O.T. Wiring help in SW MO

Thanks in advance

Playfarmer

I don't mean to be mean, and on one hand I don't want to scare you, but I want to scare the hxxx out of you.

You plan on bringing service in from the meter to the main, and you're asking how. That's not a good thing. I can't think of a municipality that will allow you to do that if you're not a licensed electrician, and I'd venture to guess that many won't even allow you to pull that permit, and for good reason, SAFETY.

Your main might be rated at 100 AMP, might be 200 AMP. It takes far less than that to kill someone. But if you're ahead of the main on the meter side, you're at the mercy of the ckt breaker on the transformer up on that pole. Get it wrong, and you're going to pop faster than a 1/2 amp fuse.

I'm a telephone man by trade and have worked many a new construction. I've seen the aftermath first hand a conciencious seasoned sparky that was split from his hand to below his waist. His boots were smoking and the stench was so bad that they cleared the trades on 3 floors of a new skeleton skyscraper until the next day. He lived, he never worked again. It happens. A close friend of mine, another sparky made a similar slip doing residential, working the service side of the main, and a neighbor girl found him lying on the ground, boots smoldering. I went to his funeral. It happens.

Call me what you want, get mad at me if you wish, but Sir, it appears that you are in over your head, and if you aren't concerned with your safety, you oughta be for the family that moves in there.

Good luck, Mark

Look at the panel inside your trailer. You should see a buss bar that has nothing but bare or green wires going to it. That's the ground.

You will also see a buss bar that has only white wires going to it. That's the neutral.

Before you hook anything up, the ground and neutral should be isolated from each other. You can confirm that with an ohmmeter. If you find that the two buss bars are connected, then you need to find where the connection is made and break it. It's possible that the neutral and ground are connected in the panel, but that's not likely if this is a new mobile home.

Two Hot Phase Conductors (L1 and L2)

One Neutral (a grounded conductor)

One Equipment Ground (a grounding conductor)

Then inside the Panel, the Neutral Buss (for the white branch circuit return conductors) and the Equipment Ground Buss (green safety wire grounds)
MUST BE ISOLATED AND NOTTTTT TIED TOGETHER.

If it were a residential service entrance main panelboard like the ones inside the residence (NOT a pole or pad mount service used to feed Mobile Homes) the Neutral Buss and the Equipment Ground Buss WOULD BE BONDED TOGETHER AT THE MAIN PANEL but NOTTTTT TTT in the 4 wire MH Panel.

Thats why panels for Mobile Homes or panels used as sub panels MUST HAVE SEPERABLE NEUTRAL AND GROUND BUSSES.

Sooooo ooooo , run 4 wires (L1, L2, Neutral, Ground) from the pole to the main panel inside the Mobile Home and attach the L1 and L2 to the Main Circuit Breaker top, the Neutral (white) to the Neutral Buss and the Ground (Green) to the Ground Buss. The metallic panel enclosure would be bonded to the equipment ground buss, often via a svrew that goes from the bus to the metal enclosure.

The Neutral is earth grounded via connection to a made ground (a grounding electrode such as a driven ground rod) at the outside service, and from that point on the Neutral and Grounds are no longer bonded, thats why you need 4 not 3 wires from the service to the Mobile Home versus only 3 on residential services.

John T Nordhoff in Indiana, retired Electrical Engineer)

Two Hot Phase Conductors (L1 and L2)

One Neutral (a grounded conductor)

One Equipment Ground (a grounding conductor)

Then inside the Panel, the Neutral Buss (for the white branch circuit return conductors) and the Equipment Ground Buss (green safety wire grounds)
MUST BE ISOLATED AND NOTTTTT TIED TOGETHER.

If it were a residential service entrance main panelboard like the ones inside the residence (NOT a pole or pad mount service used to feed Mobile Homes) the Neutral Buss and the Equipment Ground Buss WOULD BE BONDED TOGETHER AT THE MAIN PANEL but NOTTTTT TTT in the 4 wire MH Panel.

Thats why panels for Mobile Homes or panels used as sub panels MUST HAVE SEPERABLE NEUTRAL AND GROUND BUSSES.

Sooooo ooooo , run 4 wires (L1, L2, Neutral, Ground) from the pole to the main panel inside the Mobile Home and attach the L1 and L2 to the Main Circuit Breaker top, the Neutral (white) to the Neutral Buss and the Ground (Green) to the Ground Buss. The metallic panel enclosure would be bonded to the equipment ground buss, often via a svrew that goes from the bus to the metal enclosure.

The Neutral is earth grounded via connection to a made ground (a grounding electrode such as a driven ground rod) at the outside service, and from that point on the Neutral and Grounds are no longer bonded, thats why you need 4 not 3 wires from the service to the Mobile Home versus only 3 on residential services.

John T Nordhoff in Indiana, retired Electrical Engineer)