You may not need a 50-30 amp adapter often, but when you do, you really need one! For the minimal cost, keep one in your stash of other just-in-case & spare RV stuff.
30 amp recepts. in pedestals can often be well used and abused, as noted above already. Sometimes even blackened and crispy looking and bad enough that you shouldn't even use it. If the 30 amp recept. looks questionable and there's a 50 amp in the pedestal, use the adapter and don't think twice about it. A poor connection can lead to heat and possibly a meltdown.
Voltage is a common problem, especially in older CGs and in the heat of the summer. Low voltage will damage AC units if it gets low enough. Never run AC units below 104-105 volts. 50 amp pedestals in older CGs are more likely to have better voltage. If you can find a 50 amp pedestal when arriving at a CG, it may be a good idea to use that site.
Note that 50 amp pedestals can be hard to find, depending on the type of CGs you visit. Prior to 2005, the NEC only required 5% of RV parks to have 50 amp pedestals and then it was changed to 20%. In the 2017 edition it was changed to 40% which is a good move due to all the 50 amp RVs these days except not many new CGs get built. Some CGs/RV parks may have built above min. code requirements but most have not.
Have seen some CGs that have 4 pedestals grouped together for 4 sites and 2 were 30 amps and 2 were 50 amps. Can be interesting when figuring out who gets what.
We use our 50-30 amp adapter a couple of times a year. We even have a 30-30 amp pigtail adapter for the times a pedestal is in such bad shape it really shouldn't be used but there's no other option except for going to another CG. If it does overheat, hopefully only the adapter is lost. Below is the worst pedestal I've seen to date. I had to use a stick to prevent the plug from falling out. The entire CG of 300+ sites was like that. They had even removed all the 20 amp breakers & recepts. (illegally). Not a single 50 amp pedestal in the entire CG so couldn't move to a better site. And to think we paid thousands of $$ to become members of their CG org. in WA state only to find this sort of thing. (Ended up selling out.)
