20 - 30 - 50 Amp service

[Mike-GA]

I’m so confused. I have an Outback 310TB (30A). I know I can buy a converter so I can connect it to a 20A service and if I don’t turn on the air conditioner, I’m good-to-go. But, is that safe?

What about connecting it to a 50A circuit? Are 30 & 50 amp plugs different? And so forth and so on. Is there a RV electric for complete idiots FAQ?

[Festus2]

Mike -
Your RV's electrical system is 30A - not 50 so you would need another adapter to plug into a 50A circuit. Yes, the 30A and the 50A plugs are different.

You can buy an adapter - not a converter - that will go from 30A to 20A as you mentioned. If you try turning on your A/C while on 20A, you'll most likely activate the circuit breaker.

Try a Google search to see what you can come up with on RV electrical systems and how they work. It is important that you have a basic understanding of this for your own personal safety as well as the day-to-day operation of your RV. You can do a lot of damage to the RV - as well as yourself - if you are completely "in the dark", poking around electrical circuits or hooking up things the wrong way.

[Tinbender]

Think of amps as "tons of load" your RV is designed to carry a max load of 30 tons (amps), it might in fact carry only 28 or as much as 31 but the design is 30. Anything over 30 will trip the main breaker, or cause other operation problems.
Your trailer can't carry 50 tons (amps) so don't try. Having said that I "think" there is an adapter available that will allow you to plug into a 50 amp service but it steps the load down to 30 amps. Never really saw the necessity in trying to use something like this as almost any pedestal that has 50 amp service also has a 30.

The adapter for the drop from 30 to 20 is something that is practical to have/use. I have one that I use when my trailer is parked at home, it allows the battery charging system to stay on top of the batteries as well as allowing the shore power to feed the slide out operation or the refer/freezer if I want to fire them up a day early before leaving on a trip.

Depending on the BTU rating of your AC unit the 20 amp may carry the load. I think the smaller AC units pull about 15 amps, the larger 18-20 or more.
Having said that I would definitely not use a 20 amp service to operate the AC or even the electric water heater. If there is a weak point somewhere in the system (think also outside the RV) this borderline full load will find it, however for the uses stated above it works great.

Not to throw in a sales pitch but something I have found to be very useful is a the unit linked here.

http://www.progressiveindustries.net/ems_hw30c.htm

Good luck
Tinbender

[Bob Landry]

There is no adapter that steps down the 50A service. If you plug into 50A using an adapter, the full 50A is still available, but it is limited to 30A at the breaker panel because of the 30A breakers at the input.

If anything, there may be an advantage to plugging into the 50A socket. The 50A service at campgrounds gets less use than the 30A outlets. Because of that, the internal connections may be cleaner, tighter, and offer a better power source as opposed to ones that have had constant plugging into, arcing, and burned contacts.

[danimal]

Adding to what Bob Landry said, I have stayed at a campground that was nearly full and only had 50amp sites available. I have 30amp service and was sure glad that I had a 50amp to 30amp adaptor. Also, being that the 30amp outlets are used more than 50amp their circuit breakers have been triggered more which effectively weakens the breakers. Consequently, they will trigger below 30amps. At a county campground my trailer was consistantly triggering the 30 amp breaker. I added my 50amp adaptor and plugged into the 50amp service and had no problems. I would not recommend this if you are not sure that your trailer wiring is sound.