30A and 50A electric
When you plug in your 50A or 30A electric at a campground are you plugging into a double pole 240V receptacle or 120V single pole receptacle? My wife and I bought our first trailer and I want to mount...
Forum Discussion
BarabooBob wrote:
... If you don't know the difference between an RV 30 and a 3 prong 240 volt outlet, don't do the work yourself, hire someone. ...
With this, I could not agree any more.
When I ran an outside receptacle for my 30 amp trailer, I found out what kind of wire I needed based on the length I was running. I then did all the pre-wiring. In other words, I ran the wire from the electric panel in the Garage to the opposite side of the garage, in wall, via conduit and everything. I purchased an exterior 30 amp RV outlet box and even mounted it myself.
I then called an electrician who actually did the wire hook-ups at both ends, and he provided the 30 amp breaker for my main breaker box. Total cost for the electrician, including the breaker was less than $100. Of course, I paid for the materials separate and set everything upu myself. I just felt better doing it this way.
Fast forward about 4 more years and I decided to add a second 30 amp receptacle at a different location. 30 amp is 30 amp. I used the existing wiring pattern that different line ran, which actually went to a basketball goal that had been removed, but still had an active plug right there. I got the heavier wire, and was able to kill the power to the junction (yes, junction box), and just swapped out the wires from the old basket ball plug to the new RV wires. The new RV wires only had to run about 18 inches where I mounted the receptacle. Total cost for that work was about $120, which included the breaker inside the RV receptacle box and about 3 feet of wire from Lowe's.
My suggestion is, run the wire yourself. If that mean feeding it through the walls or burying it under ground, string the wire yourself. Then hire an electrician to do the final hook-ups. Just make sure you start with the wire you need for 50 amp or 30 amp. But, If I could have done it over, knowing what I know now, I would have just gone ahead and installed 50 amps and used the 50-30 adaptor on my 30 amp trailer. We keep talking about getting a front living room (new) 5er, which will be 50 amp, and we use the camper all summer at home. We'd need the 50 amp service.
