[the-ryans]

Yeap, my husband is going to ring around today whilst at work and ask about getting it changed over, so then we have piece of mind,
That is what happened this weekend, we got to the campground, and we were meant to stay in the pet friendly area as we took our dog, BUT, when we plugged our power into the new power things, it kept tripping it out, which is when the manager there told us we must still have the old way not the new internal RCD - so my husband had to end up scooting to his fathers with our dog to drop her off, then we were able to set up in the general part of the campground where the old power sockets were, and had no problems at all with them
This is something niether of us knew about, as we have only just bought the caravan this year, and since it had a new EWOF on it we have never thought twice about any potential problems - and all the other camp grounds we have used have all had the old type power sockets --- oh well lesson learnt this weekend, and we will look into getting the internal RCD upgraded before the xmas holidays

[razor]

welcome to ower world of ever changing rules and regulations
the other thing you might want to look at are the new freedom camping regs
if you are not using camp grounds
happy camping

[the-ryans]

Ohh no no no -- we dont do freedom camping lol - we 'use' to do DOC camping at DOC grounds, but my better half likes to have power and running water for showers e.t.c ... he much prefers campgrounds with all the bells and whistles -- just so we can get away from Auckland every now and then

[Zukiwi]

Well that's perfectly understandable

Cheers
John

[freefallnz]

Just my EWOF done today + a new RCD installed... $65 for EWOF $133 for RCD

[shalodge]

Correct..

NZ has a MEN (multiple earth neutral system) where the neutral and earth are linked . The idea is that there if there is a fault then there is a safe return path to earth through the earth connection rather than through you.

Problem with vans is they are not earthed.. (rubber wheels etc) so different protection systems have to be implemented.

http://energysafety.govt.nz/templates/P ... 18568.aspx

The RCD in the campground should not have caused a problem with your van . If it did the likely cause was reversed Phase and Neutral somewhere in the cct maybe in the caravan plug.

Please have it checked it may be dangerous..

[razor]

could it have been the neutral eth link in a old switch board causing the rcd on the post to trip

[shalodge]

RCD detects any imbalance between phase and neutral.. indicating that current is returning to via another path (Earth ...possible via a person,) and disconnects the phase. If there is a link between neutral and earth in the caravan .. current can return via the earth cct in the caravan power lead and thus imbalance the RCD but this should not happen in a correctly wired caravan.

I guess what I am saying is that an earth/neutral link by itself wont cause an RCD trip in the park supply, there has to be a fault condition, and that condition could be dangerous. It needs looking at!