Power pedestal wiring question

The 20 amp breaker may be wired as a sub off of the 30 amp breaker. Or it may be wired independent of the 30 amp. Only way to know for sure is turn off the 30 amp breaker, turn on the 20 amp breaker, and see if the 20 amp receptacle has power. I would guess independent. But wired as a sub could be a park’s way to limit a site to no more than 30 amps even if you plugged into both.

enblethen wrote:
15/20 amp are required to be GFCI protected.
In old campgrounds one 120 volt circuit was brought to pedestal. One breaker for 15/20 amp receptacle nd one breaker for 30 amp receptacle. Good place for finding low voltage!

Yes, most of the campgrounds we frequent are old but did they feed this pedestal with 30 amp or 50 amp?

Here is two scenarios I have run into. Scenario 1: when booking reservations at Lake San Antonio Ca for thanksgiving, I noticed the 5 sites I wanted showed they were without power. I booked the next 5 sites and checked periodically to see if they had fixed the power as I wanted those sites. Never fixed. When we were camping I waved down the campground host and asked what was the holdup in repairing the problem. It had been 5 months. He said there was an issue in the wiring feeding those sites and no-one has figured out what to do. Obviously this campground is wired in a daisy chain fashion with 5 site per circuit.
Scenario 2: 2 buddies and I were camping at Pinnacles National Park out side of King City, Ca . We were doing diner at 1 trailer in 100 degree heat so the AC was going plus other items and out goes the power. I went next door and checked mine and it was working. Checked the other side and his was working. #0 amp was not tripped. Waved down the campground host and he said hold on. Back he came and said you should be good to go, which we were. He said the breaker in the main is weak so he just reset it. Asked him why he doesn't replace the breaker and he said he has reported it to the electrician. In this case, each site is a home run to the main panel
Got off track there.
I am guessing that a power pedestal that has a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet has both breakers connected to a buss bar which is serviced by a 30 amp main. If was serviced by a 50 amp main then I would be fine utilizing both outlets but that seems to be unlikely. A peak into the main would answer the question..


Edit: I think I was typing while others were posting. Thanks for the input.

15/20 amp are required to be GFCI protected.
In old campgrounds one 120 volt circuit was brought to pedestal. One breaker for 15/20 amp receptacle nd one breaker for 30 amp receptacle. Good place for finding low voltage!

Well depends on the age of the park! Older parks
May have the pedestal feed by a 30 amp breaker for both circuits. They may have as many as four pedestals fed by a single 70 amp breaker.
Newer parks may have that pedestal fed by a 50 amp breaker, I would say if it only has a 30 and 20 you have less than 50 amps available. Consider cooking and heating water using gas. We do that and use about 7 gallons of propane a month.

every pedestal I've seen has seperate breakers for each service, 50a, 30A and 20A.

Since the 50A is a 220V service it needs it's own breaker, And I think it would be a code violation to have a 30a breaker for a 20A or 15A plug. I know code does allow a 20A breaker for 15A plugs, but I don't think it allows a 30A breaker for a 20A plug.

so, you should have a total of 50A available.

If the rate you paid allowed 30 amp service, to use both the 30 amp and 20 amp plugs isn’t right IMO.

The main will be 200 to 400 amps and feed the whole string. If you pull more than 30 amps total nothing will happen at the main. Review the campground rules as they may have restrictions.

20 amp should have a separate breaker then the 30 amp receptacle. So yes, if separate breakers you in theory have fifty amps at 120 volts to your rig,
Newer pedestals have a 120/240 volt circuit run to them. Many installation use a tap rule to come off as high as a 200 amp circuit from main panel. Several pedestals are then connected from one feeder circuit.