20 amp service question

[shug23]

I am going on my first RV trip (and am a novice). The site we are going to has 20 amp service. Our RV is 18 foot with air, microwave, refrigerator and gas. What kind of issues should I expect and are there work arounds ? Thanks for any advice to a newbie

[Clay1969]

My camper does fine hooked up to the 20 amp outlet in my garage. I use the 30/20 amp adapter with a 12ga extension. The extension starts to get a little warm after running the a/c for any extended period of time, but otherwise it's okay. I learned on my "walk-thru" at the dealership that only one high draw appliance will run on 20 amp, although it's not recommended to run anything that draws a lot of current on 20 amps.

[Gsturner]

Yup. As I'm reading this, sitting in RV in my side yard getting ready for MN trip. AC running cuz its so freaking hot. Decide to nuke my dinner in the RV rather than the house (which is equally hot--no AC available). Got about a minute in--oops! Walked into house, reset 20A breaker, shut off AC, reset microwave, finished cooking, turned AC back on, typing this response as dinner cools. Just gotta remember to take turns with stuff!

[DutchmenSport]

Funny thing happened on a recent campout. For breakfast, I wanted to run an electric flat griddle and an electric skillet at the same time. And oh, the air conditioner was on, and the water heater was on electric, and we had 2 televisions running and the satellite dish receiver, and a couple fans. I'm on a 30 amp service with a 30 amp plug with a trailer designed for 30 amps.

Well, as soon as I turned on that one last light, poof! Out she went! I knew I pulled too much amp draw. No problem. Shut stuff off, and go to the electric post and flip the breaker. Breaker not tripped.

No problem, it must have been my surge protector. Nope, it takes about 2 minutes for it to reset, and it wasn't tripped. Enough time had not passed to reset yet. So I'm thinking, "What the heck!"

So went inside the camper and checked the converter and all the AC breakers there. Nothing tripped. Then I noticed the main breaker on the power supply converter ... tripped!

Kind of funny that the trailer main breaker flipped first before the surge protector and the breaker at the post. I guess my camper is well protected.

To the OP, you can comfortably camp on a 20 amp. The most that will happen is the breaker will pop (somewhere). Just turn something off, reset the breaker and use one heavy-hitter item at a time. You'll have a great week-end!

[2oldman]

pugslyyy wrote:
all trying to start up at the same time will trip the breaker in short order.

Yah, and possibly burn up the cord/plugs.

[pugslyyy]

ScottG wrote:
An easy way to look at it is you can run one large load at a time. So either the AC, Water heater, micro, etc. but no two of these at once.

Yep, good advice. 20Amp will do fine for you, you are just going to have to think about it a bit more than 30Amp.

Even with 30Amp I have to be careful - everything tends to draw a big load when you first plug in and I find that
1. Charger in Bulk Mode
2. Water Heater
3. Refrigerator
4. Air Conditioner
all trying to start up at the same time will trip the breaker in short order.

I usually let the charger run for a bit until the load drops down on it, then let the water heater get going, and then finally crank the AC. YMMV.

[ScottG]

An easy way to look at it is you can run one large load at a time. So either the AC, Water heater, micro, etc. but no two of these at once.

[dadmomh]

You'd be better off with a 30 amp, but since 20 is it for this trip you can make it work. If you're running the A/C, keep lights to a bare minimum. If you use the microwave or a coffee maker/hair dryer/similar, shut off the air until you're done. Guarantee you'll pop the circuit otherwise.

We have our TT plugged in at home 24/7 on a 20 amp dedicated circuit. It's only for the air + the frig.

If you don't already have one, strongly suggest you make a stop at Lowe's, HD or hardware store for a plug-in volt meter. It's likely less than $10. Plug it into the power pole before you hook up to be sure there is sufficient power coming in. If incoming is good, when you get set up, plug it into a very visible receptacle so you can easily notice any changes. We have had ours since our HTT days and now the TT and on our last trip it was toasty hot and lots of big rigs in the CG drawing a lot of the power. We didn't pop any circuits, but watched it closely as it was getting down close to the red area on the meter. DH got our 50 amp adapter and swapped us to 50 and we were much better. If you see that it's in the red, shut off the A/C. Not enough power coming in can cause big problems with your unit.

For future trips, if possible, get 30 amp. Might also invest in a 50 amp adapter for "just in case" times. Keep it in your storage area.

Happy Camping!

[RoyB]

I do this at my home here with my RV Trailer parked in the back yard.. Everything works just fine just have to watch what I have on at the same time.

The high wattage items like the air conditioner, microwave, Vacuum, etc can only be operated by them self other wise it will trip the breaker.

If you add up all of the wattage rating of what is installed in the 30AMP RV you will find it over the 30AMP RATING. I have tripped the 30AMP breaker at the camp ground pedestals a few time by having too many high wattage appliances on at the same time. Will only be worse when using a 20AMP service.

If the campground pedestal had 20AMP BREAKERS on two separate 20AMP service receptacles I would definitely bring along a 25-foot extension cord and try to run some items in the trailer plugged into the separate extension cord.

Since the RV's at these sites are probably all 30AMP units I would really bet the campground 20AMP circuit breakers are worn completely out. You know everyone that is hooked up is going to trip the 20AMP several times during their stay... The circuit breakers can only be tripped a known number of times.

"Everything was fine until I turned on the ceiling light in the bathroom" hehe...

I don't think I have ever been to a campground with only 20AMP Service. Have been to a few over-night pull-off areas that had 20AMP service available.

You can pick up a RV30A-15A Adapter at WALMART. I also saw a RV50A-30A adapter there last time I was looking. Chaining all of these together will allow you to plug your 50AMP Shore Power cable into the 20AMP Service receptacle.

Roy Ken

[midnightsadie]

20amps can do a lot, heres a tip ,your ac will pull that on start up ,so you can only run one thing at a time and a few lites the micro and ac will not run at the same time, things that pull high amps are your AC,, micro,, hair dryer,,water heater . use those one at a time ,tv radio,,lights pull little amps . we have a small mh and wife and daughter servive just fine on 20 amps . use your propane for the water heater, we don,t leave it on all the time just high use time. have fun learn where your breaker panel is ,and the breakers on the post.

[HappyKayakers]

Your RV probably has a 30 amp power cord so the first thing you'll need is an adapter. Once you're set up on the site, you'll need to be cognizant of your electric load. You won't be able to run the AC and microwave at the same time. Same goes for any high draw items like coffee maker, hair dryer, toaster, etc. If you try to run too many items, you'll trip the circuit breaker at the pedestal.

[downtheroad]

You won't be able to run your A/C and much else (electric) at the same time. No problem with anything gas.
Have a good trip...and welcome to the Forum.