[scottz]

Originally Posted by WaltBennett

I think if you search the forum for many, many posts on this you'll find this is not true. I also know as I rewired my Montana myself when installing our 400 watt solar system. RVs, and our Montanas for certain, are wired with the 50 amp plug and cable broken into two 30 amp circuits. Check your AC breaker panel and you'll find two ganged 30 amp breakers. These are the two 30 amp circuits I wrote about. There's no 220v as some think and not anything of 50 amps total by itself. If your inverter is feeding both sides, you've got to be very careful not to have your air conditioner, refer on electric, or hot water heater on electric as these will drain your batteries in a heart beat - probably damage them as well. (I actually had to move the refer breaker to the other leg.) I broke the circuit for the side that feeds all the mundane things (ceiling fan, TV, sound system, microwave, outlets, etc.) and put our inverter in it. The other leg goes straight to all the high-amperage things.

Nope, my breaker panel has two 50A breakers ganged together; one feeding each side of the breaker panel; see photo below.



I also think you are mistaken on the two legs of 50A service; I believe they are 50A each.

Google 50A RV service and you will find a ton of imformation. Here is a sample:

https://www.rvtechmag.com/electrical/chapter3.php

"50 Amp RV Service:

To facilitate the larger loads placed upon the newer RVs the 50 amp service was brought out. Whereas the 30 amp service was a 120 volt service yielding 3,600 watts of power, the 50 amp service is a 120/240 split phase service. The split phase service means you have two 120 volt 50 amp poles, which gives you a total of up to 12,000 watts. So the perceived increase from 30 to 50 doesn't sound like very much but the real increase from 3,600 to 12,000 puts it into a more realistic perspective. Keep in mind that this assumes that you can utilize both of the two 50 amp poles effectively by balancing your load. If all of your loads are on one side of the panel you'll only be using one 50 amp pole, which means that you can only get 6,000 watts. So, it is important to split your loads and balance them between both phases on the breaker panel in order to get maximum capacity."

This is why you need to be careful how many high amp devices you run when you connect your 50A unit to 30A service via an adapter. The adapter takes the single 30A leg and applies it to both sides of your breaker panel. Turning too many items on should trip the 30A park breaker; if not the adapter is probably going to get really hot.

The rest of the details about splitting the panel are spot on. My inverter feeds both sides of the panel, but I switch off breakers to high amp devices before going to inverter power; including running the refrigerator on propane.