Ok I will admit it. I have had my MH for 5 years and have gotten along great with it. My question is that it is a 1996 Damon Intruder and it is 50 amp. Now is it 50 amp 110 volt or 50 amp 240 volt? The tag at the outside of the plug say 120/240 I think. So what volt would it be?? Thanks in advance Dad

If it is a '50 Ampere' R V There are FOUR wires from the receptacle to the R VOne of these is a GROUND, and is not normally in use(only in case of fault......trouble)One of the others is a NEUTRAL, which is a return pathfor the current supplied by the TWO HOT wires I will describe next(Yes, the current reverses 60 times per second but thatcan be ignored in this discussion)The OTHER TWO WIRES are HOTS......you can measure 220 Volts between them.....but, your R V probablydoes not use 220 volts, You can measure 110 volts between EITHER of the two HOTSand NEUTRAL. Your R V uses these.....the loads are connectedbetween either ONE of the two HOTS and the NEUTRAL. To get technical,the voltages are out of phase and only the difference in current betweenthe two HOTS is 'returned' by the neutral.So, you plug into 220 volts, but USE only the 110 voltsbetween one of the two HOTS and the NEUTRAL.

The bottom line is that each of the two electrical legs is 50 amps @ 120 volts. The other two legs are a ground and neutral.

Which also means you in fact have 100 amps available as opposed to only 30 when plugged in to a 30 amp plug

So if I am at a rv park and plug into the 50 amp box it will be 220 volts?

DAD4PAPA2,Read the following information and all your questions will be answered and you will not be the next big powerball winner.120/240

Electrical question please. | Good Sam Community

20 Replies

D_E_Bishop
Explorer
Jun 17, 2013
Glad it helped, try the powerball next week, you'll be rebooted by then.

Dave
soren
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
wa8yxm wrote:
lfeather wrote:
Larry

Then L-1 is providing 13.5 amps to the air conditioner (one of them) so is L-2 (to the other) but due to the phasing of the two legs.. The neutral is carrying a grand total of nothing at all, if it were to break, you'd never know. OF course that only applies in a perfectly balanced system (not practical)
)

It's important to note that the theoretical loss of a neutral never goes as well as one that breaks, or develops unusually high resistance, in the real world. Several times in my career I have gotten the service call where the customer is totally baffled as "the lights got real bright, and now I lost a lot of electronics and seem to be finding failed appliances everywhere I turn". When a panel, or service neutral is broken, or highly resistant, there are series connections made between various branch circuits, and the result is 120V circuits that end up with values higher than 120 but less than 240. It typically is quite damaging and expensive. If you want to understand it on paper, draw two 120 volt lighting circuits, one per "phase" with just a single incandescent lamp on each circuit. Now cut the neutral at the panel and track the series circuit you created. That's why it gets ugly when you loose a neutral.
soren
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
hottubkid wrote:
lfeather wrote:
I understand where the neutral wire is connected to the 50 amp rv plug, but can someone please explain what the neutral wire is connected to on the other end of the wire? The ground is connected to "earth" right? Is the "neutral" connected to earth too? Thanks for any clarification.

Larry

One goes back to the power plant a ways off and the other is a close ground stake in the ground
No, they are actually "bonded" (which is electrical speak for connected together) at the primary service disconnect in the system. In a simple residential installation this is done by driving a special screw through the neutral bus bar and into the metal enclosure box, at the main panel. As for the neutral returning to the grid and back to the supply, sorry, but that's way off. The neutral is derived (created) on the secondary (lower voltage) side of the transformer feeding a service. It is actually possible, but not safe, to operate the high voltage side of a 120/240 single phase distribution system with a single wire running from the substation, out to the transformers.
westernrvparkow
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
wa8yxm wrote:
lfeather wrote:
I understand where the neutral wire is connected to the 50 amp rv plug, but can someone please explain what the neutral wire is connected to on the other end of the wire? The ground is connected to "earth" right? Is the "neutral" connected to earth too? Thanks for any clarification.

Larry

Using ASCII it is very hard to draw a proper transformer.. But I will try

\||/-------- L1
/||\
\||/________ Neutral
/||\
\||/
/||\________ L2
P S
R E
I C
M O
A N
R D
Y R
. Y

The Primary winding (\/\/\/\/) is connected to the high voltage mains either above or underground

The Secondary winding is the 240 Volt winding that provides power to, for example, your house

The Neutral, is the center tap on the 2ndary winding.

Why is it called neutral?

Well. That is a good question, but if the two legs are PERFECTLY balanced, Say two Advent 1500 BTU Air conditioners, both in identical condition under identical conditions, and NOTHING else on in the coach, Then L-1 is providing 13.5 amps to the air conditioner (one of them) so is L-2 (to the other) but due to the phasing of the two legs.. The neutral is carrying a grand total of nothing at all, if it were to break, you'd never know. OF course that only applies in a perfectly balanced system (not practical)

Why is it done this way?

Let's say it's 1,000 feet from you to the transformer.. That is a long haul and a lot of voltage drop from the aforementioned 13.5 amps, since it has to travel not 1,000 feet, but 2,000 feet, (out and back)

But with the 240 volt system, you effectively do not send it back, Since it travels out 1,000 feet, then runs through the other A/C and travels back.. So the voltage drop is now divided into two halves.

