50 amp RV wiring

DougE wrote:
If you want to plug your 50 amp trailer plug into a pedestal that has only a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet you can use this.

And so can everyone else on the circuit despite it only being designed for 30 amp max including the 20 amp receptacle. Hence voltage issues when John Q Allaboutme comes along in his 45' tag axle and has to run his 3 acs, double door residential fridge, convection oven, 3 TVs, and washer and dryer all at the same time just because his rig has them, all despite knowing up front it's a 30 amp site.

Agreed that it will not work on a GFCI. The two hot circuits share a common neutral so it's unlikely that the currents on the hot and neutral will match at the supply receptacle and the breaker will trip.

I have one of those cheater boxes.. MOST parks the 20 amp is in fact a GFCI and it will trip faster than you can say TRIP. Some parks even the 30 amp outlets are GFCI.. One park I stay at I check the box then go 1-3-4 till I find a pair of NON Gfci (the breakers are GFCI) One park has grandfathered 20 amps so no GFCI on a few sites.. but only a few. Those I like. 30 amp breakers on the 20 side too. AND.. I've seen the feeder wires (Long story but they failed when I was not there some years back so I got to see the new ones go in).. No danger of overloading park wires.. NONE. Zip. NADA.. manager said he did not want to have to do it again..> had to (one feed) less than a moth later but that... is another story.

Suggestion.. If driving REBAR into the ground to secure landscaping timber.. DO NOT drive into the nice just filled in line they buried the 240 volt feed in. Or the other wider one where they buried the new sewer line.. You won't be pleased .. Trust me. (NO I did not do that. but ... Well.. Today the guy who did... Laughs about it)

ivbinconned wrote:
Duh!! Water heater was on too. As well as fridge.

Common mistake

DougE wrote:
If you want to plug your 50 amp trailer plug into a pedestal that has only a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet you can use this.

These sorts of adapters give me the heebie-jeebies. Especially if there's a fault in the wiring of one or the other outlet you plug it into you can have bad things happening. If one outlet has hot and neutral reversed (a problem, to be sure), this would cause a dead short the moment it's plugged in, hopefully tripping the breaker. If one of the neutrals has poor contact, the other neutral can be significantly overloaded--particularly if it's the 30A neutral that is bad, as you could have up to 45 or 50A flowing through the 12 or 14 gauge neutral on the 15 amp socket, which is a significant overload. In that particular case, the breakers offer no protection.

As was already said, this will cause a GFCI to trip, and GFCIs are required on 20A outdoor outlets in the current electric code (and have been for awhile), so it's pretty rare to find places where it actually works at all.

Thanks Doug. Never knew something like that existed.

DougE wrote:
If you want to plug your 50 amp trailer plug into a pedestal that has only a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet you can use this.

Unless the 20 amp is a GFCI as I believe most are at this point.

If you want to plug your 50 amp trailer plug into a pedestal that has only a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet you can use this.

For the "Cord too short" problems (Something I defiently DO NOT have on this site :) (the pedestal is about 3 feet from teh RV's inlet. Right beside it in fact. almost too close This is rare. and the sewer inlet (park) is just in front of it.. Right next to the outlet on the RV as well (Again very rare).

AND I GOT WI-FI at the RV, even though the park says I can't do that (not at all rare. Thank you Umbiquiti Nano Staion Loco M-2 and flagpole).

When on a 30+20 amp site I have a plug/outlet combination hidding in a compartment.. all 12ga wire and a 12ga extension cord .. it feeds A/C #2 and one very special outlet.. I use the outlet for a space heater. Or a volt meter.

IF I'm on a 50 amp site I plug the plug into the outlet and other than the very special outlet (it is a single. not a duplex) the RV is restored to "Factory".

Do your self a favor and buy the parts needed and build your own. MUCH easier to store and handle even in COLD weather. Wire can be purchased by the foot, "6/3 & 8/1 SOW".