DIY 50 amp to 20 amp pigtail
I want to plug my tractors block heater into our 50 amp RV service for the upcoming winter months… Our panel has 1 - 50 amp and 2 - 20 amp breakers… both 20 services are taken and currently used ye...
Forum Discussion
KnowNuthin wrote:
I want to plug my tractors block heater into our 50 amp RV service for the upcoming winter months…
Our panel has 1 - 50 amp and 2 - 20 amp breakers… both 20 services are taken and currently used year round… (chicken heat lamps, water bowl heaters etc.)…
What I’m envisioning is a 50 amp plug with a 3 wire pigtail connected to the common, neutral and one hot leg… leaving the second hot leg vacant…
This would give me 120v 50 amp at the pigtail end… no?
This would be used STRICTLY for a 600 watt engine block heater…
Is this a bad, terrible or workable idea?
there is a potential safety/fire issue. I'm going to assume the cord to the block heater is a 12ga cord. Now you hook this up and end up with a low resistance high current draw. The breaker won't trip till it exceeds 50A, so you could end up with 50a through a 12ga cord, NOT a good idea, it would get quite hot, maybe even hot enough to melt the insulation and start a fire.
you want the upstream breaker in this case to be a 15A or 20A breaker.
