Anyone tried a 45 AMP adaptor

[Craig A]

SENT IT BACK. IT SHARES NEUTRAL BETWEEN THE CIRCUITS AND TRIPS THE GFI. ONLY WAY AROUND THIS IS TO ELIMINATE THE ROUND GROUND PLG ON THE 15 AMP LINE. I DIDN'T THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA AND LEFT MY RIG EXPOSED TO DAMAGE.

I've got one of these ordered, but would love to hear comments from anyone who has used it. Looks pretty cool if they work as good as advertised. http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCategoryId=10000&SubCategoryId=223&Pro ductId=2768

[racerjoe]

wouldn't you get 45 amps only if the tie in,inside the breaker box is coming from seperate souces? If the campground piggybacks the 15amp outlet from the 30 amp outlet then I do not think it will give you any more. I am sure someone here can correct me if I am wrong.

[Craig A]

Usually the 30 amp and the 15 amp are on separate circuits and are usable independently. The idea on this is to be able to run 2 A/Cs or an A/C and the electric water heater, microwave or hairdryer without causing problems. In FL, the ability to run to 2 A/Cs in the summer is priceless. I hope it works that out that way.

[Exnavydiver]

I bought a similar rig at CW this season, used it at Skidaway state park in Savannah. Works great with two 30 amp plugs but when I tried it on the same power stanchion using one 30 amp and a 20 amp the 20 amp kept ground faulting. So I just kept using the the two 30 amp plugs. Works great.. Dave

[HughM]

We used a different brand but had the same function. Works great except when the 20 amp is on a GFI then it will trip. All Corp of Engineers Parks that we stayed at had the 20 amp on a GFI.
We used ours alot and never had a problem with them except for the 20 amp GFI hookup.
Hugh

[Exnavydiver]

Since both of our units have the same problem there would seem to be a maybe universal situation. I guess I will have to pull my unit down and toss the meter probes inside. Since it was designed to work with either 30 amp and 15 amp or 30 and 30 then something is hinky inside or there is some error in the stanchions... dave

[Snownyet]

wont work with GFI's, Im told the GFI will sense an imbalance in the neutral and trip.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Gonna definitely look into this.

BUT I do see an eventual problem. The CG's will start charging extra for 45AMP just as they now do for 50AMP. I can here it now, "Do you need 30, 45 or 50AMP service?" "What's the cost difference?" you'll ask. "Well 30AMP is included, 50 AMP is $2.00 extra and 45AMP is $10.00 extra. Afterall if you can afford that fancy 45 AMP adapter you can surely afford the extra charge."

[Craig A]

Glenn, I got it at JC Whitney for less than $60. If they don't know about it, that's only about 10 to 15 overnights in a cheaper 30 AMP site.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Craig, I realize the cost but some of the parks we have stayed in don't. It's much like the Autoformer. Many RV parks do not allow the Autoformer as they feel it is drawing additional current as we all know it does not. These same parks will see 2 pig tails hanging from their power pole and automatically assume they are drawing more power than we are entitled to.
I will be taking a closer look at this 45AMP apapter. It sounds like a good idea.

[Steve and Brenda]

This setup is on sale at Camping World this week. Saw it for $56.00 if you're a club member.

Shortened link - Edited RBS

[dsprik]

I would like to know the difference - if any - between these two different adapters. I was looking into the "Cheater Box" listed on CW. Just recently came across this first one listed at the top of this thread.

[Snownyet]

Just keep in mind, when you have 2 separate 120v circuits providing power to each bus of a 240v system, each of the 2 120v circuits must have a neutral capable of carrying the maximum load of either of the sources. That means the 15amp neutral could possibly be put in a position to carry a 30 amp load. Chances are it wont happen and if it does damage would occur to the parks power not the RV. I wont use one of these setups, I dont want to take the risk of messing up a campgrounds equipment and my rig works just fine on a 30 amp adapter.

[Bill and Lisa]

We approached the problem differently - when we added a second A/C unit (Monty was prewired for the second A/C) we told the dealer we did not want to power the front A/C off of the main 120v electrical system. They removed the leads from the posts on the back of the Distribution panel and connected them to the leads of a heavy duty 2o Amp extension cord via a junction box (to ensure they didn't stress the connections). We then routed the 20 AMp cord through the basement over to the convenience center. In effect the 20 Amp cord is hard wired to the front A/C and nothing else.

