50amp outlet in the garage

smkettner wrote:
If you are pulling new wire and installing a new breaker and outlet....
why would connecting a ground in the main panel be difficult?

My thought too.

I think maybe he thinks that he needs an earth ground AT the outlet too.....which is NOT the case. It gets there through the wiring only.

If you are pulling new wire and installing a new breaker and outlet....
why would connecting a ground in the main panel be difficult?

The grounding for the RV trailers is done back at the source. There is no need to add a ground rod at the trailer...

This is a typical campground pedestal wiring configuration for the 50AMP and 30AMP connections...



Notice the EARTH ground connection back at the source shown in GREEN...

If you are melting shore power cables then you must not be using large enough wire size... We are connected to our garage 20AMP SERVICE at home using a 50-foot 10 GAUGE (10-3) contractor grade HD extension cord and using a RV30A-15A long adapter (WALMART) laying in the middle of the back yard where our 30AMP Shore Power Cable is plugged into the long extension cord. We run everything inside the trailer just fine. We do have to watch what is on at the same time like if the Air COnditioner is running and we fire up the hifh wattage microwave it will trip the 20AMP breaker in the garage...

My cable connections are all cool to touch...

Roy Ken

Hi,

You need to explain a little more. Do you have a sub-panel in your garage, and you are attempting to wire in a receptacle for the RV? Or is this your MAIN panel, where the neutral and grounds are both connected to the same bussbar?

If it is a subpanel, then the ground and neutral MUST be separate. However if it is the MAIN Panel, then the ground and white are connected together!

An easy way to check is look at the ground and white wire bussbars. If they have both grounds and whites on the same bussbar, it is a main panel, while any subpanel should be separated.

So if you are at the main, connect both the ground and white wires to the bussbar. If you are in a sub panel, than the white wires all get connected to a white wire bussbar, with a white wire going back to the main panel ground. Your green wire can be connected to the frame of the subpanel, and I there is not one there already, install a grounded bussbar, attached to the bare metal frame of the sub panel, and run a ground wire all the way back to the main panel for grounding reasons only (not a power conductor).

At my uncle's house, I had no choice but to install a ground bussbar in his garage, separated from the house with about 20', and only 2 wires going overhead from the house to the garage, wrapped around a steel cable that served as neutral. So I bought a 6' long copper ground rod from Home Depot, put it in my 1/2" drill, and drove it into the dirt near the panel. It went in with a little pushing and running the dill to break the friction. Then I ran some green wire up to the subpanel, and to a ground buss that I installed there. After that, all the receptacles in his garage where actually grounded! Before they where not.

Good luck,

Fred.

Before everyone starts posting pictures of 50a service, have you familiarized yourself with how that's done?