Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Thanks all! It seems the consensus is that I need a ground bar and that I need to remove the bonding screw. That's what I was planning to do initially anyways. interesting....I came across a post that said that they should be separated and the poster said "but apparently no US electrician has ever gotten that memo since they always wire the ground and neutral together." I thought that was interesting in light of my electrician saying that it didn't matter. Why would electricians be saying one thing and everyone else saying something different?

Thanks again for all the help.


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I think I can help confuse everyone a little more.
The neutral and ground should ONLY be bonded at one location. This should only be at the service entrance, which is either the campground pedestal or at your generator . The RV should be treated as an outbuilding and have the ground and neutral on different buses. The ground rod driven into the earth doesn't have any purpose other than to equal the potential to earth for lightning, it doesn't work as a replacement for the grounding conductor going back to the neutral ground bond at the service.
Also the frame should be bonded to the grounding buss in the panel but not to the neutral.
I hope this helps more than confusing the issue .
I look forward to seeing how your build goes. Good luck.

Dan

Ol' D wrote:I think I can help confuse everyone a little more.
The neutral and ground should ONLY be bonded at one location. This should only be at the service entrance, which is either the campground pedestal or at your generator . The RV should be treated as an outbuilding and have the ground and neutral on different buses. The ground rod driven into the earth doesn't have any purpose other than to equal the potential to earth for lightning, it doesn't work as a replacement for the grounding conductor going back to the neutral ground bond at the service.
Also the frame should be bonded to the grounding buss in the panel but not to the neutral.
I hope this helps more than confusing the issue .
I look forward to seeing how your build goes. Good luck.

Dan

Dan, not confusing at all! Makes perfect sense and perfectly consistent with what others are saying at what I've been reading. Thanks for your input.

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Can I attach the ground to the upper wall frame or should it go the the bottom floor trailer frame?

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You can bond to either the frame or the wall frame , but both need to be bonded together at some point so each has a path to ground. They may already be electrically connected through the construction of the trailer by a weld, bolts , or screws, etc..
Hope this helps.
Dan

Made a little more progress today. See if this load center looks more like what it's supposed to. Also had the ac delivered, so I was able to start moving forward on that too. Picked up some foam board this afternoon to complete the ducts and the roof vent comes in next week. I was originally going to modify a home vent, but ultimately felt better about the rv fridge vent for the roof. I priced countertop today for the front. Holy cow that stuff is pricey.

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Getting there.... Looks right.
What size is your supply wire?

pchast wrote:Getting there.... Looks right.
What size is your supply wire?

10 gauge

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XR-duous,
I noticed that the lead from the power in receptacle is connected directly to the hot buss. You may want to feed a breaker to act as a main. I can't tell if you have stabs for more breakers or not and it's hard to work in stuff when the number of breakers are limited. If you can add another breaker to act as a main breaker it would be worthy of consideration. They may have pigy back breakers available that could increase the number of breakers and circuits available.
I like that you put in a separate ground buss, looking good.Y our workmanship looks good, and it looks like your trailer is coming along nicely.

Dan

Ol' D wrote:XR-duous,
I noticed that the lead from the power in receptacle is connected directly to the hot buss. You may want to feed a breaker to act as a main. I can't tell if you have stabs for more breakers or not and it's hard to work in stuff when the number of breakers are limited. If you can add another breaker to act as a main breaker it would be worthy of consideration. They may have pigy back breakers available that could increase the number of breakers and circuits available.
I like that you put in a separate ground buss, looking good.Y our workmanship looks good, and it looks like your trailer is coming along nicely.

Dan

Agree... need to limit the main as theoretically you could pull > 30A through the main wire with the three separate breakers that pop at 15A which is an overload to the 30A service (assuming it is a 30A service).

You should a have a main that matches the service... 30A for instance. Just use one slot for a 30A breaker and feed the input to the panel through the 30A breaker to the common bus bar. That is all you need to do. If your input is only wired for 15A, then get a 15A for the main... you get the idea.

Yeah, its 30amp. I have 6 slots to work with, so I should be able to make that happen. Thanks for the tip

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Ol' D wrote:I think I can help confuse everyone a little more.
The neutral and ground should ONLY be bonded at one location. This should only be at the service entrance, which is either the campground pedestal or at your generator . The RV should be treated as an outbuilding and have the ground and neutral on different buses. The ground rod driven into the earth doesn't have any purpose other than to equal the potential to earth for lightning, it doesn't work as a replacement for the grounding conductor going back to the neutral ground bond at the service.
Also the frame should be bonded to the grounding buss in the panel but not to the neutral.
I hope this helps more than confusing the issue .
I look forward to seeing how your build goes. Good luck.

Dan

Well said!

Here are some progress pics. I installed a 30amp main breaker in my sub panel, got the shelves in one of the cabinets, got the duct work all sealed up, and cut the new intake vent into the roof. The vent was wider than 24", so I cut it down so that it would fit between the ceiling joists. It should still have plenty of intake at 22" long. I just glued the drain fitting on an already existing hole for the ac and then tipped the ac back slightly to encourage the water to head towards the drain. I had to cover part of the side intake vent on the ac to prevent splash. All in all..I think it's coming together.

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Maiden voyage. Still lots to do, but it was a great week.

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Well done XR! I like your style. The goal is to go camping, finishing the trailer is a lesser goal. I first camped in mine in 2015. No power, A/C, refrig, water or lights, but I knew I wanted to build it. It came together pretty quick, but I am still not finished. Got all the must haves, still working on the nice to haves. Not sure I'll ever be "done" till I'm done camping. Hopefully many more years.
Glad you got to enjoy the fruits of your labor. That looks like a great place to be spending a week. Congrats!

McDave