Can I use my Keystone trailer without 30a supply but with normal 115v supply

[gedevane]

My son is putting his Keystone RV into my back yard for a short while. Do I need a 30A supply or can I just run 115v out to his trailer if he turns off the fridge and A/c?

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by gedevane

My son is putting his Keystone RV into my back yard for a short while. Do I need a 30A supply or can I just run 115v out to his trailer if he turns off the fridge and A/c?

If by a a 115v you mean a standard 15 amp plug yes. He should be able to charge the battery ,run the fridge on electric, and watch a television. No air-conditioning, plug in heaters, hairdryers, and water heater on gas.

[markcee]

Follow up question on this....

I am able to run my fridge and one A/C when plugged in at home to a 15 amp plug, without tripping any breakers.

Is this potentially harmful?

[gedevane]

Originally Posted by flybouy

If by a a 115v you mean a standard 15 amp plug yes. He should be able to charge the battery ,run the fridge on electric, and watch a television. No air-conditioning, plug in heaters, hairdryers, and water heater on gas.

Thanks for the prompt reponse.
What about connecting a normal battery recharger unit ( the kind used for car batteries) directly up to the + and - terminals of the RV 12v Batteries - would that work?
Thanks

[meaz93*]

Originally Posted by markcee

Follow up question on this....



I am able to run my fridge and one A/C when plugged in at home to a 15 amp plug, without tripping any breakers.



Is this potentially harmful?

I suprised you were able to run AC...and another appliance?
You can and probably will burn up the inverter!
Not to mention overloading the AC unit.
I WOULD NOT plug into anything other than a 30amp service and or a generator.

[markcee]

Originally Posted by meaz93*

I suprised you were able to run AC...and another appliance?
You can and probably will burn up the inverter!
Not to mention overloading the AC unit.
I WOULD NOT plug into anything other than a 30amp service and or a generator.

Interesting....now that I'm looking, I see other articles stating it's ok. Definitely curious to dig into this more.

I have a 15amp circuit in the garage with little else on it. When getting ready for a trip, I've run the AC for hours on end connected to this circuit.

I run my 50 amp cord from TT, dogbone it to 30 amp RV extension cord and then step down again with a 15 amp dogbone to plug into the garage outlet.

[meaz93*]

Well, I guess it works for you[emoji106]
I had a Springdale TT back on the day when I was a pinch naive-lol
I plugged my 30amp Coach into a 15amp service and bad things happened....soooo seems your outlet circuit is a very strong 15amps?
I personally have never heard of anyone going from a 50amp to 30amp to 15amp and run their AC?
Again, it's working for you so it seems to be good.[emoji848]

[Javi]

It'll work till it don't

[wiredgeorge]

My BIL & sis are in my RV spot. I have run an extension cord down to my camper from 15A plug and all is good. I won't try the A/C and the microwave runs from its own power so neither will get turned on. I can watch TV via my Dish sat dish & Wally or my OTA antenna or stereo or turn all the lights on. Keeps the battery charged, the gas alarm from chirping, etc. Fridge works fine on electric as well.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by gedevane

Thanks for the prompt reponse.
What about connecting a normal battery recharger unit ( the kind used for car batteries) directly up to the + and - terminals of the RV 12v Batteries - would that work?
Thanks

There's no need if the converter in the camper is working as it will charge the battery.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Javi

It'll work till it don't

So very true !!!!!

Sometimes, a 15 amp "house plug" will provide 15 amps to the outlet. (sometimes that outlet is wired to other outlets and there's no longer 15 amps available at that plug. Sometimes even a 5 amp load (if there's 11 amps on other plugs in that circuit), will trip the house breaker for that outlet.

Sometimes if there's no other load, a 12 gauge 50' extension cord will deliver 15 amps to the trailer power center (through adapters, shore power cord and trailer wiring). Sometimes, if you use a 16 gauge 50' extension cord "connected exactly the same", will have a 10 or 15 or even a 20 volt "voltage drop" at the trailer main breaker in the power center. When that happens and the converter/charger starts trying to charge the trailer battery, AND the refrigerator is on electric AND the air conditioner kicks on, that voltage will drop another 10 volts or so, and either heat up that 16 gauge extension cord or worse yet, burn up the compressor in the trailer air conditioner (from a too high amp draw because of the too low voltage condition).....

It probably won't happen "the first time" low voltage occurs from a "too small supply circuit".... It may not even happen while connected to that plug... It may happen the next time you're on a 30 amp circuit in a campground and you turn on the refrigerator, the water heater and the air conditioner and find that it's blowing "hot air" and the compressor won't kick in as the temperature inside the trailer keeps climbing rather than going down as expected. You think to yourself, It was working great at home last night while we were loading, but what really happened was you "overheated the windings in the compressor motor and when it shut down, all those wires melted together and now it won't turn on again.....

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by markcee

Interesting....now that I'm looking, I see other articles stating it's ok. Definitely curious to dig into this more.

I have a 15amp circuit in the garage with little else on it. When getting ready for a trip, I've run the AC for hours on end connected to this circuit.

I run my 50 amp cord from TT, dogbone it to 30 amp RV extension cord and then step down again with a 15 amp dogbone to plug into the garage outlet.

