Community Forums

georgetown350 · 03-04-2014, 06:07 PM

I would not use the air cond on 15 amps. Tv and lights. .... leaves a bit to charge the batteries..........

JBDISCOVERY · 03-04-2014, 06:15 PM

I think the best advice given is to install a 30 Amp or 50 Amp receptacle at your cottage. We have done this at our Michigan cottage and it serves us well, both for our coach and for your visitors. Not much money if you install it or have an electrician do the work.
Regards,
Jb

Libero · 03-04-2014, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBDISCOVERY

I think the best advice given is to install a 30 Amp or 50 Amp receptacle at your cottage. We have done this at our Michigan cottage and it serves us well, both for our coach and for your visitors. Not much money if you install it or have an electrician do the work.
Regards,
Jb

Good suggestion. I have done this at my sisters cottage and at my wife's sisters place. We usually spend a few weeks at these locations throughout the summer and they are well used by others. I provide generous compensation for the power usage.

Hooligan · 03-05-2014, 02:07 PM

I have 50 amp, DP--
I plug in at daughter's house in Michigan for a couple weeks every summer. 20A, and it is also a long power cord run to the motorhome. You do have to pay attention to what is drawing current. But your easy answer is to check voltage at the RV outlets. To begin, I have 125 volts at the house outlet, and lose 5-6 volts through the power cord to the RV. Running 1 AC, it drops to 112 to115 volts -again at the RV. Adding anything, coffemaker or microwave- the AC is off. When I need more electric, I run the genny. I try to keep the line above 110volts, have done this for several years with no damage. Watch the voltage and check for heat in the plugs and enjoy...

The book says that at 108 volts you are in danger of damage to motors and some electronics. (At that point my SurgeGuard kicks out)

Keeping the fridge and water heater on propane helps. I used to unexpectedly kick her house Circuitbreaker for the outside outlet until we figured out her timed fishpond pump was on that circuit. Another hidden draw is the converter, only a couple amps until it needs DC power for water pump, or to charge a battery then a large current draw.

Ray,IN · 03-05-2014, 08:15 PM

Your coach should have an energy management system. It will detect incoming amp service and automatically turn off appliances that will overload the incoming amperage. Mine is set(you must manually set yours up at the inverter menu) to begin turning off appliances at 80% of incoming amperage to prevent tripping the breaker.
Hooglan is correct, the industry standard for safe voltage is 120VAC + or- 10%, which equals 132VAC high and 108VAC low voltage. Outside those parameters inductive motors will slowly be damaged to the point of failure.
You still might melt a 15A adapter with continuous use, we had several CG's with 15A service on our Alaska trip, 4 5ers and 7 MH's with 50A wiring, none of them mentioned problems with power.

wa8yxm · 03-06-2014, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXiceman

If you have a 13,500 BTUH A/C or a high efficiency unit, you may be able to run ONE A/c unit and run NOTHING else...water heater and frig on gas. Personally, I'd look for another place to stay.

Ken

I will second that.. You may need to run Generator for A/C during the day. alas after quiet hours see above.

EngineerMike · 03-06-2014, 12:10 PM

I've only melted 3 or 4 15/30A converter pigtails, never running AC, only battery charger & whatever parasitic drain the coach has naturally. Only time it was a big problem- when I had coach on a 20A circuit, 25ft #14 cord, & about 10lbs of yellowtail filets in the freezer which I discovered 3 weeks after the pigtail fried. At which point the fish was also cooked. And leaked. And, well lets just say it wasn't the prettiest smell I've ever smelled.

