Maiden Voyage - Electrical Problem

[JohnIL]

Hello All. We finally got a chance to take our '86 2461 for it's maiden camping trip. We had a good, but very rainy, Memorial Day weekend. Although, we did run into an electrical problem that I'm hoping someone here can help me solve.

This is the first time that I've hooked up to a 30 AMP campground service. At, home I hookup to a properly wired 20 AMP outlet, with no problem. When I connected to the campground 30 AMP service, the breaker on the service pole immediately popped. Next, I used a dog-bone adapter to connect to the 20 AMP service on the pole. The 20 AMP breaker popped too. Next, I added a 3-prong to 2-prong ungrounded adapter. The breaker held that time. Using the ungrounded adapter told me that I had a ground/neutral bonding problem. So, I tripped all of the breakers in the coach off and connected to the 30Amp service. Then, I flipped the breakers on, one at a time, until the service breaker popped. This test narrowed the problem down to the circuit that feeds the 12-volt converter/charger.

I opened the converter to verify that I didn't have a short to ground somewhere. Everything looks clean. But, I did notice that the grounds (white wires) for all of the 12-volt circuits go to a grounding bar on the outside case of the converter. The converter case is grounded (bare copper wire) to the trailer frame, which is connected to the Ground bar in the AC distribution panel. So, the ground and neutral are bonded in the converter.

I've read elsewhere, that many campgrounds have switched to a floating ground system. Connecting a bonded ground system will trip the service breaker. So, I disconnected the ground wire from the converter case. Presto, chango! Everything works now. As a precaution, I used a multi-meter to test the potential between the converter case and the AC ground bar. They are with about .015 volts. So, everything appears to be safe.

Now, for my question. Did I do the right thing? If not, what should I do instead? Thanks for any help you can pass along.

John