RV to power pole accessories

[chrisandkay]

2011 Coachman 5th wheel. Located in Central Florida)

The Mrs and I are full time now and clawing our way up the learning curve here.

Since moving in we have discovered that RV power availablility is differant than in a home.

Our rig has a 30A cord. We have experianced several triped breakers inside the rig and at the pole. By monitoring our electrical consumption inside the rig our breaker pops have become almmost non existant. Until yesterday.

All inside appliances off except Internet router and the AC. The breaker at the pole popped. i reset it but it occured 2 additional times. Another item of note was that our 30A plug was very warm (almost hot) to the touch.

The outside temp was about 90 when this occured.

The helping hands at our park came to take a look at the pole supply and changed the ple recepticle and breaker. 2 hours late it tripped again with minimal electrical use inside the rig.

My question:

I want to get a 50A to 30A adapter and plug into the 50A service for the remaining 5 months that we will be at this park. In addition I intend to get a EMS-PT30C Portable EMS RV Surge Protector Progressive Industries RV Surge and Electrical Protection industry lea
to ensure that we are protected from voltage highs and lows.

Will this configuration be a safe one?

Will the Surge Protector with monitoring prevent us from overtaxing our 30A plug?

we will continue to be responsible with our power usage inside of the rig to prevent excessive demand.

Also, will the service panel 30A breaker inside the rig provide a last line of defense against excessive draw with the 50A to 30A adapter in use?

Thank you for any and all assistance and education!!

[Statgeek]

Originally Posted by chrisandkay

2011 Coachman 5th wheel. Located in Central Florida)

My question:

I want to get a 50A to 30A adapter and plug into the 50A service for the remaining 5 months that we will be at this park. In addition I intend to get a EMS-PT30C Portable EMS RV Surge Protector Progressive Industries RV Surge and Electrical Protection industry lea
to ensure that we are protected from voltage highs and lows.

Will this configuration be a safe one?

Yup! The Progressive Industries (PI) is a top-notch surge protector. If the power coming to your RV from the RV park is the problem, it will keep your RV safe. It may sacrifice itself in the process, but they have a lifetime guarantee so you'll get a replacement unit... though you may have to go without protection for a few days while waiting for the new one. I believe that PI has a couple of different versions of their products available in both 30 and 50 amp. I think they sell a cheaper surge-only protector, but also a more expensive one that protects you not only from surges, but also too low or too high of voltage, and a few other things. I used to have one on my Coachmen Mirada and felt it was a very solid product.

Originally Posted by chrisandkay

Will the Surge Protector with monitoring prevent us from overtaxing our 30A plug?

If the problem is too high of voltage, then yes, the PI will protect you as long as you invest in their higher-priced one that does more than just surge protection. It's a solid investment.. Go for it!

Originally Posted by chrisandkay

Also, will the service panel 30A breaker inside the rig provide a last line of defense against excessive draw with the 50A to 30A adapter in use?

I can't imagine that you'd experience voltage/amperage issues from RV park power while using the PI. However, the problem could be downstream from the power cord--maybe a problem with the inverter, or something else that I'm unqualified to spew seemingly knowledgeable words about! If you have problems downstream from your shore elec. cable, it's too hard to know whether the breakers in your RV will protect the electrical components in

[okcnewbie]

You should be able to use everything in MH without tripping the breakers while plugged into a good 30Amp supply. If you're adding a heater or something like a blow dryer than I wouldn't use the microwave at the same time but the AC should be ok.
You might want to get a cheap IR thermometer from harbor freight. My 30amp plug was getting so hot it almost started to melt. I changed the connector with one from Home Depot and it's never hot to the touch now.

[stormrider15]

I would look closely at your 30 amp power cord. Sometimes if they get over heated they can cause what you are describing.

[charliej]

I would think getting a 50 to 30 amp adapter would do nothing for you. You would still be running on 30 amps. When we camp at a 30 amp service we are only able to run one air conditioner, otherwise the plug will get hot, then trip the breaker.

[chrisandkay]

Originally Posted by stormrider15

I would look closely at your 30 amp power cord. Sometimes if they get over heated they can cause what you are describing.

i inspected the cord for damge and found nothing.. it appears to be in good shape.

The plug was corroded and ugly when i inspected it yesterday. i sanded teh contacts to see if that would help anything.

I think the plug is going to get replaced to day.

