Electrical Issue 30 vs 50 Amps

CA Traveler wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Only one buss bar would have been HOT so backfeeding would have required some non-normal/unusual connection .......99% not going to happen (nothing is 100% cause somebody WILL do something)

Probably less that 1%. But there could be limited voltage on the neutral due to the voltage drop under higher loads. Not much but it could be to much. And with a open ground or neutral on the connected side you could have 120V on the exposed ground or neutral.

Why take a chance with an exposed male plug on the cheater cord? Or why even use it?

That's why I posted "potentially dangerous situation".

Another possibility (not at all common in RVs) is to have some 240V device such as a heater of some sort creating a sneak path from one hot to the other (non-connected) hot. The only reason this doesn't happen is the lack of any 240V circuitry on practically all RVs.

I've seen that basic situation in a house I used to live in which had some quite questionable old wiring—which was of course fixed once I discovered it. The kitchen outlet was powered by half of the water heater circuit, which was protected with a fuses rather than a double-pole circuit breaker. When the fuse blew due to using too much power between the water heater and the kitchen appliances, I had power to the kitchen sufficient to run the digital clock in the microwave so long as the microwave or toaster or whatever wasn't running. Untangling what was going on took a bit of work.

These cheater cords oughtn't exist, IMHO.