GETTING POWER TO TRAILER

[rhartman911]

Hello my wife and I will be staying in are 26' 5th wheel until we get are manufactured house put in aorox 4 Mo. The closet I can get to the power is 40' so my question is what setup should I go with its winter time so I don't think will be using the air con will probably use a small oil type heater that plugs in to heat the place to cut down on the propane cost
1.) I was thinking of using a 10/2 extension cord type wire its weather and chemical resistant/30amp 110 breaker
2.) Or should I run 10/2 outside/direct buried wire /30amp 110 breaker
Both ways will cost about the same and it will only be temporary any advise would be helpful

[westend]

As I understand this, the OP is wishing to power his 5'er. temporarily, from his FIL's existing service panel. The distance from house to 5'er is 40'.

One conundrum:You shouldn't pigtail in any service through the front of the service panel for that amount of time. It's a safety issue. If you want a new 30 amp receptacle, you'll have to gain access to the top, bottom, or sides of the load center. The simplest solution is to pull wire from the bottom and locate a new 30 amp receptacle in that location. If you don't know how to do this without affecting the integrity of the load center, have an electrician do it.

Your other choice is to connect multiple 20 amp or 15 amp cords to receptacles in the FIL's house. Invariably, that will be a PITA.

For connection to the 5'er, I would choose a good 30 amp extension cord. You don't want to make this the Manhattan project for the FIL (or any one else, for that matter).

[Veebyes]

If you are even thinking of having a permanent supply to that location upgrade it from the begining for the day you get a 50amp trailer.

If this is just a temporary thing & the spot will not be the regular parking spot get the 30amp extension cords. They will come in handy again someday somewhere.

[wa8yxm]

One word of caution though.... IF you are having a professional put in the outlet for this make sure he understands it is 120 volt and MEASURE it before you plug in (or have him measure it)

Or better yet, if having a pro do it IF you plan on leaving the outlet in place (A good idea if it is where it can be done) after house is built.. have him put in a 50 to start with and use a dog bone to connect.

Well. the cost of 50/30 now is not that much, but the cost of upgrading to 50 later... If you put in a 30 now, is great, but if you put in a 50 now, it is zero.

[Ole_Man_Dan]

I got an Electrician buddy to help me run a 30A service near my RV.
Cost me a Steak dinner... I would have pd., but I enjoy his and his wifes company.
Afterward they bought a Class C and started camping.

[wa8yxm]

Ok, then go to a RV dealer.. My primary 30 amp extension cord has since been converted into my primary 30 amp cord.. It is plastic wrapped, not rubber, it's bright red as I recall, not black, and it's very easy to wrangle when the mercury is ... Where it's been the last few weeks, they synthetic jacket does not get "HARD" like the rubber cords do when it gets cold... What can I say.

OF course this being a 50 amp rig I have a 50 amp cord too,, both of 'em have Marinco 50 amp outlet ends.

But that said.. I will modify my suggestion.

If you want to put in a permanent parkign spot for the RV, one that you will still be using years from now. Go with 8/3 Underground feeder wire and a pedistal. YES 8/3 to cut down on the voltage drop.

If you do not plan on making that the forever site for your RV

Go with the standard 30 amp extension cord from a reliable RV source and the ones from Wal-mart should be good.. just weather resist the joint as I described above.

[Bucky_Badger]

enblethen wrote:
By the time you buy the cord and then the correct 30 TT cord bodies you can buy a ready-made cord at Walmart. Not to mention your time!

You get what you pay for
I would rather have a good rubber cord than a crappy piece of plastic

[enblethen]

By the time you buy the cord and then the correct 30 TT cord bodies you can buy a ready-made cord at Walmart. Not to mention your time!

[Bucky_Badger]

If this were mine, I would measure what I needed, Go to home depot, have them cut me x feet of 10-3 sjoow and put the correct ends on it. After the house is built, i'd probably make a long and a short extension cord out of it.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-10-3-SJOOW-Black-300V-By-the-Foot-55812599/204633009

[wa8yxm]

rhartman911 wrote:
.
The worker at Homedepot said I could not run my RV off of an extension cord like that because I will lose voltage drop at 40'

When the worker at Home Depot hears "Extension cord" he thinks about the 16Ga jobs they sell in the extension cord isle.. He does not know nor has he ever (in all likelyhood) seen an extension cord rated for 30 amp RV use such as you'd find at Camping World or ____'s RV sales and service.

We are talking about that kind of cord, I has TT-30 Plug and socket not the standard wall type socket and plug, And it is SPECIFICALLY designed to supply an RV over that distance. In fact, it is heavier than what the HomeDepot guy suggested. So it is the better deal.

One suggestion: Unless you are doing it yourself and KNOW what you are doing (As I did) When the House builder's electrican puts in that 30 amp outlet for you do two things.

1: Confirm it has SINGLE 120 volt breaker, (Ok the breaker can be rated higher but make sure it is a single not a dual ganged or a wide single that takes up two slots).

2: METER the outlet to insure it is 120 and not 240 volt before you plug in.

Once that's done LABEL IT (Brother P-touch or commercial "Badge maker" engraved plastic): 120 volt 30 amp RV

[Campinghoss]

We used a standard RV cord with water proof outlet box when our home was being built. I also had a 100 lb lp cylinder brought in and hooked to our fiver. We lived in it from July to January running a/c with no problems.

[Broccoli1]

rhartman,

just an FYI- when discussing wire- direct bury or what is used in a wall to wire up a receptacle the Ground wire is not counted so 10/2 WIRE actually has 3 wires.

CORD- i.e. extension cord all of the wires are counted so a 10/2 cord will only have 2 wires in it.

10/3 cord= 3 wires

As mentioned - you can get use a ready made RV 30amp extension cord for your application.

[ferretgrandpa]

When I am on shore power at home, I run about 55' (25+30) of RV extension cords. Voltage drop is not noticeable, usually in the .1 volt range.
I tape the adjoining plugs to make weather tight, and put the plugs above ground, on a 7" box I have. I also have a bunch of swimming noodles that are split so I can put on the cords, to make them more visible.

[enblethen]

Properly sized extension cord is OK. There is nothing wrong with this type of installation.
It must be three wire and not two wire.
Get a standard thirty amp RV cord.
I would install an RV 30 TT receptacle under the service panel so you will not be using any adapters.
I would install a standard 15/20 amp GFCI receptacle under the panel as well.

[rhartman911]

The 5er is a 30amp and I will be tapping right off of the main house's 200amp service panel. The short story is we are moving next to my father inlaw on a medical hardship permit and having a manufactured home brought in so I was going to just run the 10/2 wire right out of the service panel (on it's own 110 30 amp breaker)over to the trailer and then after everything is done just disconnect the wire from service panel and then I will have a nice extension RV cord.
The worker at Homedepot said I could not run my RV off of an extension cord like that because I will lose voltage drop at 40' so I would need to use direct bury wire and if it's on top of the ground I would need to sleeve the wire with electrical pvc conduit. The only thing I don't like is I will need to come out of the front of the service panel because it's recessed into the wall unless I drill holes into the wall of the house to snake wire into electrical service box
Again thank you everyone with all the help this forum has help me so many times