Pulling more than 50 amps ?
Our park electrician says that some of the big rigs with 3 ACs and electric everything can sometimes draw more than 50A from a 50A pedestal. Truth or BS?
Forum Discussion
BurbMan wrote:dougrainer wrote:
BTW, I would keep that Idiot away from my Campsite and RV. Doug
Huh? You just agreed with him now he's an idiot?
Yeah, that made no sense to me. The electrician is absolutely correct that a large all electric RV could possibly pull over 50 amps from either leg of the 50 amp park service and trip that 50 amp 240 vac two pole ganged breaker. (And it has to be a ganged breaker since it is a split phase system and has a common neutral.) An EMS might prevent it. I don’t know. But without an EMS there is nothing to limit the current flow but the circuit breaker itself. And perfectly balanced, the RV could pull 50 amps on both legs of the 50 amp service for a total of 100 amps and still not trip the park breaker unless manufacturing tolerance variations set the breaker trip point slightly below the breaker rating. And that would be minimal. Inversely, it could even be higher than the labeled rating due to those same tolerances. And you can talk about it in amps (pure current flow) or in watts (current times volts). Doesn’t matter. In the end it still comes down to the number of amps flowing thru the breaker that trips it.
