals. These are the incoming main shore power wires with a crimped-on eye-type connector. There was some burned and crispy insulation on these wires, close to the panel. I re-crimped everything and put heat shrink over the bad bits. Could have been serious.

[Moderator]

I sent a PM to Don on the " attachment quota "

[RobertS]

I sent a PM to Don on the " attachment quota "

Great, thanks. Should I make the images a certain size? Got quite a few....

[Moderator]

Should be ok now I believe there is a 256 kb limit to size