Community Forums

natureman · 06-17-2022, 08:28 PM

I booked a 50 amp site by mistake. I went and purchased the dog bone adapter that goes from 50amp to 30amp. Can I plug the dog bone into my surge protector and the my surge protector into my camper? Or does the dog bone go straight from the box to the camper? Thanks!

avid108 · 06-17-2022, 08:43 PM

We put our surge protector between the camper and dogbone.

Old-Biscuit · 06-17-2022, 08:55 PM

IF it is a 50A site it probably has 30A receptacle also

But if just 50A
Adapter from 50A to 30A then Surge Protector then RV power cord

K7JV · 06-18-2022, 10:12 AM

Old Biscuit is spot on. I do not recall ever encountering an RV pedestal that had a 50 amp receptacle and breaker that did not also have a 30 amp receptacle and breaker.

I would be very careful with any adapters that would allow you to plug a 30 amp cord into a 50 amp outlet. The primary function of the breaker in the pedestal is to protect your cable from the pedestal to your coach and a 50 amp breaker will not adequately protect your 30 amp cable and service entrance.

Winemaker2 · 06-18-2022, 10:38 AM

Ive seen this argument often re boats & MHs. The only situation where the cord is not protected and in danger is if the cord shorts between the adapter and the MH main and produces a current greater than 30A AND less than 50A... pretty hard to imagine how that would happen. GT 50A and the pedestal trips and LT 30A and there is no issue.
How would you produce a 40A short in the cord?

Camp CA · 06-18-2022, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by natureman

.....Can I plug the dog bone into my surge protector and the my surge protector into my camper?.......

Yes, you can plug in the 50 amp to 30 amp adapter (50 Amp Male to 30 Amp Female Dogbone Adapter RV Electrical Converter Cord Cable https://www.amazon.com/Female-Dogbon...NsaWNrPXRydWU=) to your 30 amp surge protector then connect the surge protector to your 30 amp camper power cord. Just make sure your adapter has the same voltage as the shore power connection.

Do it all the time on my boat, which has 30 amp 125 volt power supply connected to 50 amp 125/250 volt shore power.

twinboat · 06-18-2022, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K7JV

Old Biscuit is spot on. I do not recall ever encountering an RV pedestal that had a 50 amp receptacle and breaker that did not also have a 30 amp receptacle and breaker.

I would be very careful with any adapters that would allow you to plug a 30 amp cord into a 50 amp outlet. The primary function of the breaker in the pedestal is to protect your cable from the pedestal to your coach and a 50 amp breaker will not adequately protect your 30 amp cable and service entrance.

My home outlets are on 15 amp breakers. My lamps are wired with 16 or 18 gauge wire, well under a 15 amp rating, do I not plug them in ?

Old-Biscuit · 06-18-2022, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K7JV

Old Biscuit is spot on. I do not recall ever encountering an RV pedestal that had a 50 amp receptacle and breaker that did not also have a 30 amp receptacle and breaker.

I would be very careful with any adapters that would allow you to plug a 30 amp cord into a 50 amp outlet. The primary function of the breaker in the pedestal is to protect your cable from the pedestal to your coach and a 50 amp breaker will not adequately protect your 30 amp cable and service entrance.

50A to 30A Adapter
*Only One Hot leg used
*Pull more then 30A and the RV Main 30A CB trips
*RV Power Cord shorts (gets run over by lawnmower) then the Power Pedestal 50A CB trips

K7JV · 06-18-2022, 12:56 PM

Our current coach has a "Main" breaker in the A/C panel, but not all have an actual main. It is easy to run one or two air conditioners, have the water heater come on, have a good load on the converter (charger) and make a pot of coffee or try to heat a bowl of soup in the microwave and exceed 30 amps of load, though not likely for very many minutes at a time. I will admit that it is not likely that damage will be done, even if the load on the cable and load center of the RV does exceed 30 amps, maybe even by a fair amount for short durations. (Check out the current/time curves on your circuit breaker's). It is just a good idea to design and plan based on good practices. I would personally be totally OK with it, but I would be conscious of what I was doing. As my kids would say, "Just say'n".

2cyber71 · 06-18-2022, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

IF it is a 50A site it probably has 30A receptacle also

But if just 50A
Adapter from 50A to 30A then Surge Protector then RV power cord

As usual Old Biscuit has the correct answer

bigb56 · 06-18-2022, 01:14 PM

The 50 to 30 amp adapter is just as safe as many home HVAC circuits that are wired with 30 amp wire and protected with a 50 amp breaker, the HVAC disconnect will have fuses to protect the wire from overload and the 50 amp breaker in the panel will protect it from short circuit, all code compliant and safe. In 30 years as an electrician I have never seen this cause a problem (except with home inspectors who call it out because they don't understand it).
As far as an RV without a main, I have not seen that but it would probably be a small one with not enough loads in it to exceed 30 amps. Sure it could be overloaded if you brought in more loads and tried hard enough but you can only go so far in protecting the public against their own stupidity. If there were documented fires and injuries or deaths then the codes would change but that hasn't been the case.

MSHappyCampers · 06-18-2022, 01:19 PM

Try not to use the dog bone adapter unless you have to! I had one catch fire recently!

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f54/my-d...ut-567428.html

MingusPirate · 06-18-2022, 02:25 PM

Let's get this understood. Fisr, you have a 50 amp pedestal. You have a dog bone with a 50 amp male plug on one end and a 30amp female socket on the other. If that's the case plug the 50 amp into the pedestal. Now when you say surge protector, I hope you mean EMS. Plug the EMS info the dogbone. Then plug in your RV cord into the EMS. Now turn on the pedestal circuit breaker. The EMS will protect the RV cord. There should be a 30 amp breaker in the RV power panel. So you have redundancy. If you only have a surge suppressor the the only protection is the RV circuit breaker.

twinboat · 06-18-2022, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K7JV

Our current coach has a "Main" breaker in the A/C panel, but not all have an actual main. It is easy to run one or two air conditioners, have the water heater come on, have a good load on the converter (charger) and make a pot of coffee or try to heat a bowl of soup in the microwave and exceed 30 amps of load, though not likely for very many minutes at a time. I will admit that it is not likely that damage will be done, even if the load on the cable and load center of the RV does exceed 30 amps, maybe even by a fair amount for short durations. (Check out the current/time curves on your circuit breaker's). It is just a good idea to design and plan based on good practices. I would personally be totally OK with it, but I would be conscious of what I was doing. As my kids would say, "Just say'n".

Wow, quite the claim, an RV without a main breaker.

Unless it's homemade, RVIA wouldn't allow it.