[chrisandkay]

Originally Posted by okcnewbie

You should be able to use everything in MH without tripping the breakers while plugged into a good 30Amp supply. If you're adding a heater or something like a blow dryer than I wouldn't use the microwave at the same time but the AC should be ok.
You might want to get a cheap IR thermometer from harbor freight. My 30amp plug was getting so hot it almost started to melt. I changed the connector with one from Home Depot and it's never hot to the touch now.

This was an assumption that I made but it has not been my experience.

i think there are several weak points.

1) im not impressed with the quality or design of this chapparel by coachman. I would not assume that the wiring is "best" and that the 30A system is simply "close enough".
2) AC, lights, converter, fridge, hot water heater = +/- 30A especialy when the AC spikers during it cycle on.
3) Im not going to assume that I have a "good 30A power supply". Its a great RV park but there are 400 spots here and im sure there are weak points in the system.

Thanks for your experiance with the plug. I intend to replace mine today!

[lynnmor]

You need to know what the voltage is, so get a voltmeter. All the adapters and surge protectors will do nothing. A heated plug means a bad connection, since the pole was fixed perhaps your plug is faulty.

If your battery is bad or run down, the charger may be drawing a lot of amps that, with the AC on, may be part of the problem.

Again, get a voltmeter, preferably a digital one like this:

Hughes Autoformer DVM1221 Digital AC Volt Meter

An autoformer can correct for low voltage.

https://hughesautoformers.com/

[MisterT]

we experienced this same problem off the Hudson river in NY at a city/county park campground - the ultimate issue was that the 30a breaker was tripping too often because it was too sensitive. Their electric infrastructure was old and probably not designed for the number of coaches on their system, too.
We used the 30a from a vacant site next door and the problem went away.

The use of a 30a to 50a adapter may help since you will then not be dealing with a likely sensitive 30a breaker.

[Mark 7]

Have you checked the voltage at the power supply post?

I keep a volt meter plugged in to an outlet in my trailer all of the time.

An issue here could be that as the outside temperature rises and other patrons start using A/C heavily, voltage in the park's infrastucture falls with the increased demand... this causes current to go up. If your A/C is drawing say 18 amps at 120 VAC, it would increase to about 19.5 amps at 110 VAC. Drop to 105 VAC and your up to over 20 amps.

Add in starting current if your A/C cycles, and other equipment you may have running, or your park neighbors and you can start to build some serious heat.

I have one campground I park in regularly where voltage can sometimes go south of 100 volts. When that happens I start shutting off electronic devices because of concern over increased current (heat) burning things up! High current is also a death sentence for and air conditioner if used for a prolonged period of time.

Maybe something like a Hughs Autoformer would work. I have no experience with them and really don't know how they can make something out of nothing... but perhaps they work. I may experiment with one sometime.

I would not be afraid to try a 50 to 30 adapter. It may help with the breaker tripping on the post, but you will still be using 1 leg of the 240 provided by that connection and will still be limited to park supplied voltage on that leg. Would be cool if you could monitor the voltage on both legs and somehow be able to use the leg with the most capacity. You would think they would have them balanced pretty well, but with different end users hooked up to different sides of the equation, you may find that one leg has a little more capacity than the other. You could build, or have someone build an adapter for you that would let you choose which leg to use by having a couple of 30 amp plugs on the same adapter... one from each leg.

Sorry for rambling! I have a tendency to start building things in my head while typing!

[dabrooks]

If your cord is getting warm I would disconnect and go to your main panel. Loosen every connection 1/4 turn and then re-tighten them. That would be where they hook to the breakers especially the "main" breaker and all of the neutral and ground connection. I would also check where the cord is hooked to the 5th wheeler and any connection from there to the main panel.

[vsheetz]

Suggest to check if your battery charger has a setting to change its current draw. If you are going to be on shore power for the next month's just set it to lowest setting. It may be drawing quite a bit of power and you are unaware.

[okcnewbie]

To do an inventory of the AC amp draw you could hook up a Kill-a-Watt meter with your 30-15 amp adapter. You can even run your AC with this as long as everything else is off. Many coaches have the converter on a breaker with something else. I would put the converter on it's own breaker.

[TonyMac]

If your 5er has a generator, it likely has a power transfer switch. These switches are notorious for connections coming loose, and loose connections draw amps. It takes a few beers to unplug the cord, open the panel, tighten everything inside with a #2 common screwdriver, and reconnect the plug.