30amp to 15amp

That's the most inaccurate and dangerous meter I've ever (tried) to use -- and I've had two of them. Off 10-15 volts and one shorted out internally with a bang.

-- Chuck

RoyB covered my only real comment...use the dogbone style adapter. Everytime I've used the small ones, they got pretty hot. Spend the extra few $$ and do it right.

Have to do that all the time when we camp at my parents farm. Learned that I cannot run the a/c with anything else on. If it is hot out we keep all the windows open and an hour or two before bed time I will close it all up and shut everything off then kick on the a/c to cool it down. Don't know if I could do that now with our new TT as it has a much bigger a/c unit than our old HTT did. We still plug in to 15amp at home to chill the fridge down before a trip.

My trailer stays plugged in at home from the first trip of the season to the last. It's plugged into a regular outlet in the shed by my driveway. I just use a 20 foot extension cord and an adapter.

I keep my refrigerator on auto all season so that when I unplug to go camping it switches over to propane for the road. Makes for a lot less packing since there is always stuff in the fridge and when I shop for a trip, the cold stuff goes right from the truck to the camper without ever going inside the house :-)

Ray

My 50 amp 5th wheel stays plugged in to a 15 amp outlet year round when not being used. No problem.
Except it will trip the breaker trying to run the AC.

RoyB wrote:
I plug my RV30A-15A adapter into a good condition garage 120VAC receptacle or to a heavy duty 10 gauge (10-3) 50-foot extension cord running out to my trailer. Make sure all three conductors are used... You can most likely get by with a 12 GAUGE (12-3) extension cord but I would not not use any of the 14-GAUGE or smaller that you find at most stores like Walmart/Lowes (Red Orange colored ones) - they are too small and will create a voltage drop on your trailer end.. I use this style of RV30A-15A "DOGBONE" type adapter available from WALMART
Roy Ken

Wow...thanks for all that information! I'll need to go get a better extension cord..

I plug my RV30A-15A adapter into a good condition garage 120VAC receptacle or to a heavy duty 10 gauge (10-3) 50-foot extension cord running out to my trailer. Make sure all three conductors are used... You can most likely get by with a 12 GAUGE (12-3) extension cord but I would not not use any of the 14-GAUGE or smaller that you find at most stores like Walmart/Lowes (Red Orange colored ones) - they are too small and will create a voltage drop on your trailer end.. I use this style of RV30A-15A "DOGBONE" type adapter available from WALMART


I did not have any luck what-so-ever using the small round type RV30A-15A adapters that look like this. They would eventually get hot on me because of poor connections and could do damage to your 30A Shore Power cable plug.


You do not want your shore power cable plug to end up like this.


On my trailer end I use one of these RV120VAC PLUG-IN VOLTMETER that has the safe zone displayed in "GREEN". When we want to turn on the air conditioner we always just glance over at the voltmeter to make sure the voltage is in the GREEN safe zone area on the meter...


We can use everything in our trailer using this hookup including the air conditioner and high wattage microwave etc. The only drawback is you can only use one high wattage appliance at a time otherwise it will trip your garage breaker.

I have two trailers at my location hooked up in this fashion on separate 120VAC 15/20A circuits in my garage for the past five years. Great for keeping my batteries topped off, getting ready for trips, and we also camp in them in the back yard all the time. The fridge becomes a second fridge for the wife in the house. Great getaway to watch some Cowboys or NASCAR Junior...

Roy Ken

Worst that could happen would be blowing the fuse/popping the breaker. It is possible to run the AC ONLY on 15 amps, but if your converter is trying to recharge the battery, that would likely overload the circuit and pop the breaker when the AC kicked on. Charging the battery, even with a few lights on, though, no problem.

robsouth wrote:
It is safe and people do it all the time. You might need to have your battery fully charged to move the slide out. Most slides depend on the battery regardless of where the camper is plugged into 30 amp pole or not.

Thanks. I thought it would be ok, but never hurts to make sure. I'll ask about the health of the battery when I pick it up from CW today. Just add it to the list of questions I have.

It is safe and people do it all the time. You might need to have your battery fully charged to move the slide out. Most slides depend on the battery regardless of where the camper is plugged into 30 amp pole or not.