50 amp electric cord

[leasurejf]

quote:Originally posted by KathyandDave

We bought a pair of the Lippert drawers that mount behind the tandem axles. I keep the 50A cord and a couple of dapters on the drivers side and the 30A stuff on the curb side. As long as I get out what I need before the slides are extended, it's easy breezy.

Dave, Where did you get the drawers? Not seeing an obvious source online. Sounds like a great solution for storing things you will always need at setup. Thanks, Jim

[KathyandDave]

Jim & Fran, we got them off the dock at Lippert in Goshen, IN. We were attending the National Rally there last fall. Ours has the optional spare tire holder between the drawers. I'm thinking of getting a second set of drawers without the spare tire holder for the chocks and some leveling wood or Lynx lego. But, I'd have to modify our extended receiver hitch.

[wmcclay]

Go to your local electrical supply house and get soow 10/4 cord. about one half the diameter, half the weight, flexible when cold. It is a good quality cord. With mfgs it is all about cost. Good cord is not cheap. s=service cord 600 volts, o=oil resistance inside and outside of jacket, w=csa designation for weather and water resistance. I have had mine in 10 deg weather a little stiff, but nothing like the stock cord. 55 feet weighs about what a 25 foot cord weighs. sjoow cord is rated for 300 volts and a little cheaper. I used the soow because it is what we buy at work and is a remnant off a reel.

[KathyandDave]

Thanks, wmcclay, I just learned many things!

[moutard2]

quote:Originally posted by wmcclay

Go to your local electrical supply house and get soow 10/4 cord. about one half the diameter, half the weight, flexible when cold. It is a good quality cord. With mfgs it is all about cost. Good cord is not cheap. s=service cord 600 volts, o=oil resistance inside and outside of jacket, w=csa designation for weather and water resistance. I have had mine in 10 deg weather a little stiff, but nothing like the stock cord. 55 feet weighs about what a 25 foot cord weighs. sjoow cord is rated for 300 volts and a little cheaper. I used the soow because it is what we buy at work and is a remnant off a reel.

What guage of wire in the soow cable would be safe and appropriate to handle the amperage to the RV? Electricity and me are light years apart.

[wmcclay]

10 gauge 4 wire=two hots, one neutral, one ground= 50 amp srvice. It is really two 25 amp services, such as a dryer

[KathyandDave]

Isn't it two 50A hots?

[wmcclay]

Two twenty five amp circuits with a common nuetral. It is actually 240 volts across the two hots, 120 volts on each leg to nuetral. A 50 to 30 amp adapter ties the two hots together giving you 30 amps total.

[snfexpress]

wmcclay,

I respectfully disagree with your statement that 50 amp service is

quote:Two twenty five amp circuits [and that] a 50 to 30 amp adapter ties the two hots together giving you 30 amps total.

RV pedestal 50 amp service is two legs of 50 amps each for a total of 100 amps.

50 amp service to our 50 amp Monty's (you actually have 100 amps total - 50 amps on each leg):



Also, 10 gauge is a little light. Our anaconda cords are 4 conductor cords with three 6 gauge wires and an eight gauge ground (6/3 + 8/1). Now, I do occasionally use a soow 4 conductor 8/3, but the length is not near the length of our OEM cords.

A 50 amp to 30 amp dogbone cannot combine the two 50 amp pedestal hots (lines) because the resultant magma from the short of two opposed sine waved lines would be hard to clean up. A 50 amp to 30 amp adapter merely uses one side of the 50 amp supply.

50 amp to 30 amp adapter wiring diagram (in this case you actually have about 50 amps TOTAL at your disposal):


30 amp to 50 amp adapter wiring diagram (one hot is then jumped to the other leg for our Monty's and you only have 30 amps TOTAL at your disposal):


Now all this information is not posted because I claim to be an electrician - we have excellent electrical contractors on board such as NCFISCHERS - I just played one on TV

[jimcol]

Michael, Thanks for the great explanation with pictures. Should clear up many questions for our users. Jim

[NCFischers]

Michael is right, the 240 volt 50 amp service that is provided to our rigs is 2 120 volt 50 amp power sources and a 10 gauge cord is nowhere near adaquate. It's a fire hazard waiting to happen.

[KathyandDave]

To quote Mike:
RV pedestal 50 amp service is two legs of 50 amps each for a total of 100 amps.

50 amp to 30 amp adapter wiring diagram (in this case you actually have about 50 amps TOTAL at your disposal):


On a side topic, this seems problematic because, if it is plugged into the 50A pedestal to feed a 30A trailer via a 30A cord, then the trailer/cord combination could draw up to 50A before popping the pedestal breaker. The 30A rated devices could get very toasty before that happened. OTH, I own an adapter just like it, but I make sure the loads are right snd hope the cord doesn't have a fault.

[NCFischers]

Dave,
In that case, the 30 amp main breaker in the trailer will protect everything in the trailer.

[jimcol]

I don't think the intention is to plug into a 50 amp outlet and bring it back to a 30 amp trailer. I think what Michael is showing is the arrangement when you plug into a 30 amp pedestal outlet and how the dogbone bridges the one hot lead to the two designated hots in the 50 amp cord to the trailer. Hopefully he will be along shortly to clarify. Jim

[NCFischers]

I was taking him literally from his post. There are some older 30 amp Montanas out there.

[jimcol]

I agree Jim but in many years of RV'ing have yet to run into a site that has only 50 amp outlets. Probably exist but I have yet to see one. Dave, Do I understand correctly that you have an adapter to bring 50amp input down to 30 amp output? Jim

[KathyandDave]

quote:Originally posted by jimcol

I agree Jim but in many years of RV'ing have yet to run into a site that has only 50 amp outlets. Probably exist but I have yet to see one. Dave, Do I understand correctly that you have an adapter to bring 50amp input down to 30 amp output? Jim

Yep. We had the situation where the 50A pedestal was too far to reach with the anaconda, so we connected with a borrowed 50A-30A bone and our 125' of 30A cords. We got by on 30A.

[wmcclay]

I really blew that one!!!!!. You do have two 50 amp breakers that deliver 50 amps to each hot leg. Most rvs do dot use 220-240 volts so it remains at two 50 amp 120 volts legs. There is a great article on this at www.rv-dreams.com. I WILL do my research before posting.
Wayne

[wmcclay]

It is rv-dreams.com/rvelectrical.html

[RJI47]

here is the correct link.............. http://www.rv-dreams.com/rv-electrical.html