30amp + 20amp =45 amp

[Papa of 7]

A friend of mine was telling me last night that if you happen to get a 30amp campsite, there is a splitter that you can plug into a 30amp and 20amp if the pole has both and get 45amp.I am new and so far have got only 50amp sites. Is this so and if so can you run all 120v appliances as needed, I am not saying all at once.🤔

[ChuckS]

All your going to incur is potential electrical overload issues and damage to equipment by attempting to run a 50 amp RV from a 20 and 30 amp service...

Each leg of a 50 amp RV lark pedestal supplies 50 amps EACH to your RV... that’s 100 amps .. The friend that suggested using a 20 and 30 amp outlet to run your RV is misinformed about how a 50 amp RV is powered.

Each AC unit is gonna draw 24 amps or so on start up..Add in the converter, electric water heater, microwave, etc and you are well over just 50 amps

This is why if you have two AC units each is on only ONE leg of the 50 amp feed.?either L1 or L2...

[Papa of 7]

All your going to incur is potential electrical overload issues and damage to equipment by attempting to run a 50 amp RV from a 20 and 30 amp service...

Each leg of a 50 amp RV lark pedestal supplies 50 amps EACH to your RV... that’s 100 amps .. The friend that suggested using a 20 and 30 amp outlet to run your RV is misinformed about how a 50 amp RV is powered.

Each AC unit is gonna draw 24 amps or so on start up..Add in the converter, electric water heater, microwave, etc and you are well over just 50 amps

This is why if you have two AC units each is on only ONE leg of the 50 amp feed.?either L1 or L2...
That is what I thought, the first thing he said was it want work with his EMS, red flag here!

[flybouy]

That is what I thought, the first thing he said was it want work with his EMS, red flag here!

And for good reason. The 50 amp pedestal supplies 2 - 120 v 50 amp legs and 1 - neutral and 1 - grou8nd wire. The EMS looks for an imbalance on the neutral. SO with a 50 amp connection both legs use the same neutral to return the voltage. All power in from both legs go to all power out on one neutral.

If you connect the 30 and 50 amp on to the trailer then the EMS will see a load imbalance and shut down.

[wiredgeorge]

That is what I thought, the first thing he said was it want work with his EMS, red flag here!


A 20A extension cord plugged into a Y with a 30A cord and into the EMS. PLEASE have this fella post a picture of this electrical engineering breakthrough. That is really odd. If you are at a site where the pole only has 30A and 15/20A outlets and use an adapter, then plug an EMS into the adapter and then the cord to your camper into the EMS. Been there. You can always run a heavy duty extension cord from the 15/20A outlet to some appliance on the inside. I have my microwave hardwired to an outlet on the rear of my camper and bypass the convert/breakers and always plug in directly to the pedestal to avoid blowing my main 30A fuse when both microwave and A/C are running.

[tech740]

29861
It’s one of these. They don’t work if your gfci circuit is in the same leg as the 15amp. I have one and have not gotten it to work.

[dutchmensport]

I believe your friend was talking about one of these:

https://i.imgur.com/uEA8dm0.png

[dutchmensport]

Personally, I'd never use one of those. I have a 30 amp to 50 amp adapter, I also have a 30 amp Hughes Autoformer for those times we do not have 50 amp hook-ups. Having had 3 previous travel trailers, all 30 amp, we learned how to power manage. When in our 50 amp 5er now, we just revert back to old school 30 amp power management days. I don't play games with the electronics inside my camper. One bad mistake, only 1 time, and there goes thousands and thousands of dollars of repairs.

[wiredgeorge]

I wonder what the acronym CAMCO stands for in Chinese. Bet it ain't flattering. That has to be one of the unsafest looking things I have ever seen. Someone with the ability to explain 50A power explained how it works and that thing doesn't have much of a chance and I suspect could be dangerous. When you blow up the power pedestal and your camper is on fire, I am thinking the camp ground office will not be amused.

