It should trip both sides but by virtue of the handle not anything inside.

Each of the two legs of the main breaker feeds some 220V loads but most are
split up between the 110V circuits.

What troubles me is that you have a 110V load tripping the 60A main but not
any of the 20A breakers before it. So if it is not the dryer or range
tripping the main, then you may have at least one 20A breaker that is
defective or you are just drawing more than 60A divided up between at least
3 or 4, 20A branches on the same side (phase)

If you do have an electrician look at it, ask him to rearrange the breakers
(WRT the phase they are plugged into) so that the loads are better balanced.


"Robert Stinnett" wrote in message
oups.com...
Situation: Have a mobile home I use only in the summer. It is fed
from the pole to a main 60AMP breaker than then feeds panels inside the
mobile home.

This spring, half of the main breaker was tripping. Replaced main
breaker (60A) with a 50A breaker by mistake. No big deal, or so I
thought.

Main is still tripping -- but only HALF is tripping! I thought these
things had internal mechanisms to make sure they always threw both legs
and not just one.

Trying to get an electrician, but quickly finding out that around these
parts if it isn't a "large" job then nobody is interested. I've called
6 places and not one call back.

Electric company is no help. Keep telling them I SWEAR I smell the
meter "burning" when this trip helps. It smells like the meter itself
has burning insulation or plastic inside it.

Any ideas on what to check next? Could something be wrong at the
meter?

Robert