Electrical upgrades

It sounds like you are not tripping the 30 amp breaker at the pole or inside. Because you asked about adding a breaker, yes I have added breakers in the panel and divided the loads, that might be all you need. You can find breakers at the big home improvement stores.

I run my extension cord from the pedestal to inside the trailer through the same hole that my camper electric cord passes through. From the inside I have easy access to the space where the cord wraps up inside the camper so it's really easy to just pull the cord right on through and I can use it anywhere in the camper that way.

On my previous camper I ran an extension cord through the window I just popped the screen out slightly and then could pass the extension cord through that way.

On yet another camper I ran an extension cord through the pass-through and it would come out from underneath the bed and then I could put it anywhere inside camper I needed.

stew47 wrote:


Yep certainly good advice. I could break out my ampprobe and get a good idea of the draws. It's also been agravating with breakers tripping because I'm using 2 space heaters to supplement heat and I can use my water heater on gas because the switch is bad. When I get home I'll see where best to run extension cord in. That'll help greatly.

Wattages are normally on a label somewhere on an appliance or sometimes embossed in the plastic body. If you are running space heaters at the same time, you probably don't have a hope in heck of running anything more than one appliance of not much more than 100-200 watts - if you're feeling lucky and have fingers crosses.

Managing power draw in a 30 amp RV is all part of the RV-ing experience and it's a good idea to have all occupants attend the seminar. We've never tripped a 30 amp breaker. We run 2KW of permanently mounted heaters all the time (never need the furnace now) but I made a demand controller that automatically shuts them off when needed so we can have 30 amps for everything else.

Installing an ammeter is a good idea but is not necessarily easy or cheap. I installed an LED amp display near the entry door but if you were to buy an EMS (highly recommended anyway), you can get a remote readout display. I find it's rare that we go much above 15 amps.

A 20 amp inlet can really be anywhere outside and all you need is a long enough ext. cord. Code requires 30 & 50 amp connections to be at the left rear on all RVs but not an issue for a 20 amp one.

Lol 50a 220 extension cords. I could run tons of heaters, coffee pots, welder.

myredracer wrote:

stew47 wrote:
Well the coffee maker, griddle, and toaster keeps tripping breaker.

What wattage are these? At 30 amps you have max. 3600 watts to play with and that includes fridge (300 watts if on electric), converter and anything you have running at the same time.

We run a toaster + coffee maker together all the time, but always cook stuff outside. If you don't have one, a propane quick disconnect is great so you can quickly plug in a BBQ/griddle.

Def. not worth upgrading to 50 amps just for this, plus 50 amps can be extremely difficult to find in a busy CG. If you REALLY want/need more power, a good option is to install a 20 amp power inlet on exterior and plug into the 20 amp GFCI receptacle (which all pedestals have) using a min. #12 gauge ext. cord and #12 romex inside. Then you'd have up 6,000 watts at your disposal. Note that low voltage can significantly reduce the output of appliances with heating elements in them.

Yep certainly good advice. I could break out my ampprobe and get a good idea of the draws. It's also been agravating with breakers tripping because I'm using 2 space heaters to supplement heat and I can use my water heater on gas because the switch is bad. When I get home I'll see where best to run extension cord in. That'll help greatly.

I installed a digital ammeter (< $20/eBay) so my wife can watch the load and turn things in the kitchen on and off so we dont overload. It really isn't any trouble to turn off the coffee maker while we make waffles or run the micro.
We've also done as Dutchman Sport suggested and ran another cord through an inlet to the pedestal to run our water heater.

stew47 wrote:
Well the coffee maker, griddle, and toaster keeps tripping breaker.

What wattage are these? At 30 amps you have max. 3600 watts to play with and that includes fridge (300 watts if on electric), converter and anything you have running at the same time.

We run a toaster + coffee maker together all the time, but always cook stuff outside. If you don't have one, a propane quick disconnect is great so you can quickly plug in a BBQ/griddle.

Def. not worth upgrading to 50 amps just for this, plus 50 amps can be extremely difficult to find in a busy CG. If you REALLY want/need more power, a good option is to install a 20 amp power inlet on exterior and plug into the 20 amp GFCI receptacle (which all pedestals have) using a min. #12 gauge ext. cord and #12 romex inside. Then you'd have up 6,000 watts at your disposal. Note that low voltage can significantly reduce the output of appliances with heating elements in them.

i used to be an industrial electrician. I could change everything over to 220 pretty easily and relatively in expensively but lol everyone is right. Reduce the load and add an extension cord would be easier. See that's why I post things. Sometimes (meaning most of the time) i over think things.

agesilaus wrote:
50 amp is not 220 VAC. It's 2 30 amp 120 VAC circuits

What!!:h Where in the world did you get this from?

Why not just run a separate extension cord into the camper from the campgorund power post and plug it into the high amp items you use (plug into the normal 15-20 amp household receptical). Simple, no extra wiring, and saves a LOT of money!

I've been doing it this way for several years now. We do a lot of electric griddle or electric skillet cooking and it's done mostly outside. So, it started by running an extension to the campground plug-in and not through the outside plug on the camper. (which almost always popped the breaker inside the camper).

Simple solution, easy to do, and doesn't cost anything.