Electrical Problem, or no?

[Tuttle59]

I recently plugged a 'test plug' into an outlet in my Class A, and it reported an open-ground (on shoreline power). Yet, when I unplugged the shoreline and started my generator, the test plug then indicated a correct outlet. Shutting down the generator and going back to shoreline, it went back to an open ground. So I did some more testing with my meter at the breaker panel. Measuring from any breaker hot to the neutral block was 120v. But measuring from any breaker hot to the ground block was only 60v (on shoreline power). Switched to generator power, and had readings of 120v from both hot to neutral and hot to ground. Why is this? And is this normal?

[Executive45]

Make yourself a tester that checks everything in the pedestal. This allows you to check the electrical BEFORE pulling into a site and hooking up your rig. I made mine with parts from Home Depot. I never park without first checking the pedestal. I've included a file below that may help....Dennis

50 Amp Tester with instructions

[wa8yxm]

Had somethign like that happen to me last winter.. The Park Surge Guard (Southwire/TRC product) said "OPEN GROUND" but the park found it was the neutral (I was on a 30 amp site) that had a screw loose.

Oh. by the way. I know a lot of folks who say we RVers often have a few screws loose and guess what. They are right.. A #2 Square bit is often helpful in tightening down the ones Damon used in my RV.

[Acampingwewillg]

I ran into a strange happening a couple years ago. I had won one of those AC line test meters which I plugged into an outlet in the motorhome. All was well...until one evening, the buzzer went off indicating an open ground. Long story short, another rv pulled into a site 2 away from me during the late evening. Once he plugged in, the open ground appeared! I know this because three days later when he left the problem once again went away.

On a side note, I built one of those testers that allows you to test the pedestal for voltage, shorts, open neutral, open ground etc etc. When he was not attached to the pedestal, all checked out and when he left, I checked that pedestal too....all OK. When someone else pulled into that site and plugged in, no problem once again. The moral of the story, sometimes issues can be your own, sometimes it can be the campground and sure enough, sometimes it can be someone else's issue causing your problem. Just found it interesting that another person's rig could cause issues with ours knowing that pedestals are looped together in many different ways.????

[enblethen]

Thanks for the follow up!

[Tuttle59]

Thank you all for your helpful responses. The issue has been found and corrected. On the female end of my shoreline, the ground was missing one side of the two contacts. (Must have fatigued and broken off over time.) So when I tested my shoreline with the meter, everything was appearing fine because the probe was still making contact, but when plugged into the camper, it wasn't "sandwiching" the male-side ground prong, thus creating a bad ground (connection was too loose).

[wa8yxm]

Indication is park has an open ground.
I get that on generator (For good reason) but not on shore power

Try this. I carry a FULL range of adapters. 15-30 40-50 and the other way around. I can basically plug anything into anything RV wise. Using a 15 to 30 and if needed a 30-50 plug into park. If you still see OPEN GROUND notify management.

Regarding 60 volts hot or neutral to ground. NORMAL if you have an open ground.. I can explain why but it's a bit technicial.

Basically the cables (Romex mostly) in the RV from what is called a capacitive voltage divider and 120/2 = 60

[opnspaces]

Did you plug your tester into the campground pedestal.

[BB_TX]

Neutral and ground should be bonded at the park main service panel. That means neutral and ground should essentially be the same and the voltage readings should be the same. You have a bad ground connection somewhere.

[enblethen]

Bad shore power connection, Breaker to ground should have same reading as neutral to hot.
You should also read near zero Ohms between the neutral and ground pins. This will very based on how far from main shore power service panel.

[MrWizard]

Shore outlet wired wrong ?
Bad loose connection in your shore cord ?
Bad loose connection in your transfer switch ?