As noted in other posts, most campground pedastals have a seperate breaker for the 15 amp plugs. At the north east rally, even though we only had 30 AMp available for the coach we were able to run both A/Cs at will. This also has the advantage of anyone walking by only seeing ONE black power cord running to the pedastal. Most folks don't realize the extension cord is powering an Airconditioner and assume it is awning lights or some such thing. (Basement entertainment system, etc.)

Even if your front A/C is already connected to the main bus it should be very easy to retrofit this "solution" to your rig.

[snfexpress]

I bought one of these, thinking that it would be panaceac. I plugged it in and the 20 amp breaker "broke". Okay, I said to myself, need to figure out what leg of power goes where. I figured it out: in our rig, the 20 amp side (right input, looking at receptacle) powers the majority of stuffs in our rig. I swapped the inputs at the breaker panel in our rig and thought all was good. Nope.

I talked to my father-in-law who has been an electrician for 50+ years. He told me that if both the 30 amp and 20 amp sides are on the *same* phase and so on the same circuit, the amperage draw will always go to the smallest wire (the 20 amp side). Also, if on the same phase, then I would have to worry about the supply wire to the pedestal - can it handle 45+ amps of current?

He told me that if I want to use this contraption, I should only use on split phase pedestals (where each leg is on a different phase). The way to figure this out is to use your volt meter. If you put one wire in the line voltage side of the 30 amp receptacle and the other wire in the line voltage side of the 20 amp receptacle, AND you get a reading, you have seperate phases. If you don't, you don't.

Thought you all should know.

[fulltimedreamer]

quote:Originally posted by Bill and Lisa

We approached the problem differently - when we added a second A/C unit (Monty was prewired for the second A/C) we told the dealer we did not want to power the front A/C off of the main 120v electrical system. They removed the leads from the posts on the back of the Distribution panel and connected them to the leads of a heavy duty 2o Amp extension cord via a junction box (to ensure they didn't stress the connections). We then routed the 20 AMp cord through the basement over to the convenience center. In effect the 20 Amp cord is hard wired to the front A/C and nothing else.

As noted in other posts, most campground pedastals have a seperate breaker for the 15 amp plugs. At the north east rally, even though we only had 30 AMp available for the coach we were able to run both A/Cs at will. This also has the advantage of anyone walking by only seeing ONE black power cord running to the pedastal. Most folks don't realize the extension cord is powering an Airconditioner and assume it is awning lights or some such thing. (Basement entertainment system, etc.)

Even if your front A/C is already connected to the main bus it should be very easy to retrofit this "solution" to your rig.

We don't have a second AC unit, but I have my W/D hooked up this way on our 30 Amp coach. I have a second 20 Amp connector on the side of the coach that I plug into the 15/20 Amp recepticle on most power pedestals. Inside, this goes to a circuit we use to feed the W/D or an electric heater. I used 12 guage wire and plugs incase some campground might have a 20 Amp circuit instead of a 15 Amp circuit. It's nice to run the W/D or another heater without having to do all the power management tricks.

Here's a link to what I did:

http://www.geocities.com/fulltimedre...0_Amp_upg.html

[Snownyet]

quote:Originally posted by Bill and Lisa

We approached the problem differently - when we added a second A/C unit (Monty was prewired for the second A/C) we told the dealer we did not want to power the front A/C off of the main 120v electrical system. They removed the leads from the posts on the back of the Distribution panel and connected them to the leads of a heavy duty 2o Amp extension cord via a junction box (to ensure they didn't stress the connections). We then routed the 20 AMp cord through the basement over to the convenience center. In effect the 20 Amp cord is hard wired to the front A/C and nothing else.

As noted in other posts, most campground pedastals have a seperate breaker for the 15 amp plugs. At the north east rally, even though we only had 30 AMp available for the coach we were able to run both A/Cs at will. This also has the advantage of anyone walking by only seeing ONE black power cord running to the pedastal. Most folks don't realize the extension cord is powering an Airconditioner and assume it is awning lights or some such thing. (Basement entertainment system, etc.)

Even if your front A/C is already connected to the main bus it should be very easy to retrofit this "solution" to your rig.

Im doing the same thing when we install our 2nd air conditioner. Mainly because it will allow us to stay at some more rustic 20amp sites and still have a cool bedroom.