What size a/c unit and what amperage is the breaker on the a/c circuit? Is this potentially dangerous? If the fridge is running on gas it should be fine but if it's using an electric heating element and it calls for it at the same time the a/c compressor kicks in then you could certainly have a low voltage issue from the high amp draw. You have to look at the amperage draw of each appliance to see if a 15 amp supply is sufficient or not. There's too many variables to make a blanket statement like yes it's ok or no it's not. I know with my unit with a 15K btu a/c unit it will not run on a 15 amp circuit.

[dutchmensport]

"Yes" you can. The most that will happen is you'll pop the breaker in electric panel in the house if you exceed the breaker AMP's , either 15 or 20.

Just remember, anything running on that same circuit will subtract from the 15 or 20 amps. So if a light or an appliance is on that same circuit in the house, it will also pull part of that 15 or 20 amps, making less available in the camper.

You can successfully power a 30 amp RV on a 15 amp service, but power management is an absolute must - which means, basically, running only 1 appliance at a time.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

"Yes" you can. The most that will happen is you'll pop the breaker in electric panel in the house if you exceed the breaker AMP's , either 15 or 20.

Just remember, anything running on that same circuit will subtract from the 15 or 20 amps. So if a light or an appliance is on that same circuit in the house, it will also pull part of that 15 or 20 amps, making less available in the camper.

You can successfully power a 30 amp RV on a 15 amp service, but power management is an absolute must - which means, basically, running only 1 appliance at a time.

This is true ONLY if you ignore voltage drop in the circuit.... But then, I'm not going to be the one paying for a burned up air conditioner or a melted 30:15 plug adapter (dogbone).

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Javi

It'll work till it don't

This is very true. You "can" run that RV A/C on a 15A circuit if it is by itself...but;

I did that off and on with my old trailer and 13.5k AC and never had an issue. Never ran too long using a 50' 12ga. heavy duty cord. The receptacles were virtually new and the cord was in excellent shape when I traded the trailer.

The new trailer has a 15k primary A/C and didn't really think about it. Getting ready for a trip I turned on the A/C for DW to go put some things in. I used it 2-3 hours for 2-3 days. I did look at or unplug the extension cord to the trailer. When we completed loading and I was pulling everything in I was shocked to find the outlet semi melted and the cord blackened and semi melted. I cleaned up the extension cord but had to replace the receptacle. If I had used it repeatedly for a long time I would have had damage.

Like Javi said, "it'll work till it don't" so be VERY wary. Funny thing (sort of) I was doing that while waiting for the electrician to come and put a 50A RV receptacle on the property where I keep the RV when we're loading/unloading.

[markcee]

Originally Posted by flybouy

What size a/c unit and what amperage is the breaker on the a/c circuit? Is this potentially dangerous? If the fridge is running on gas it should be fine but if it's using an electric heating element and it calls for it at the same time the a/c compressor kicks in then you could certainly have a low voltage issue from the high amp draw. You have to look at the amperage draw of each appliance to see if a 15 amp supply is sufficient or not. There's too many variables to make a blanket statement like yes it's ok or no it's not. I know with my unit with a 15K btu a/c unit it will not run on a 15 amp circuit.

It's a 15K Dometic Brisk Air II. Looking it up it appears to draw 13 amps. Electrical dumba** here (obviously), but I'm assuming more when it kicks on? I do not try to run the bedroom 13.5 at the same time....although I did when I installed it...lol. They both ran for about 2 minutes and the house breaker tripped.

I must be (have been) really lucky. When we get ready for a trip that thing is on the entire period - sometimes a couple of days - that the trailer is sitting in front of the house. Obviously it is not running non stop, but this time of year we are already topping 100, so it's on a good majority of the time. I also do run the fridge on electric at the same time, as it takes a good couple days to get cold. At the very least I will switch that to propane.

I had an electrician I've used before come out for an estimate to install a 50 amp RV outlet about 6 months ago. I have a labor intensive wire run they will need to make and they quoted $1500. We thought about it and said 'hey, it's working fine on the garage outlet for what we need', so cheaped out and didn't do it. I always just figured worst case, the breaker would trip. I may have to rethink that now and at least get a 30 amp put in.

At least I am not using any home extension cords, hopefully that helps the cause. I have a 30 amp RV extension cord retained from our Class C and the 50 amp that came with the trailer. It's about a 50' run from the outlet to the RV.

[sourdough]

Mark I would put in the 50A vs the 30A. The labor to run the cable will be the same and is probably the most expensive part. A slight upcharge for an increase in the size of cable and that would be it other than the outlet itself might cost a few dollars. My 50A cost 1868 as I recall and I was happy with it. And, more importantly, DW LOVES me for it!! No more rationing "cool air" when we are loading unloading!

[Javi]

Depending on the codes it really isn't that difficult to run the wire and mount the pedestal. But you might need a sign off before closing up.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Javi

Depending on the codes it really isn't that difficult to run the wire and mount the pedestal. But you might need a sign off before closing up.

For mine "difficult" entered the picture when I had to have the large cable ran from the breaker panel, through the roof, down the side of a building, buried and then a ped set. My Old Timers disease said "Heck No", let THAT guy do it!!

[Javi]

Originally Posted by sourdough

For mine "difficult" entered the picture when I had to have the large cable ran from the breaker panel, through the roof, down the side of a building, buried and then a ped set. My Old Timers disease said "Heck No", let THAT guy do it!!

Me too, but not everyone on here was born while Truman was president. 😁