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Old 01-20-2019, 11:08 AM   #1
Cyride
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What all runs when a 381TH is plugged into 120 volts.

Wondering what all would run when you plug a 381TH into shore power. Primarily, will the refrigerator run? I would probably want to do that to cool down the refrigerator before leaving on a long trip or when there is only 120 volts available at a camp site.

Thanks,

Jon
 
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Old 01-20-2019, 11:54 AM   #2
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Don't quite understand what you are asking. Electric campsites can have 20amp, 30amp, 50amp service or all at the same time, but they are all 120v.
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Old 01-20-2019, 01:14 PM   #3
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You can run everything plugged into a 50a, most on 30a and less on 20a. As for the fridge, it will still run off of the inverter. While cruising down the road your TV will keep the RV batteries charged. Ice cubes in the freezer never melted on me yet.
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Old 01-20-2019, 03:22 PM   #4
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A 50 amp RV outlet is a single phase 125/250 volt outlet with neutral and ground (four prong device). The 30 and 20 amp outlets are 3 wire 120 volt devices (no 250 volt). It is my understanding the load center in an RV is split and when operating on the 50 amp branch circuit it powers two separate 50 amp busses. When running on the 30 or 20 amp branch circuit half of the buss in the load center does not get power.

If you are plugged into the 30 or 20 amp outlet there has to be something that will not even power up (like maybe one or two of the A/C units).

I would assume if you were plugged into the 30 or 20 amp outlet the refrigerator would be on the buss that would supply power to it along with maybe an A/C unit and some lights.

That is why I was asking if the refrigerator would run on just a 120 volt circuit. It would have been more clear if I said "if plugged into a 20 or 30 amp outlet".
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Old 01-20-2019, 04:17 PM   #5
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Your thinking correctly but there is a catch. You will need an adapter to go from the 30 amp to 50 amp. Every adapter has a jumper wire inside from one hot leg over to the other hot leg so both bus bars in the panel are hot. Its simply 30 amp 120v with a jumper over to the other hot leg inside the adapter.

Everything will work as normal in your RV except the breaker will trip at 30 amps instead of 50.
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Old 01-20-2019, 04:36 PM   #6
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OK, I didn't know there was a jumper in the adapter, that would make sense. Just have to make sure when plugged into a 20 amp outlet not to exceed 16 amps continuous or 24 amps continuous on the 30 amp outlet. The only camper we ever had was a pop-up when the kids were little and didn't have to use an adapter to a 50 amp RV!

I have been looking at permanent power managing systems for RV's and that is probably why the 50 amp units will work on a 20 or 30 amp connection. They are probably looking at phase to neutral and ground, not phase to phase.

Thanks!
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