Thread: Mfg Home electrical panel

Did inspection on mfg home today and in electrical panel found main ground wire bonded to neutrals??? nothing to grounds and was not bonded togeather. Was not sure what to do so said I would follow up about this. In the picture the ground wire is at bottom and feeds to the right and is on the netural bar.

Len Couey

Similar Threads:

• Electrical service box located in closet
• May Is National Electrical Safety Month:
• Electrical cable water heater
• Electrical Lines Inspector
• CPSC Recall: Floor Electrical Outlets

There are a # of issues w/ that panel, the neutral is terminated improperly, GE & I-T-E breakers in a Bryant panel, the lack of a grounding conductor, the NM cables w/ the panel feeder, there may be more but I am in a hurry.
Trailer* panels normally have a 4-wire feed...

A trailer by any other name is still a trailer.

Maybe my monitor is not large enough, but I don't see any grounding conductors on the neutral buss. I do see that the feeder neutral is improperly terminated in multiple holes in the buss

The largest grounding conductor I see is copper and goes to the largest lug on the grounding buss. I don't see an AL grounding conductor in the connector with the feeder.

As Rollie said there are also other issues too.

I am not familiar with this brand panel but it may not have a means to bond the neutrals to the grounds. If it were bonded it would be improper as most trailers would have a disconnect at the pedestal or pole.

As Rollie and Jim said, there are many issues.

One Rollie said, which may not have been clearly stated, is the neutral (not the ground) conductor is improperly terminated into the neutral terminal bar into at least 3, and possibly even 4 separate terminals by untwisting the strands and separating them - which is a big no-no.

You've also got conductors other than the service entrance conductors in the same raceway, which is another no-no. Combined with the fact that the NM cable is supposed to be secured to the enclosure in a proper clamp.

There are other problems.

Thanks Guys, I was sure there was problems, but had a problem in stateing them properly but thanks for the help.

Len c

Not a lot of info provided, but here's my take:

• This is probably a feeder assembly and not service conductors. There is probably a service disconnecting means within 30 feet of the manufactured home (I believe the home is probably equipped with a four-wire assembly, albeit a mis-matched one)
• The installer chose to run an individual, uninsulated, copper equipment grounding conductor with the 3 individual aluminum feeder conductors. The "neutral" conductor should have been identified with white tape/paint, etc., and should have terminated in a lug that is large enough to accomodate all the strands.
• Branch circuits are permitted within the same conduit as a feeder provided the conduit fill rules are not violated.
• Is the workmanship up to par? NO. This is about the average quality for this type of installation around where I live, mostly because the mobile home/ manufactured home installers are "handy Andy's" who dabble in all the trades associated with installing the home, and become proficient at very little.
• I'm reasonably sure there are many other violations of the NEC.

Originally Posted by Fred Warner

Not a lot of info provided, but here's my take:

This is probably a feeder assembly and not service conductors. There is probably a service disconnecting means within 30 feet of the manufactured home (I believe the home is probably equipped with a four-wire assembly, albeit a mis-matched one)

Except that there is no equipment grounding conductor (I know, see below, it is addressed below too).

The installer chose to run an individual, uninsulated, copper equipment grounding conductor with the 3 individual aluminum feeder conductors. The "neutral" conductor should have been identified with white tape/paint, etc., and should have terminated in a lug that is large enough to accomodate all the strands.

The bare copper you are looking at is, I think, the grounding electrode conductor as it goes down to the bottom of the panel, across the bottom, to a drilled hole and out that drilled out (look behind the two blue snap-in NM cable clamps), meaning it is not run with the service entrance conductors (what look like are service entrance conductors).

Branch circuits are permitted within the same conduit as a feeder provided the conduit fill rules are not violated.

*IF* those are feeder conductors, you would be correct. However, *IF* those are service entrance conductors, that would not be correct.

Fred, you do bring up an excellent point, though, that being that those "may be" feeder conductors as there "may be" outside service equipment with main service disconnect somewhere outside.

Of course, though, that would make different things wrong. So either way there are things which are wrong, the difference being in the wording of what is wrong.

Jerry: I was thinking that maybe the bare copper conductor is a bonding jumper to the metal frame of the mobile home/man. home, rather than a grounding electrode. What say you?
No matter whether it's a grounding electrode conductor or a bonding jumper, it would still have to have a low resistance path back to the service equipment to properly clear a ground-fault. Perhaps you're correct that there is not an EGC run with the feeder assembly. That would not be nice.