[travelin texans]

We've been to a couple parks that specifically post not using those type plugs, with pictures, so there's no confusion as to what they were talking about. Those same parks also posted not using "power boosters", no pictures, that I assumed were like the Hughes autoformers.
I have on many occasions used my 30 to 50 dogbone adapter with my EMS at parks with only 30 amp available & had no issues as long as not trying to run both acs.

[wiredgeorge]

To be clear, I have a 30A camper and have a 50A to 30A adapter thing (Camco) and plug my Progressive EMS into the adapter thing and then the power cord to the EMS.

[Javi]

Wait until the campground guy pulls all three breakers/plus off the same wire.. :D

[JRTJH]

Wait until the campground guy pulls all three breakers/plus off the same wire.. :D

Yep, or the "next 5 sites" on that supply line all tap the 30 amp and 20 amp breakers off the same leg of the 50 amp grid.... That'll definitely cause a "brownout condition" and damage air conditioners, microwaves and residential refrigerators unless each trailer has an EMS to protect the 'internals" .....

[Papa of 7]

I think it was a good subject to talk about. I didn't think it would be a good idea and maybe it will keep somebody from frying something other than bacon. I did let my friend know to stay away from it as will I. Thank you all for the input!

[rhagfo]

Wait until the campground guy pulls all three breakers/plus off the same wire.. :D

That is normal, but many times four 30 amp sites are fed off a 70 amp breaker at the park feeder box.
NEC allows six out let’s on a circuit, if the circuit is 20 amps, you can’t run six 20 amp devices at the same time. This is why the kitchen in our 5er has two circuits for the four duplex outlets.

[CedarCreekWoody]

This thing isn't a good idea, but it could work (although you would possibly overloading the neutral circuit.) If the 30 amp circuit fed one side of your 50 amp distribution box and the 20 amp circuit fed the other side you would have power. However if the 20 and 30 amp feeds are both on the same power leg (as they likely are) you could put as much as 50 amps on your 10 guage cable, a dangerous overload.

[Customer1]

It won't work if the 15/20 amp receptacle is a GFCI and they have been required since back in the 1970's.

[Jorick]

This would be a good way of getting instantly booted out of the RV park. Some parks will do a periodic inspection to make sure everything's safe. If they find out you're trying to game the system by playing Mickey Mouse with the electrical system, you're outa there!

[jbrosecity]

A 20A extension cord plugged into a Y with a 30A cord and into the EMS. PLEASE have this fella post a picture of this electrical engineering breakthrough. That is really odd. If you are at a site where the pole only has 30A and 15/20A outlets and use an adapter, then plug an EMS into the adapter and then the cord to your camper into the EMS. Been there. You can always run a heavy duty extension cord from the 15/20A outlet to some appliance on the inside. I have my microwave hardwired to an outlet on the rear of my camper and bypass the convert/breakers and always plug in directly to the pedestal to avoid blowing my main 30A fuse when both microwave and A/C are running.

Cool that you hardwired an outlet for this... I have just run a 25' 12 gauge extension cord out of the slide opening and used that for a small electric space heater, for example. I did this on my 30A Forest River Class C. I have even done this in our Keystone 5th wheel. Although it is a 50A unit, The whole kitchen and bath are on a single 15A circuit (shame on you Keystone) and so if you have a 12A space heater plugged into an outlet on that circuit and then try to run the coffee maker and the toaster, you are gonna blow the 15A breaker in your control panel. Plugging the space heater into a dedicated 15A outlet on the pedestal solves the problem.

We just traded the Keystone Avalanche in on a Vanleigh Vilano... I HOPE Vanleigh as a division of Tiffin has been more intelligent about this. But if not, I'll probably follow your lead, wiredgeorge, pay a mobile tech to put in an outside outlet wired direct to a dedicated inside outlet which I can use with a heavy gauge extension cord connected to the 15A outlet on the pedestal.