50 Amp Plug at Home

[IdaD]

Up until today I've always plugged my 30 amp fifth wheel to a 20 amp circuit down in my shop and it's worked ok on a heavy extension cord. Today it popped the breaker a couple of times with the heat so I started checking out options. Turns out I have 200 amp service at my house. 50 runs to the shop, 50 runs to some hot tub wiring at the back of my house that was out of service (no hot tub) and the other 100 into the house.

So I ran to lowes and spent $30 bucks on a 50 amp RV receptacle and $15 at Wally World on a 50 to 30 adapter. Again since my fifth wheel only has 30 amp service. I already had a bunch of conduit and electrical parts on hand. Two hours later and I'm in business. Normally when I do a project like this it takes a few failures before it goes thru, so this was a nice change. :B

I don't know if I'll ever buy a FW with 50 amp service but it's nice to know I'm set up for it if it does happen.

[Luke_Porter]

ShortbusFlashers wrote:
We have a plug installed on the side of our house also but I dont want to damage the batteries by leaving it plugged in all the time.

It should be OK to plug in all of the time unless you have converter problems.

[IdaD]

No, I won't have it plugged in all the time. The 50 amp plug is on the back of my house and I generally store the fifth wheel back by my shop which is about 250' away. Also when I have the fifth wheel parked up by the house it blocks the driveway that runs to the back of my property, so it can be a little inconvenient. I generally pull the trailer up by the house about a week before a trip to make it easier to load and I'll plug it in when I do that. Or if we have guests staying with us I'll pull it up so they don't have to walk as far to get into the house.

[Cummins12V98]

If you are concerned isolate the batteries. I am plugged in 24/7 and add a small amount of water every couple months.

[ShortbusFlasher]

Do you leave your trailer plugged in all the time or just a couple days before you head out? We have a plug installed on the side of our house also but I dont want to damage the batteries by leaving it plugged in all the time.

[randygk]

Ran an RV park type box with 50/30/20GFCI outlets 160 feet from house sub panel. Let's just say with permit, wire, etc it was a lot more money, but I'm happy with it. Glad to see you do it right.

[RoyB]

This is a typical wiring configuration for a RV 50 Service. As you can see it is two 50AMP HOT legs. This is called a 50A service butin reality it is a 100AMPS service...


google image

You can confirm this by using this chart and a AC VOLTMETER...

DMBRUSS Image

If you use it any other way in a RV setup you will get fireworks...

The two 50A service connections normall feed two zones inthe RV 50A Setup and on some of the high end trailer you can get a 240V circuit to feed a Washer and Dryer combo setup...

The two 50A 120VAC zones is pictured here in this typical pictorial..

google image

If you use a AC VOLTMETER and read across the RED and BLACK ZONES in this pictorial you will read 240VAC potential. Since this is not tapped to be used in most of the 50A Trailers it is no issue. However if you make changes etc you can get into some very hot stuff...

[MFL]

Congrats on the new hookup!! Only two hours, up and running, has to make you wonder why didn't I do this sooner! 🙂

I wired mine from main house service, in lower utility room. I ran 75' to box on side of attached garage. It took me all day, but got her did!! Oh ya, and on the first try also!

Jerry

[Cummins12V98]

Nice to hear someone thinking beyond the end of their nose, good job!

[MudChucker]

I made up a dogbone to plug my various rv's into a 60 amp Welder socket in the shop years ago.

I made a 30 and a 50.

Nice to be able to work in the rv with the ac running.