So if it is say a 5 volt drop, each way, (10 total) if you had just one A/C running and 120 volt at the transformer, you'd have 110 at the A/C.. but with two of them running they each loose half, so you have 115 at teh A/C. Much nicer.

Now.. if you are a bit confused.... This is taught at the college level. I took the course (like 40+ years ago) and recently took a refresher (like 7 years ago) So do not feel bad.. Some of the concepts I figured out in that refresher had me a mite confused for the better part of 40 years. (But they are not covered here)
That appears to be a course that would not have a lot of coeds in attendance, so that a course I would have actively avoided.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Jun 16, 2013
lfeather wrote:
I understand where the neutral wire is connected to the 50 amp rv plug, but can someone please explain what the neutral wire is connected to on the other end of the wire? The ground is connected to "earth" right? Is the "neutral" connected to earth too? Thanks for any clarification.

Larry

Using ASCII it is very hard to draw a proper transformer.. But I will try

\||/-------- L1
/||\
\||/________ Neutral
/||\
\||/
/||\________ L2
P S
R E
I C
M O
A N
R D
Y R
. Y

The Primary winding (\/\/\/\/) is connected to the high voltage mains either above or underground

The Secondary winding is the 240 Volt winding that provides power to, for example, your house

The Neutral, is the center tap on the 2ndary winding.

Why is it called neutral?

Well. That is a good question, but if the two legs are PERFECTLY balanced, Say two Advent 1500 BTU Air conditioners, both in identical condition under identical conditions, and NOTHING else on in the coach, Then L-1 is providing 13.5 amps to the air conditioner (one of them) so is L-2 (to the other) but due to the phasing of the two legs.. The neutral is carrying a grand total of nothing at all, if it were to break, you'd never know. OF course that only applies in a perfectly balanced system (not practical)

Why is it done this way?

Let's say it's 1,000 feet from you to the transformer.. That is a long haul and a lot of voltage drop from the aforementioned 13.5 amps, since it has to travel not 1,000 feet, but 2,000 feet, (out and back)

But with the 240 volt system, you effectively do not send it back, Since it travels out 1,000 feet, then runs through the other A/C and travels back.. So the voltage drop is now divided into two halves.

So if it is say a 5 volt drop, each way, (10 total) if you had just one A/C running and 120 volt at the transformer, you'd have 110 at the A/C.. but with two of them running they each loose half, so you have 115 at teh A/C. Much nicer.

Now.. if you are a bit confused.... This is taught at the college level. I took the course (like 40+ years ago) and recently took a refresher (like 7 years ago) So do not feel bad.. Some of the concepts I figured out in that refresher had me a mite confused for the better part of 40 years. (But they are not covered here)
NORM_WADDELL
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
The 'neutral' is also connected to ground. This comes from
a LONG ago decision for safety.....with today's array of
possible ground sensors, this is at best a questionable
decision. For example, on combat ships, the 115 volt
system is UNgrounded.......nobody wants a fuse to blow
or a breaker to open if a wire touches ground during
combat. Instead, the ships have a 'Ground Fault Detector',
which indicates if the system touches ground.....that is, if
one wire touches ground. The crew they carefully isolates
(removes from the circuit) various items until the ground
fault is located, and cleared.
DougE
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
At the campground supply panel there is a connection between the neutral and ground. Between the campground supply panel and the end user the neutral and ground wires are to be maintained as separate circuits (pedestal, rv). The typical rv has only single pole breakers (you can check this yourself) so only has 110v service available. If you have a double pole breaker then there is something using 220v in your rv. I expect now that 220v is available at most rv parks, 220v equipment will be transitioning into the rv industry.
hottubkid
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
lfeather wrote:
I understand where the neutral wire is connected to the 50 amp rv plug, but can someone please explain what the neutral wire is connected to on the other end of the wire? The ground is connected to "earth" right? Is the "neutral" connected to earth too? Thanks for any clarification.

Larry

One goes back to the power plant a ways off and the other is a close ground stake in the ground
hottubkid
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
NORM WADDELL wrote:
If it is a '50 Ampere' R V

There are FOUR wires from the receptacle to the R V
One of these is a GROUND, and is not normally in use
(only in case of fault......trouble)

One of the others is a NEUTRAL, which is a return path
for the current supplied by the TWO HOT wires I will describe next
(Yes, the current reverses 60 times per second but that
can be ignored in this discussion)
The OTHER TWO WIRES are HOTS......you can measure
220 Volts between them.....but, your R V probably
does not use 220 volts,

You can measure 110 volts couldn this also be two 120 volt in phase?

between EITHER of the two HOTS
and NEUTRAL. Your R V uses these.....the loads are connected
between either ONE of the two HOTS and the NEUTRAL. To get technical,
the voltages are out of phase and only the difference in current between
the two HOTS is 'returned' by the neutral.

So, you plug into 220 volts, but USE only the 110 volts
between one of the two HOTS and the NEUTRAL.
lfeather
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
I understand where the neutral wire is connected to the 50 amp rv plug, but can someone please explain what the neutral wire is connected to on the other end of the wire? The ground is connected to "earth" right? Is the "neutral" connected to earth too? Thanks for any clarification.

Larry