I've had the 30A molded plug on a 25ft #10 extension cord melt & short. Again, not using much current. Problem is those molded plugs have lousy QC. Add to that running the circuit & extension cord near its max capacity leads to failures. You could increase the safety factor by removing the cheap factory molded plug ends from your extension cord & getting good heavy duty commercial grade ends from a good hardware store. Leviton brand makes good commercial grade stuff (it'll say heavy duty, or commercial grade, or the like). Cord shouldn't be an issue; til the dog tries to chew thru it....

ohhwell · 03-06-2014, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EngineerMike

I've only melted 3 or 4 15/30A converter pigtails, never running AC, only battery charger & whatever parasitic drain the coach has naturally. Only time it was a big problem- when I had coach on a 20A circuit, 25ft #14 cord, & about 10lbs of yellowtail filets in the freezer which I discovered 3 weeks after the pigtail fried. At which point the fish was also cooked. And leaked. And, well lets just say it wasn't the prettiest smell I've ever smelled.

I've had the 30A molded plug on a 25ft #10 extension cord melt & short. Again, not using much current. Problem is those molded plugs have lousy QC. Add to that running the circuit & extension cord near its max capacity leads to failures. You could increase the safety factor by removing the cheap factory molded plug ends from your extension cord & getting good heavy duty commercial grade ends from a good hardware store. Leviton brand makes good commercial grade stuff (it'll say heavy duty, or commercial grade, or the like). Cord shouldn't be an issue; til the dog tries to chew thru it....

He's not talking about doing that at the campground though. He will be plugging into a 15 (20?) amp outlet on the pedestal using an adapter.

As far as extension cords go, you can cut the ends off and attach higher quality sockets. The only time I melted one was through my own stupidity and error and involved power tools

Skipper Tom · 03-06-2014, 12:59 PM

Right. I am plunging in to a pedestal at the campground and at the cottage into an outlet in the garage. I will not be using an extension cord but an adapted on my shore power cable.

Skipper Tom · 03-06-2014, 01:01 PM

I want to thank everyone for their posts. Each has been a great help and are truly appreciated. This is the best site!!!

ladagobago · 03-07-2014, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skipper Tom

I want to thank everyone for their posts. Each has been a great help and are truly appreciated. This is the best site!!!

I have done exactly what you are asking. 15 amp will carry the smaller air conditioner with one BUT. I have several homemade addaptors and have found that some garages and other exterior outlet have a ground fault preventer. If that is the case where you are going it may trip.

I have a 50 to 30 to 15 set which trips grond faults. also I have setups to plug into marine dock 30 amp, stove 50 and electric drier 30/50. even made a special dual stove 50/30 so when I visit a certain friends home, I can plug in and share a high amp outlet. Of course, not at the same time but it save pulling and pushing plugs for two weeks.

At one boat club I visit, we plug into a 15 amp and run the air. there are also a few small town parks where we stay in the parking lot and they have outlets that we steal power to float everything.

tropical36 · 03-07-2014, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skipper Tom

Hmmm I just thought of another problem. One of our destinations this summer will be the family cottage. I plan on parking in the drive and plugging in. I know there are no 50 or 30 amp plugs so what do we do? We will be sleeping in the RV and will need AC. If I only run the AC in the bedroom and have the refer and the water heater on gas will I ruin anything?

What to do if it was me, would be to install a 50amp outlet immediately on arrival, but if that's not an option and like with the other 15amp outlet which you can suck a little more from in most cases and when they have a 20amp breaker feeding it, so just do without the ac for the most part, although you should be able to run just one with a few amps to spare for your converter...etc... and especially for when sleeping at night.
Also, if you'd install a dual power adapter in your coach, you could run the rear ac on another circuit outlet and separate from your main, which is the way we have our 30amp coach set up and this does the job, extremely well.

davew2494 · 03-07-2014, 04:03 PM

Use your generator during the day, then at night maybe you could use the 110 from the house to run a fan or two

Superslif · 03-07-2014, 04:14 PM

We have a local state park with 20amp. service that looks like it was out of the 60's. Most have burn up signs at the plug-in. Only camp there in the off season. Have to run the hot water heater on gas, and watch when the frig kicks in because it will trip the breaker. Have to shut the tv off if I want to use the micro and hope the frig doesn't cycle on. Tried to run a small space heater...forget it.