Question about 30 amp vs 50 amp service

Does the plug have 3 prongs or 4 prongs. 30 amp has 3. 50 amp has 4.

And yes, 30 amp is generally not sufficient to run two ACs and the other high current devices.

50 Amps will have four pins (2 hot, 1 ground and 1 neutral) and 30 amp will have 3 pins with one only one hot. If your RV has 50 amp service you will need a 50-30 amp doggone.

Yes, you can run two A/C's off of 30 amp, just don't start them at the same time and have nothing else drawing power like your water heater.

My 97 holiday rambler could run two acs on 30a. It had a smart controller.

Thirty amp RVs with high efficiency ACs and a smart 'load shedding' controller can run both at the same time.

Other people, like me, have just added a 20 amp plug so at RV parks with a 30 & a 20 Amp outlet on the power tower (or 50 & 30), I can plug in both ACs. Have adaptors for just about any situation.

no

BB_TX wrote:
Does the plug have 3 prongs or 4 prongs. 30 amp has 3. 50 amp has 4.

And yes, 30 amp is generally not sufficient to run two ACs and the other high current devices.

unless, as in my current Itasca MH, your MH is equipped with an energy management system.

The difference in power is:
30 amps = 3450 watts.
50 amps = 11500 watts.

A 50 amp RV has about 4 times the power available that a 30 amp does.

There are some 30 amp systems that can run 2 A/C's, but still the power available is marginal and must be watched. You are not going to run the coffee maker, microwave, and a hair dryer at the same time, with or without any a/c's on on 30 amps...

The power management systems help a lot, but are nor miracles.

30A RV Plug......3 prong


50A RV Plug.....4 prong

You can easily run 2 AC units on 30 amps. But not any other high amp drawing apparatus.

A lot of motorhomes built before 2000 model year had 30 amp service to them. Even if they had two air conditioners. So my guess is that you should have a 5,500 watt generator rated to run both A/C units. The 30 amp service probably will run one A/C at a time, and might have a 'energy management system' to shut off one compressor at a time, and run both fans all the time.

My buddy's 1985 class A DP had a switch in the back to run either the front or rear A/C unless the propane generator was running, when both A/C's could be turned on at once.

If you have a 5,500+ watt generator, then it should have a pair of circuit breakers, typically a 20 and 30 amp breaker. The 30 feeding the main panel, the 20 feeding a relay with just one air conditioner on it.

It is possible, and not all that difficult to upgrade your RV to a 50 amp service. Back in the late 90's Weekend Warrior used to offer a dealer installed optional 50 amp service. Basically it was a 50 amp panel installed in a storage compartment, with a 50 amp main 2 pole breaker, 30 amp feeding the factory installed panel and factory power cord, Then a 20 amp was run to each air conditioner and another 20 amp breaker fed the receptacles near the air compressor in the garage area.

It might take me 45 minutes at Home Depot gathering the supplies, and another 2 hours to install it all in the storage compartment where the electrical cord is located, perhaps another hour if you wanted the electric panel in another compartment.

Good luck,

Fred.