50 amp coach on 30 amp power

Grey Mountain wrote:
We are in Bellevue, Nebraska, and the temps are expected to drop to freezing tomorrow night. I will run propane heat then.

Excellent. That's the way to do it!

If you exceed 30 amps, the breaker at the campground pedestal trips. That's all. Figure out what you can turn off inside your camper to be under the 30 amps, and flip the breaker back on. That's the worst that will happen.

It's called, "power management" ... being aware of how much electricity each item in the camper draws. Never run the air-conditioner and microwave at the same time. Together alone, they are fine. But combined, more than likely the breaker will pop.

Use your water heater on gas. If you use stand alone electric appliances, like space heaters, toasters, hair dryers, it's best to run a separate extension cord from the campground post inside the camper, plugged into the 20 amp plug (household plug), so those high energy items won't pull from the 30 amps available for your camper.

Just this last week-end we popped a breaker inside the camper, and we are 50 amp. We had 1 crock pot, 1 electric griddle, a coffee pot, and a toaster all on one circuit. All that happened was one of the 15 amp breakers inside the camper popped. We didn't realize all those plugs were on the same circuit. Now we know, and will never plug in that much at one time again.

Simple... easy-peasy, no damage, just learn from it.

It is not cold enough to use either the propane-driven furnace of the electric heat pumps. I use the small electric heater to break the morning chill, then turn it off. We are in Bellevue, Nebraska, and the temps are expected to drop to freezing tomorrow night. I will run propane heat then.
Only draw we have is the coffee pot and my wife's tea kettle.
OUrs is a 2006 Fleetwood Discovery, as my signature line states.

GM

Just think back to when you had a 30A rig, and do the same as you did then.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Some of what happens may depend on how your 50A to 30A adapter/cord is wired. There are two choices.

• It may be wired so that one "leg" is completely ignored. If wired this way one of your AC and possibly some of your outlets will not work
• If both legs are wired together, the worst case is that you will trip the breaker at the pedestal. You might even be able to run both AC units simultaneously (as long as they don't start simultaneously) or run both of your heaters

I have never seen a 30 male to 50 female where the one hot on the 30 was only wired to ONE hot on the 50 amp side.

Said another way, a "proper" 30 to 50 always connects the single hot on the 30 amp male end to both hots on the 50 amp female end.

Would love to see a link to one wired any other way!

Some of what happens may depend on how your 50A to 30A adapter/cord is wired. There are two choices.

• It may be wired so that one "leg" is completely ignored. If wired this way one of your AC and possibly some of your outlets will not work
• If both legs are wired together, the worst case is that you will trip the breaker at the pedestal. You might even be able to run both AC units simultaneously (as long as they don't start simultaneously) or run both of your heaters

Heater is probably 12 amps not 15. I agree it would help to run what you can on propane or you could be in the dark. If you do choose to run near the max keep an eye on the 50/30 adapter as they are known to overheat if the connection is less than perfect.

Simple answer is it will trip the park breaker but will not harm anything. Just reset the breaker and remember what you were using at the time and don’t use that combination any more.

"YOU" choose what you use by watching amps used for each item on your meter. Don't exceed 30A and all is well.

You don't say what coach you have. Ours is a 50a that runs fine on 30a. We have a system that sheds loads as other components need electricity. An example is the A/C's. Only one will run at a time when shedding. Our coach is a 2015, if yours is newish check to make sure you don't have load shedding. Other than that you will quickly learn what combination trips the breaker. We have all our electic items labeled with how much each takes. We bought a Kill-A-Watt and measured everything.