"cheater" plugs

Thanks for the input. Thought it wasn't a good idea, and your posts confirm.

There is nothing wrong with having 2 GFCIs in series for safety or technical reasons. The only that will happen is when there is a ground fault, you can't predict which one will trip. Lots of info. on the internet about this. A good source is the mike holt electrical forum (for electricians, engineers, etc.). If the pedestal GFI trips, it could be due to leakage current in the shore power cord and/or the 20 amp GFCI is old and tired.

One downside could be increased voltage drop depending on how the pedestal is wired from it's supply source. If there's only one 30 and 20 amp on a pedestal in an older CG, it's likely fed by only a 120 volt 30 amp feeder as the NEC only allowed for a demand factor of 3600 watts for a 30/20 amp pedestal, thus a 30 amp feeder. Drawing 50 amps could cause a significant voltage drop. Nowadays pedestals are usually loop-fed with a heavy feeder (like 200 or 300 amps) and much less likely to be an issue. And as westernrvparkowner said, you could trip a 30 amp breaker back at the distribution panel that you have no access to.

The first thing I would do is measure the voltage at the pedestal. If it's rather low to start with, it's only going to get worse, and maybe a lot worse. Keep in mind too, that if running an AC unit in the summer and the voltage goes down, you'll draw even more current and that adapter may not help at all. Don't want to damage the AC either. Isn't one reason to have a 50 amp service to run a 2nd AC? How's that going to work with that adapter?

I wouldn't doing this sort of thing without an EMS. As mentioned, I think it's better to into load management mode. A generator would be a good thing to have for some situations if you have the space and $$ for one.

If you're heading to an older and unfamiliar CG, you just don't know what you'll find. The photo is from one of our trips last year. They had removed the 20 amp recept's. plus the pedestals were downright scary looking. They were all like that. We were at another older CG this year and the pedestal was 106 volts before even plugging in (plus had an open ground). The EMS kept tripping and we had to try 2 more sites to get usable voltage. No way this adapter would have worked at either CG.

A few years ago I read a post about a guy who called himself and electrician was going to make up his own home brew adapter to be able to plug into 3-4 adjacent pedestals to make up a 50 amp service. Despite everyone saying no, he was adamant it would work. Wish I could find the post...

I have had one for years. Got to use it once. Not very useful for the high cost. Almost all places we visit now (State Parks) have GFCI which kills it's usefulness. Shame, it worked slick before.

Unless you know for sure you will be able to use it, don't spend the money.

Good thing is many State Parks here are adding 50 amp, and we often get 50 amp service when we visit.

Charlie D. wrote:

I may be missing something but I have never seen a breaker box with 2 30 amp receptacles. Wouldn't that be necessary foe that adapter to work?

Been is several CGs, usually ones that don;t have full hook ups but rather a 'Gang Box' with 4 30A receptacles.
Each rig backs in like the points on a map with power box in middle.

If 3 or less parked 1 RV could plug into 2 of the 30A receptacles.

Otherwise you could use a 30A to 15A adapter and use 30A & 15A receptacles provided the other issues didn't exist (GFCI/same circuit etc)

RoyB wrote:
This is a special adapter that connects two 30 amp outlets to a 50 amp outlet. By using adapters, 15 amp outlets can also be used. If two 30 amp outlets are used, you could get up to 60 total amps into you 50 amp service RV. This is not the normal 100 amps capability but better than only 30 amps.

Please NOTE the two two HOT pins will be feeding separate legs on the RV two separae 50AMP Electric ZONES in the trailer.



Like mentioned above you can use an adapter on one of the 30A MALE PLUS to adapt to the 20AMP Service plug.

You can find sources on-line for a molded version cheater cord like shown here...




As long as the rules are followed by keeping both HOT wires separated this idea is safe to use...

What you don't want to ever happen is having one MALE side plugged into a power source and it presents AC power to the unplugged MALE SIDE plug. This would be a dangerous situation. There should not be a way for this happen with a proper setup using the two 50-AMP SEPARATE ZONES in the RV 50AMP Distribution panel.

Usually speaking if you can order one from a well known suppplier like AMAZON it will be safe to use... Ordering one from home made EBAY source might be risky...

Roy Ken

I may be missing something but I have never seen a breaker box with 2 30 amp receptacles. Wouldn't that be necessary foe that adapter to work?

I don't like these cheaters, and frankly I'm a bit surprised they're sold on the open market. They have a number of problems, mostly related to the necessity of tying the neutrals together.

First, they quite properly trip any ground fault circuit interrupter they're plugged into. This precludes their use in a great many places to start with, as the 20A outlet is required by the current electric code to be GFCI protected.

Second, if there's a miswired outlet with incorrect polarity (neutral and hot swapped), they produce a short circuit. Hopefully there's a good circuit breaker in the system—and it's on the actual hot lead, not the putative hot lead.

Third, if there's an open neutral in one of the outlets and they're both wired to the same leg, the system works properly, but the remaining neutral is overloaded, potentially quite substantially.

Finally, if you happen to have any 240V loads in your coach and one of the sides is unplugged, the male plug will be hot. 240V loads are not at all common in RVs, so this isn't very likely in practice; indeed, most 50A RV electric panels aren't configured to even be able to have a 240V load.

We have one, only used it in an older campground in Florida a number of years ago. Did the trick for us then, have not had a need for it since.

This is a special adapter that connects two 30 amp outlets to a 50 amp outlet. By using adapters, 15 amp outlets can also be used. If two 30 amp outlets are used, you could get up to 60 total amps into you 50 amp service RV. This is not the normal 100 amps capability but better than only 30 amps.

Please NOTE the two two HOT pins will be feeding separate legs on the RV two separae 50AMP Electric ZONES in the trailer.



Like mentioned above you can use an adapter on one of the 30A MALE PLUS to adapt to the 20AMP Service plug.

You can find sources on-line for a molded version cheater cord like shown here...



As long as the rules are followed by keeping both HOT wires separated this idea is safe to use...

What you don't want to ever happen is having one MALE side plugged into a power source and it presents AC power to the unplugged MALE SIDE plug. This would be a dangerous situation. There should not be a way for this happen with a proper setup using the two 50-AMP SEPARATE ZONES in the RV 50AMP Distribution panel.

Usually speaking if you can order one from a well known suppplier like AMAZON it will be safe to use... Ordering one from home made EBAY source might be risky...

Roy Ken

Just get a 30/50 adapter and watch your power usage.
Everything still works... just not all at once.

Two other problems. One, the pedestal is likely not wired with both legs of the electrical service. This means that any energy management system in your rv will only see 120 volts when it measures the voltage across the two lines that feed the distribution system. The management system's programming then act as if the system is connected to a 30 amp service and will run all your electrical systems accordingly. Then there is also a very good possibility that the 30 amp breaker and the 20 amp breaker are either tied together or the pedestal is wired back to the distribution panel and is protected by a 30 amp breaker there as well as at the pedestal. So even if neither breaker in the box is tripped, you may very well trip a breaker at the distribution panel, and you probably don't have access to that breaker to turn it back on.
Those cheaters are generally not very useful.