Electrical hook up question

[jbealecass]

I am ashamed to say that we have been camping in three different TTs for the last 20 years but I am still unsure of the various electrical choices at the typical campground.
We have a small 19 ft TT currently. Should we choose 20 amp, 30 amp?
We can never run our air conditioner without everything shutting down.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[Nvr2loud]

myredracer wrote:
30 amp seems like the only way to go. If for some reason there are no 30 amp pedestals at a cg, all you need to do is use a 30 to 15 amp adapter on the end of the 30A cord and go into energy conservation mode. At home you just need to use the same adapter to keep your unit plugged in if you want.

If using a 20 amp receptacle, you really should be using a 20 amp rated #12 gauge extension cord to the source but I doubt many, if any would in a cg. As long as you plug just one appliance like a toaster or coffee maker in, you'd be okay, but if you were trying to plug in more than that in your trailer, you could end up burning up a 15 amp cord. Many extension cords for 15 amps are only 16 gauge (15A = #14 ga.) and not capable of a continuous 15 amp load.

However, if the 20 amp breaker in the pedestal is GFCI, which many (most or all?) are and you have a GCI receptacle in your trailer, the two won't work together in series. You can find info. on this by googling such as:

GFCI on pedestal

But what RV has a 20 amp service in them?

Related tip: Never plug your cord into the pedestal unless the breaker is turned off. The converter inrush current will cause pitting on the contacts eventually leading to resistance high enough to burn out a plug or receptacle. You can hear a snap, crackle, pop when you plug in live and in the dark, also a flash. That's why you'll often find a pedestal breaker turned off when you get there.

Thanks for the tip about turning the breaker off before plugging in, I never considered that before.

To add to your post... I had a plastic burning smell last trip out while the A/C was running at the same time as a heated blanket (yes I get the irony in that) I shut-down the A/C and opened the windows and left the blanket running for my wife. The smell was still there. I turned off her blanket and went to bed. Middle of the night, burning smell again. The only load should have been the fridge and the battery charger. I found the fuse box very hot to the touch. I unplugged the shore power and disconnected the battery positive in the middle of the night. After driving home I took the fuse box apart and found the entire neutral bar destroyed. Melted plastic, burnt wiring. I tore it all out and found that the main shore power neutral wire had a slight split in the insulation and corroded the wiring. Eventually the resistance got too high and we nearly burned-down our trailer. I'm just glad I choose to react rather then ignore... my kids sleep 3 feet away from that fuse box.

[Nvr2loud]

Chuck&Gail wrote:
Well you likely can NOT run A/C plus electric water heater plus microwave on 30 amps, we can't. We choose one of above at a time.

I can run my A/C on 15 amp by itself. On 30 amp I can run my A/C, microwave, and all the lights without a problem.

[myredracer]

30 amp seems like the only way to go. If for some reason there are no 30 amp pedestals at a cg, all you need to do is use a 30 to 15 amp adapter on the end of the 30A cord and go into energy conservation mode. At home you just need to use the same adapter to keep your unit plugged in if you want.

If using a 20 amp receptacle, you really should be using a 20 amp rated #12 gauge extension cord to the source but I doubt many, if any would in a cg. As long as you plug just one appliance like a toaster or coffee maker in, you'd be okay, but if you were trying to plug in more than that in your trailer, you could end up burning up a 15 amp cord. Many extension cords for 15 amps are only 16 gauge (15A = #14 ga.) and not capable of a continuous 15 amp load.

However, if the 20 amp breaker in the pedestal is GFCI, which many (most or all?) are and you have a GCI receptacle in your trailer, the two won't work together in series. You can find info. on this by googling such as:

GFCI on pedestal

But what RV has a 20 amp service in them?

Related tip: Never plug your cord into the pedestal unless the breaker is turned off. The converter inrush current will cause pitting on the contacts eventually leading to resistance high enough to burn out a plug or receptacle. You can hear a snap, crackle, pop when you plug in live and in the dark, also a flash. That's why you'll often find a pedestal breaker turned off when you get there.

[pappcam]

Chuck&Gail wrote:
Well you likely can NOT run A/C plus electric water heater plus microwave on 30 amps, we can't. We choose one of above at a time.

We use all 3 of those all the time on 30 amp connections. We've never had an issue doing so.

[docj]

If the CG is supplying adequate voltage there is absolutely no reason why you can't run two major appliances (A/C, electric hot water, toaster, coffee pot, microwave, etc) at the same time. All of these with the exception of the A/C are designed to run on a 15A circuit at home so two of them run fine off of 30A. The A/C will usually run fine along with one of the others, but it may have starting surges that could trip the circuit once in a while. We've been on 30A at our current location for a week without having any serious problem juggling power requirements.

[Chuck_Gail]

Well you likely can NOT run A/C plus electric water heater plus microwave on 30 amps, we can't. We choose one of above at a time.

[brirene]

Assuming your unit has 30 amp (and I'm sure it does), definitely use that. There its really no reason you shouldn't be able to use your ac without shutting everything off. You can use whichever outlet your plug fits.

[BB_TX]

Depends on your power cord. If the cord has a 30 amp plug then plug into the 30 amp outlet. If it only has a 20 amp plug then plug into the 20 amp outlet. But since you have an AC I would guess it is a 30 amp cord.

[Poppy___Nana]

given a choice I'd go for 30 amp