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Old 05-25-2013, 12:29 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by myredracer View Post
You said "10 gauge 20A cable" and I think you meant 12 gauge? It's not really possible to melt the wire/cable if you creep over the rating since the cable is protected by a circuit breaker.
No, I meant 10 gauge. Here is one:
Shop Utilitech 100-ft 10-Gauge Outdoor Extension Cord at Lowes.com

I would use no less than 10 gauge on a 20A cable unless it was 50ft or less.. unless I wasn't running the AC or water heater. I could run my RV converter, a laptop and a cell phone charger on a 14 gauge cable since it would be well below 11-13 amps which is about the rating for a 100ft 14 gauge extension cord.

This is a useful chart for 15/20A extension cords:
http://www.homedepot.com/hdus/en_US/...auge_chart.jpg

At 100ft, it takes 10 gauge to run up to 20A. If you run a 12 gauge 100ft cable, you would go 5A over the cord's rating before the breaker would trip.
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Old 05-25-2013, 12:30 PM   #16
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When does anyone ever really need a 50ft RV extension cord?
In your specific case you will NEVER need one due to the size of your RV.

But when you are 72 feet long and do not want to unhook just to plug in for a day or two AND your shore cable is one foot too short, that's when you will need a RV extension cable.

I carry a 30 foot 30 amp extension because it came with my previous coach and when I sold it, the extras stayed with me including the extension cable. I also carry a 25 foot 50 amp extension cable and lots of adapters.

I was a summer Camper Host for the Anchorage School District one summer back in 2010 at a school where the 30 amp shore power connection was so far away and down a slope and on the opposite side of the coach that I had to use the 25 foot of cable on the coach hooked to the 25 foot of 50 amp cable then an adapter to 30 amp followed by the 30 foot of 30 amp extension just to reach the 30 amp outlet.

Thank God I have a PowerMaster VC-50 Voltage Booster to maintain good voltage as the resistance drop would have been TOO much over that length of cable.

There have been other places I have used the 50 amp extension mostly due to where the coach finally was parked for whatever reasons and the very OLD pedestal was just too far away.

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Old 05-25-2013, 12:32 PM   #17
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Its always a good idea to try and think ahead.

I carry an extra 30 Amp cord just in case you can't get close enough to use the one you have connected to your R.V.
Some of the newer parks have hookup in the middle of the slab because of some of the 5th wheels and small trailers have their connections coming out of the middle of their rigs.
It is always a good idea to check your spot out before you pull into it.
Just a thought
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Old 05-25-2013, 12:36 PM   #18
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Well my thought is this: I could probably get a 10 gauge, 25ft 20A cable and use it in a pinch, in addition to my 30A cable. Or just get a 25ft 30A cable since they aren't too awfully expensive ($30-$40) and use it with my existing extension cord. That would give me roughly 50ft of length over all. If I need anything more and I could get by with a 25ft 20A extension cord in a pinch.
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Old 05-25-2013, 06:05 PM   #19
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I had a pretty good guess on my current extension cable length, it's about 22ft long (measured it poorly with a cheap 16ft tape measure) plus the ends.

I have a 40 amp RV converter rated at 600w (about 5 amps) so that plus the AC or water heater would consume all of 20A cable. I will be putting the RV converter on a switch so I can turn it on and off as needed since I am going to be installing 200W of solar panels which may cause me not to even need the RV converter much, if I conserve energy.

My gaming laptop pulls several amps as well which I'll be using on the grid so I can see myself needing a full length 30A cable since I am going to be full timing when I have the water heater in operation.

I figure the AC pulls about 6-8 amps when running (higher for startup) and I have tested it on a 100ft 14 gauge cable (11-13 amps max) with the RV converter also plugged in, but that's pushing the cable to it's limit if not a bit beyond.

But for testing purposes (I tested the AC again this evening) and being monitored, it's safe enough. I'm not leaving it running unattended that way. I shut off the AC and turned off the main breaker when I left it plugged up.
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Old 05-25-2013, 09:11 PM   #20
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On the subject of my water heater, this is almost exactly like my water heater. Same size, horizontal design, heat exchanger and 120v only:

Torrid Marine Horizontal 6 Gallon Hot Water Heater MH6

It costs as much as an RV water heater that could run on LP but mine isn't leaking and the heater element is cheap and easy to replace if it goes bad.

You can see what my water heater looks like from this photo when I was building a dinette in place of the sofa:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/Hpim5781.jpg
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Old 05-25-2013, 09:36 PM   #21
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Make your own cord, you can get the male and female plugs and any gauge you want at any electrical supply store.

