Power Cord questions

[drjjj]

Cleaned out the "belly of the whale" (what DW calls the storage compartment) recently to inspect, restock, etc. We have never not had 50 amp service anywhere we have been so far and I have a 50 amp outlet near the front door of my stick house to use when we load/unload. We are about to make some trips to "new territory" for us so I closely examined the power cord adapters that the dealer supplied when we bought the unit in late 2006. Glad I did-what I need for 30 amp or 110v service is a 50 amp female to 30 amp male and what the dealer gave me 50 amp male to 30 amp female. I am shopping for the appropriate adapters to carry in the rig and I noticed that Camco markets a 50 amp female with a 30 amp male along with a 110v male that are the same length so both could be plugged in to a campground outlet that had 30 amp and 110v on the same pedestal but not 50 amp. They call it their "Motorhome adapter". Does anyone know if there would be any benefit to having this set up for a short term stay at a campground with only 30 amp service? I am inclined to just get a "step down" of 50 amp female to 30 amp male and then a 30 amp female to 110 male to use in an emergency to power just the lights, etc. Any advice would be appreciate.

[BB_TX]

That "Y" adapter connects one leg of the 50 amp RV hot to the 30 amp park outlet and the other leg to the 20 amp park outlet. However it will not work if the 20 amp outlet is a GFCI outlet. It will trip the GFCI. And unless it is an old outlet, it will be a GFCI.

Both the 30 amp and 20 amp park outlets are 120 vac.

[DQDick]

Haven't stayed in a park that had a non-gfi outlet in years, thus I don't own one.

[Bama Camper]

BB_TX is correct. We've run into that before. Save your money on the "Y" combiner.
The limitation is you will only have 30 amps available. Just manage your power consumption.

[CORattler]

I carry a 30 amp power cord and a 110v cord so I don't have to haul out the "anaconda" every time. MUCH easier to manage especially for when we just stop for an overnight while traveling. A worthwhile purchase for me.

[Dusters]

Unless you are dependent on the AC or the microwave, the 2 adapters for 30 and 20 amp, a 110V extension cord is all that's been necessary. At the Home, I run the extension cord and start up the refrigerator.

[BB_TX]

Sounds like you typically stay in established RV parks. You will find those to almost always have at least 30 amp service. We have rarely encountered one where only 20 amp service was available. However, I do have a 50 amp female to 30 amp male adapter and a 30 amp female to 15/20 amp male adapter that I carry. You are referring to it as 110 vac, but both the 30 amp and the 15/20 amp outlets are 110/120 vac. Typically the actual voltage is 115 to 117 volts AC.

One of the parks we frequent is in southern Colorado at about 8,500 ft. It has mostly 30 amp service with some sites only having 20 amp service. No problem as we are more likely to need heat, even in July, that A/C. And because the summer temps can be pretty cool, I bought a 25' 30 amp cord with 50 amp connector at the trailer end and 30 amp plug at the other end. That is so much easier to roll up and store when l leaving on a cold morning than that big 50 amp cord.

[WaltBennett]

We've encountered only 30 amp service about 20% of the time and that's using mostly Passport America and military CGs. That said, I do carry a 30 to 50 adapter, a 30 to 20 and a 12 gauge 50' extension cord. Use the extension cord when we have to run our generator (has a 30 amp outlet, but I haven't gotten around to getting a ~20' 30 amp cord). This will run the AC with no problem, but not much else. I leave the inverter/charger off and run lights & etc off our batteries.

[speedster100]

Ditto on carrying a 30amp cord/cords with the adapter that connects at the unit so I don't have to lug the 50amp cord around when only 30amp is available..... Use it when boon docking as well for the 3000is honda generator for same reasons.