50 amp RV service recepticle

If you want to save money you can wire it to 30A instead of 50A. Dual feed still.

You can run both acs and fridge etc. You never get anywhere near 50A even with everything on.

Thanks guys, excellent info. Special thanks to Dutch and time2roll for the extra information. Now I feel reassured about the install.

Correct wire size depends on distance to the panel, but in most cases #6 is used if the outlet will be within about 75 ft of the panel.

ksbowman wrote:
I'm getting ready to put a 50 receptacle for our new (to us) 5th wheel. We have always had 30 amp 5th wheels before and just used a 20 amp adapters in the barn and watched what we ran. Today I bought a 50 amp rec. and box and a 50 amp double pole breaker for the barn 100 amp box. I thought I read a while back that you had to be careful on how you wired it to avoid getting 220 to the 5 th. The way I understand it is just to hookup a 110 hot off the double pole to each hot leg on the plug, the neutral to the main box neutral bar and of course the ground to both boxes. Is this correct?

X & Y are the hots and both go the breaker, one to each side.
W is neutral to the neutral bus
G is ground to the ground bus

4 wires. 3 at #6 and maybe #8 for ground but #6 is fine there too.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/Pg/50amp_Service.htm

ScottG wrote:
What you have is EXACTLY the same as a range outlet and in fact it IS a Nema 14-50R range outlet. It is indeed 240V (straight or otherwise).

Winner Winner!!!

What you have is EXACTLY the same as a range outlet and in fact it IS a Nema 14-50R range outlet. It is indeed 240V (straight or otherwise).

You have it right. What you'll actually have is similar to a 4-wire range setup.

You'll need both hots on the 2 pole breaker, neutral to neutral bus, ground to ground bus. It's 2 120v poles, not straight 240v.

A 50 amp RV outlet is wired exactly the same as a 50 amp residential range outlet, with two opposing phase hot legs, a neutral leg, and a safety ground. Properly wired, a volt meter will read ~240v from hot to hot, and ~120v from each hot to the neutral. Each leg can carry up to a 50 amp load. It's actually harder to miswire the 50 amp RV outlet than it is the 30 amp RV outlet that must be connected to a single 120v breaker. The 50 amp 120/240v confusion comes in because there are very few RV's that actual use 240v, but the wiring is exactly the same as standard residential 120/240v systems.