Electric Heater Question

rbpru wrote:
If I recall properly, a three prong 30 amp plug has a hot blade, a neutral blade and a ground pin. It runs on 120 volts.

So, you have 3600 watts available from the shore plug. Your heater will use up a little less than half.

The idea of using a separate line to the camp ground’s 20 amp outlet is clever as it is a separate line; giving you a total of 50 amp like some of the larger trailers.

However,since the 50 amp plugs can provide 240 volts or two 120 volts, circuits with a common neutral, one must be aware that it may be possible to have one appliance plugged into one side of the 240 line and another plugged into the other side of the 240 line; depending on how the electrical box is wired. This could be an issue if the neutral line opens.

Umm.. the "50A" RV connection actually gives you 100A since it uses both Line1 and Line2 and each "line" is capable of 50A each..

So, a "50A" RV connection has the capability of 12,000W.

Using 30A (3600W) shore cord and one 20A (2400W) extension cord is only 6,000W.

While a electric heater will only use half of the 30A connection you do have other items in the RV which will draw a good bit of wattage. The fridge run on electric will use 275W-325W, the converter will draw some power just to name a few..

The someone decides to plug in a hair drier or use MrCoffee, microwave or any other high draw item and it is all over..

It can be done but you need to be aware of what is running and turn off items in order to share the power..

If I recall properly, a three prong 30 amp plug has a hot blade, a neutral blade and a ground pin. It runs on 120 volts.

So, you have 3600 watts available from the shore plug. Your heater will use up a little less than half.

The idea of using a separate line to the camp ground’s 20 amp outlet is clever as it is a separate line; giving you a total of 50 amp like some of the larger trailers.

However,since the 50 amp plugs can provide 240 volts or two 120 volts, circuits with a common neutral, one must be aware that it may be possible to have one appliance plugged into one side of the 240 line and another plugged into the other side of the 240 line; depending on how the electrical box is wired. This could be an issue if the neutral line opens.

BTW, it's a 30A trailer.

Thanks all. We've been campers for about 1.5 years but always gave up around October. Seems fall or early winter would be the perfect time to camp. Summer here in South Carolina can be brutal. This is why we've picked out the Arctic Fox. Now maybe we won't die of heat stroke around the campfire!

My buddy has the same TT.
You don't have an inverter.
Any space heater will run fine off any of the outlets in the TT while it is plugged in.

On a separate note. watch the wheels that the slide out rolls on. My buddies rollers collapsed into the floor because of the poor mounting method.

Otherwise it's a nice TT - enjoy!

Captain Skippy wrote:
Sorry I wasn't clear. We will not be boon docking. We will run off the park's shore power. Since I haven't taken possession of the camper I'm not sure if it is a 30 or 50 amp,system.

If you skimp a bit on electrical appliances you should be able to use an electric heater on 30A. To do so, you would need to make sure the electric heating element on the water heater is turned off (if equipped)or any other high draw items.

If you trip the parks shore power on 30A then just run an extension cord out to the park's panel and plug that into a available 15A/20A outlet (some parks only have 30A/50A so you might need some adapters to get the connection you need) and run the heater off that. Do make sure you use a decent cord for this usage, 14ga would be a good start.

Read the rules of the park, some do not allow the use of electric heaters so they might notice that extra extension cord..

I think he means convertor not inverter. But we don't KNOW that unless he tells us

Sorry I wasn't clear. We will not be boon docking. We will run off the park's shore power. Since I haven't taken possession of the camper I'm not sure if it is a 30 or 50 amp,system.

Captain Skippy wrote:
Tomorrow I'm trading my 2013 Apex 268 for a 2014 Arctic Fox 25p. I'm so stoked. Wife and I want to do winter camping. The question is I'm looking at supplementing the regular heat with an electric heater. It is 1500 watts and pulls 12.5 amps. Most OD the lights in the Fox are LED. Will the heater overload the inverter? I'm in South Carolina so we're talki about temps in the low to mid 20's. Hopefully no colder.
Thanks.

Perhaps you need to give a few more details..

Is the boondocking (IE no commercial power)?

If boondocking running 1500W heater from battery (IE an INVERTER which takes 12V battery and gives output of 120V AC) you will need a considerable battery bank and an inverter which has at least 1500W capacity.

The big limitation is battery capacity and then you must recharge the batteries as soon as possible or risk damaging them (IE they lose capacity when partially or fully discharged and left in that state for any length of time).

If you have shore power then you simply use an extension cord run out to the campground power box to run the heater from..

Are you adding an inverter as I'm not aware of an Arctic Fox 25P having one. Are you confusing it with a converter? If so the heater will not be in anyway connected to the converter. The converters function is to convert 120 volts to 12 volts. The heater will plug into a 120 volt outlet which is no way connected to the 12 volt system.

Hope this helps.