Quote:
quote:Originally posted by DQDick
Phil you're missing the point. Our breaker was popping when the weather got fairly cold. Keystone replaced my 40amp breaker with an 80amp breaker under warranty at their expense and told me that my rig was wired for that. I don't think they would have done that if they thought they were putting themselves at risk. The wiring in the newer rigs will take it. For a rig older than mine I would call Keystone and ask.
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Relying on Keystone is scarier than anything else I have seen on this forum.
According to BB_TX he has determined that his trailer is wired with #4 wires. His determination of the capacity of #4 wires is correct. Our trailer is wired with #8 wire and Keystone had cut strands from the end of the #8 wire in order to get it in a but splice for #12 wire that came out of the 30 amp fuse holder.
Now with this information and having seen it I I would want to get a good look at the wiring they put the 80 amp breaker in to make sure it is at least AWG #4. This is the wire from the battery to the circuit breaker and the wiring from the breaker to the relay panel.
The wire in my trailer is not sufficient to carry 80 Amps. I don’t ever plan on getting in cold weather. If it gets that cold in south Florida I will put the trailer on a barge and take it to Puerto Rico. LOL
I understand cold weather and that system is capable of drawing more than 50 amps when it gets gold enough. The purpose of my post is the likely hood that Keystone has wired the trailer with the minimum sizes wire like my trailer is and then just put a larger breaker in to make it work in the cold.
Under normal operation this may work but the breaker is not there for normal operation it is there to protect the wire if there is a short in the wiring after the breaker. This short could be to ground because of the wire getting crushed by something in the compartment or it could be shorted because of a catastrophic failure in the motor. If the wire is too small for the breaker installed it will glow red before the breaker or the wire finally opens the circuit.
Phil P