poulsen11@yahoo.

Im hoping someone has seen this before.

my boat is kept on a lift on a floating dock. The dock electrical has a GFI breaker that feeds the entire dock.

When i plug my 2000 formula fastech into shorepower on the dock with all AC and DC breakers off, and then flip only the main AC breaker in the cabin panel ON, the GFI trips.

Could this be a bad main breaker or other breaker in the AC panel? What else could it be? Since i have all AC breakers off other than the main breaker it seems to point to that being the issue.

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Some solid info here:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/d...ghlight=outlet

Have you had the GFI tested? Does it work with other electrical devices plugged into it? Did it work before with this boat?

Your boat ought to have a dedicated 30A circuit to plug in the shorepower.

poulsen11@yahoo.

Thanks for such a quick response.

The GFI is a 'whole dock' type GFI and is a dedicated 20A GFI for the dock. GFI works fine with my boat lift motors and other electric equip that i use plugged into the dock, but i have not specifically tested it.

The GFI has never worked with this boat. If i plug the boat into a non-GFI, everything works fine, but i dont want to do that as it is dangerous.

I dont run anything but the battery charger on the boat while connected to shore power (no AC or Heater and outlets are not used) so i didnt think that a 20A breaker would be an issue.

VoodooRob

I ran into this 2 weekends ago. Using the pigtail adapter for shore power on the boat I would plug into my garage GFI 20 amp. As soon as I flipped the panel switch the GFI would pop. I was not using it for A/C or overloading it, just the built-in battery charger. I had my shop electrician come out to my house and he ran a dedicated 20 amp line without a GFI plug and all works fine for battery charger, stereo, fridge, etc. (except A/C of course). There is a reset button on the new breaker he installed, just like protection for a jet-tub or hot tub. I know its not exactly what your experiencing but that's my road traveled getting power to my Fastech 353.

poulsen11@yahoo.

Just wanted to update the group:

I just talked to Formula Boats of Missouri (Who were AWESOME on the phone). They said there is a pro-mariner GFI protection device installed on formulas from about 2000-2008. It is incompatible with other GFI devices and that this is the cause of the problem.

They are supposed to relay me some instructions on how to pull the fuses to the device to fix the issue. Once i get those instructions, i will post.

Very excited to see if this resolves my issue!

bajamann

Any response from Formula? I am experiencing same problem. Hate to remove GFI when using shorepower over the water.

bajamann

Called Formula. They say the problem is the galvanic isolator which causes a typical class A gfi to trip. They recommend a class B gfi receptacle which allows for higher amp leakage before tripping. Problem is I can't locate a class B gfi.

Pismo10

Get a regular one.

bajamann

Charger does work with non gfi receptacle, but boat lives on a Sunstream lift in the water. We swim in the water. Need some kind of protection.

poulsen11@yahoo.

This is still an issue for me. I wound up just buying a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter and plugging into the dock receptacles as is. I never plug in when I am not there and also never when the boat is in the water.

When boat is on the lift, there is no metal to metal contact between boat and lift/dock so there is no risk of shock.