How long an extension cord?

[drjjj]

We are about to move into a new home, and I have had the electricians wire a 50 amp plug so I can plug in the Monty prior to trips. My dilemma: I have a 50 amp plug at the meter, which is on the right side of the house. If I use that plug, I would have to have between 50-60 feet of extension cord(s) to plug in to the dealer supplied cord. Also, I would need to run that cord through some kind of conduit in front of the garage, across the driveway, as our lot is very narrow, and the trailer would be parked in front of the house itself to the left of the garage (hope this makes sense). Plan B would be to add a plug to the front of the house, to the left of the garage. This would still mean using a 30 foot cord in addition to the factory cord, but would eliminate having to drive a car across the extra extension cord. Cost of the second 30 foot cord= approx. $170-190. Cost of the new circuit= approx. $500-600. I am more worried about brown outs than the up front cost. Advice?

[Emmel]

drjjj, I have to admit I won't drive over any extension cord. Now if you have it in a conduit, how long do you think the conduit will last?
We were lucky when we built our house, we put a 30amp outlet beside the 5er beside the house.
If you can put a 30amp outlet at the short end use that. Unless you plan on living in the 5er you don't really need the 50amp. The 30amp will run our w/d and the ac at the same time.
Check out the difference in price, a 30 ft 30amp cord is a lot cheaper and will be less expensive to run also.
If cost isn't a factor at all, go the short way and then run a 50amp cord for the 30 ft.
Set down and think about your choices by laying out both plans on your blueprints. That was how we decided how and where to put our recepitcle for the 5er. What ever you do, don't even consider using a 20amp for a solution, talk about brownouts! May work for a overnight to keep fridge running but not for long time use.
Confused yet, I think I forgot what the original question was! You'll figure it out, there are a lot of BETTER electricians here than me.

[H. John Kohl]

You state you have 50 amp service at the house. If you are not planning on running all the electrical items (water heater and AC) at the same time you should be able to get by with 30 amp. Those are cheaper extension cords. Just food for thought. I carry the extra 50' and 25' 30 amp cord along with my single 50 amp cord.
Good luck,

[ScottandBrenda]

I added a 30 amp circuit to our garage. Ran conduit and wiring straight from the breaker box in the basement, up through the wall into the garage, up over the front top of our garage inside (just mounted on the outside of the wall with conduit clips), down the wall, and to the junction on the other side of our garage. We're parked in front/left of our house also. I then added a 30 amp-capable switch so I could turn off the outside outlet when we're not plugged in. We use a 30-->50 amp adapter and the factory extension cord. The 30 amp circuit runs our AC just fine at top voltage - we don't have a WD. Before that, though, I ran a 30 amp extension cord from the outlet in the middle of our garage with an adapter and right across the front of my garage doorway. Drove over it all the time - however, I wrapped the foam pipe insulation across the cord in that point, and cut a piece of 1" PVC pipe in half lengthwise (which took about 100 years with a hand saw) and laid that over the cord as well. A little bump when I drove in and out with my GMC 2500 Duramax, but when I finally rewired the thing and took the cord out, it was in pristine shape. The other issue is that with any cord there will be a voltage drop. It shouldn't be significant, but it will lower the overall voltage to the unit. If the neighborhood or region is under heavy power usage during a heat wave or what-not, it might be a slight problem. Also, every adapter you use, and every outlet where you plug in, will also lower the voltage slightly. Not to blow my own horn here in any way at ALL, but I've been teaching physics for nearly 30 years and voltage drops are always my main worries. It shouldn't hurt the AC, but it might damage the controller on the wall if it's a problem - as voltage drops, the heating effect of electric current goes up. If you do decide to go with the extension cords, the first thing I would do is to use a quality multimeter or voltmeter in an outlet in the RV and check the voltage when the AC comes on and runs. Don't use those little plug in beige thingies - they are not accurate. If the voltage is below where you feel comfortable, consider another option. Also, with the extension cord set up, you could add a weatherproof outlet on the outside of the garage on the meter side, run conduit on the inside walls to the other side of the garage, and add a second weatherproof outlet there to plug into. That way you could use the correct gauge wire within the garage and not have to worry about heating. Make absolutely sure that all the connections inside all the boxes/outlets/whatevers are TIGHT. You'd be surprised how much voltage drop a loose connection can cause.

If it was me, I'd have the second circuit put in from the breaker box through the garage - your Plan B. It looks like a lot of $$, but having that "park style" plug on the outside of the house sure is nice.

[ScottandBrenda]

I just thought of something. A piece of angle iron might work better than the PVC pipe cut lengthwise. Wish I would have thought of that a year ago!