I use 8 gauge for my 30 and 20 amp supplies. Have 25 for each attached to the rig, a 25' for each and a 50' for each. Also built a box to make a 30 and 20 plug out of a single 50. I got a 30 amp and 20 amp shore line, pretty cool because back in 95 when my rig was built 50 amp sites were hard to come by but 30's with a duplex 20 was everywhere. Works great, can run both roof airs and everything
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Old 05-26-2013, 06:35 AM   #22
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Just remember, if you're running any distance with a undersized cord you may run into voltage drops and this can cause excessive wear/failure on your a/c compressor. I use a EMS system now to prevent under/over voltage. Even though I knew better once upon a time, I still burned out a compressor doing just what I preached not to do. So that few hundred bucks invested in the EMS unit would have saved me money in the long run.
This is what I use:
EMS-LCHW50C

I set it up with my own cord cap and receptacle for this unit to make it portable, and it's in the power compartment with the transfer switch. Works great and has done it's job well. A few places I was glad I had it. It ranks up as one of the most important accessories I would tell others to buy right away.
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Old 05-26-2013, 07:00 AM   #23
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What's with the super long RV extension cords? Do some RV parks put the electrical hookup 30 feet from the site which calls for a 50ft cable? Really?

I have about a 25ft extension cable. It was hard wired when built in 1978. I cut it off and fixed proper ends on and made it into an extension cord so it's much easier to coil and manage. I can't see how I'd ever need more than that considering.

When does anyone ever really need a 50ft RV extension cord?
We've run into several situations where a longer extension cord is necessary. Over the years we've stayed at several state parks in Michigan where the power post was as far as 60' from the site. The sites went from the road to the lake shore. If you wanted to be anywhere the lake view you needed a long power cord an a couple hoses for water supply.

Last year we stayed in a Canadian Provincial Park where the power outlets were even farther away. In the Canadian park you could "borrow" a 50' cord from the office if you were willing to put down $100.00 cash deposit or make a temporary charge of $100.00 on a major credit card. The charge slip or the cash deposit would be returned when the cord was returned.

We now carry a 50', 50amp cord in addition to the permanently mounted 36' power cord.
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Old 05-26-2013, 07:24 AM   #24
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We frequently camp at ocean or other waterfront sites and drive in rather that back in so the window faces the water. Since a lot of CGs were designed for mostly tow behinds the pedestals are on the wrong side for that so a 50', 50A extension is a must have. We also have been in state park sites that as already mentioned have the power run to one pedestal between sites for both sides so one of you is going to need an extension. Same scenarios for the water.

We also hung on to an old 30A and use it often with adapters on both ends for 20A plugs for our electric smoker. It is plenty heavy enough and we already owned it.

You just can't have enough extension cords.
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Old 06-03-2013, 01:43 PM   #25
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Bah. Try carrying around a 50ft. 50A cord. Darn things are heavy (and expensive) Make sure to lock em' up too if you can!
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Old 06-04-2013, 07:50 AM   #26
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In line with this thread, what are the collective opinions on length for a 50 amp 6/3 + 8/1 cord run?

I'm in the process of replacing the 36' shoreline cord into my ATS with a short 3' 6/3 + 8/1 50 amp stove pigtail (since it's only a pig tail, I already know that the actual wiring is proper for a 50 amp plug) so I can keep my EMS-PT50C secured in the bay. Problem is I noticed that the shoreline cord is either 4 or 2 gauge, but it's definitely larger than 6 gauge. The funny thing is that the wiring from the ATS to the MH is 6 gauge, so my guess is that the shoreline cord is a heavier gauge due to the 36 feet. I was ok with that until my extension cord arrived yesterday (NU-CORD 94554E 36-Feet 50-Amp Rv Extension Cord - Amazon.com) which is also 36', but is also 6/3 + 8/1! My plan was to just use the newly purchased extension cord, and eventually put a female plug on the OEM that I will be removing so I still have extra cord if needed.

So my question is, does anyone see a problem with using 6/3 + 8/1 to run 50 amps the short 3' distance from the EMS-PT50C into the ATS, and if not, what about the longer 36' foot run from the pedestal to the MH? Once I put the female end on the OEM cord that I remove, I could actually end up with a 72' foot run from the pedestal to the MH if needed, half of which would be the 6/3 + 8/1 extension cord. Any problem there? Thanks in advance. I want to do it right the first time so I don't have to do it again after the fire.

BTW: The Amazon cord is stamped "Made in China", which is bugging me already .
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