successful and funny first weekend, but elec ???s

[Bucksmom]

Well, we just got home from our first weekend in our new to us 26' dynaquest. All in all, a great weekend but of course even though we have camped out in the driveway a number of times, this was our first state campground weekend and I've got questions, a funny story, and a list of things that I need!

First the funny story...so we opened the trunk storage compartment to take out folding chairs. We close the trunk, and later go back to get something out, and we can't open the trunk. HHmmm....that has never happened before. We're thinking that something must have shifted, try to unscrew something along the top, etc, come to find out that the thing is actually controlled by the lock button on the key! So glad my cell phone had no service, the Coach Net guy probably would have had a good chuckle.

So...we go to hook up to the camp electric. I had booked at the state campground on-line, a 50 amp service. I don't think there were ANY 5o amp sites in the whole place...so we don't run the A/C. ( We didn't try it...we only have 1 unit, we might have been able to do it) BUT the scary thing was that we put the 50-30 adaptor on the thing (along with the Progressive thingie in there) and we kept tripping the service. It seemed like 1 big GFI. Not wanting to somehow fry my coach, I asked the camp host what might be going on...he hands me a 1' long plug thing with the ground sawed off and says that some 'greenwire' somewhere in the coach isn't connected, the camp unit senses this and trips the service???? Needless to say I was terrified just to plug our coach into this device that I thought would anger the Electricity Gods, but all was well for the weekend. So this experience prompted the following questions...

1- did this nice camp host know what H*&l he was talking about?
2- How risky was this?
3- I was afraid to turn on the A/C but could I have done it on 30 amp service?

thanks ahead of time for all you electrical wizards out there....

[Jack R]

Bucksmom

30 amps is enough juice to run one A/C and a few other electrical items. If my electrical cords don't work, I sure wouldn't have used a cable missing the ground.

jack

[wa8yxm]

On the progressive Power Guard... Usually these devices are kind of chatty.. They should tell you WHY they are cutting you off.

And no, what the Camp Host gave you was actually a tad dangerous. That round, or "U" shaped "pin" on the plug is the safety ground, and it's not called SAFETY for nothing.

But since you survived, no harm done.

Now.. If the park had a GFCI breaker on the outlet (some places I park do, well One place I park does) THEN ... That might have been needed IF your rig had an issue with ground/neutral bonding. But again. there is a danger.

The Progressive Dynamics.. I do not know if it monitors ground faults. Voltage, Frequency and a few other things yes, Ground Fault, I do not know.