Forum Discussion

captpar's avatar
captpar
Explorer
Jun 12, 2017

Plugging into 110

Going to plug into a 110 outlet at my brothers house,do I have to do anything except use my adaptor . Does my magnum charger/convertor system need any kind of reset. Not going to use anything in the Rv ,just maintaining the batteries.
  • Presume you are talking about plugging into a 15 or 20 amp outlet. If your RV allows you to change the amp rating of the outlet your plugging jnto, lower it so that it does not to try to charge the batteries at a rate that will exceed the amperage of the circuit / outlet.you just cant run much of anything in your RV other than keeping batteries charged, lights etc. We've done many times with no problems.
  • captpar wrote:
    Going to plug into a 110 outlet at my brothers house,do I have to do anything except use my adaptor . Does my magnum charger/convertor system need any kind of reset. Not going to use anything in the Rv ,just maintaining the batteries.

    Mostly no you don't need to do anything. Here comes that big BUT. It will depend on the outlet circuit you are plugging into. Most are only 15 amp and if your batteries are low it could draw that to start with.
    If it pops the house circuit breaker I would try running the generator for a while then try again.
    Let us know how it works.
    Bill
  • Hi,

    If you have the Magnum remote then it would be good to limit the input to the Rv to 15 amps or less.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    I just went through this with another thread down the page here this morning...

    try some of these suggestions perhaps...

    I plug into my house 120VAC Receptacle in my garage all the time. This was a receptacle used for an air compressor at one time and is fed by a 20AMPS House Circuit Breaker... There is nothing else on this 120VAC 20AMP House Service. Perfect for me to use for my trailer Shore Power cable.

    My trailer sits about 50 feet away from this receptacle so I run a heavy duty 10-guage contractor type YELLOW thick extension cord from the garage receptacle out into the back yard where I can plug my Trailer 30A Shore Power cable into it. You can get away with a 12-gauge type cord but stay away from those RED-ORANGE cords you find at WALMART. They are 16-Gauge which is way to small to use here... I use one of these RV30A-15A LONG DOGBONE type adapters from WALMART that looks like this plugged into the end of the long extension cord. I usually cover this outside connection point with a small plastic tub to keep rain water away from it...

    First however I use one of these very inexpensive 120VAC circuit testers (WALMART-LOWES-AMAZON) to tell me all three conductors inside the garage receptacle and 50-foot Extension Cord are good and working. If I see the bottom two lights come ON the tester for 'CORRECT' I know the garage 120VAC receptacle and the 50-foot HD extension cord is good to use

    Google Image

    Then I plug in the RV30A-15A Long Dogbone Adapter from WALMART that looks like this... I have never had any luck with the small round RV30AMP Adapters. They always got hot me and burned up my 30A plug on the shore power plug. I am always checking for heat when having my trailer plugged into the garage connections.

    Google Image

    If you have an inexpensive multimeter (WALMART-LOWES-AMAZON) you can also measure around the three sockets on the 30A adapter to insure you have the correct AC VOLTAGES using this Chart...
    30AMP RV SERVICE

    NO SHOCK ZONE image

    Be sure you read the AC VOLTAGES as shown...

    Now you can plug in the trailer shore power cable knowing you have the correct AC VOLTAGES available to use. Be mindful that by using the three conductors from the house source also provides your trailer frame ground connection to prevent getting a small AC shock by standing on the ground and touching something metal on the trailer skin. The trailer only gets its frame ground connection from the 120VAC HOUSE SOURCE or PEDESTAL SOURCE when camping at a campground with hookups...

    I also have one of these 120VAC PLUG IN METERS from AMAZON that is plugged into a receptacle socket inside the trailer where I can get a good glimpse of it telling me I have 120VAC power.

    Google image

    Now I know I have a good 120VAC connection from my house/garage receptacle...

    Some folks thinks all of this is not necessary to do but for me I don't have to guess about anything. I know it is working normal doing it this way...

    My quick test for 12VDC being available either from the shore power connection of just running form my battery when OFF-GRID is jus turn on the ceiling lights. These work from the 12VDC side of the trailer and will light up if the 12VDC is all working...

    We plug into our 20AMP Service all the time here at the house so I can work on trailer projects and cleaning routines etc. Also neat to sleep over in the trailer when I get the urge... Grandkids have a ball in ti when they are over visiting and spending the night...

    Just passing all of this on to give you some pointers on what to look for...

    Roy Ken
  • As long as you aren't running the air/con or some other heavy load you will be fine. (you might even get away with that but not recommended)

    Unless you have a really big battery charger, I wouldn't worry about it. 50amp as 12v translates to about 5amps at 120v (maybe 6amps due to inefficiencies).
  • Valhalla,

    Most Magnum inverter/chargers can do 127 amps of charging @ 15.5 volts that is about 16 amps @ 120 volts. I.E. enough to trip a 15 amp shore power breaker over a short period of time.

    I usually set mine at 12 amps when on a 15 amp circuit.
  • We park in our relative's driveway at two different locations and all that is available are single 120 volt, 20 amp outlets. We turn the battery charger portion of the inverter/charger down to low and put the refrig and WH on LP. We have no problem using a single AC unit and running our TV and interior LED lights. If we need to use the microwave, we turn off the AC during that time.
  • Use of an extension cord works.I have stayed for weeks on one for 1 unit ac and battery charger. But .... the length of the cord does have voltage drop,I use a yellow #12 contractor cord. Even with that the plugs will be limiting do heat build up. Install the higher amp plugs to manage heat
  • captpar wrote:
    Going to plug into a 110 outlet at my brothers house,do I have to do anything except use my adaptor . Does my magnum charger/convertor system need any kind of reset. Not going to use anything in the Rv ,just maintaining the batteries.

    Should be fine with the other recommendations mentioned, except that some coaches won't accept a GFI circuit, so be aware for a just in case.