"cheater" plugs

Been around for years yes they work

It will not work when the pedestal is equipped with a GFCI 20 amp outlet or breaker as they all should be. When it does work, of course you don't get a true 50 amp connection with a 50 amp capacity on each leg. Instead, you get one 30 amp leg and one 20 amp leg. That's better than a single 30 amp connection though if the loads happen to work out that way.

Yes they will give you 50A total.........

One hot leg will have 30A ability and other leg will have 20A ability

Won't work if 20A is a GFCI or if 30A and 20A are on same circuit

2 Retired wrote:
Saw an ad for a "cheater plug" that supposedly uses an adapter that allows 50 amp service to be obtained by plugging one 30 and one 20 amp plug at the same time. Plug rig's 50 amp plug into one end, and other end has 1 30 amp and 1 20 amp plug to be put into pedestal at campsite. Anyone know if this can actually do as advertised? I'm skeptical.

Presumably you understand that so-called "50 amp service" is really 100 amp service because it's 50 amps per leg across two legs for a total service of 12,000 watts whereas 30 amp service is 30 amps across one leg for a total service of just 3600 watts. Use this cheater and you'd have up to 6000 watts available, half that offered by "50 amp service".

You won't be able to run everything, but you will have power to everything in the RV at least.

newman fulltimer wrote:
Been around for years yes they work

Correction: Yes they work.. IN very few places.

The problem is the electrical code, In most parks today the 20 amp outlet is GFCI protected and in some cases so is the 30 amp.

These devices will not work if one, or both, outlets are GFCI.

I have one, I have used it (Successfuly) in only 2 places.

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.

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

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

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.