Explain shore power please.

[Houndbb]

I wondered if the reason for the wildly different times was related to one cooling down with electricity versus another who had no power and was cooling down with propane. Since mine does not have access to electricity where it is stored I will be cooling down with propane before the trip.

That will definitely take longer. Sometimes I feel sorry for urban, or even some suburban owners who have to go to great lengths to even load up for a trip. We’re lucky, I guess, being able to put her in our driveway and wash, fix, clean inside, and load.

[WhittleBurner]

I am totally new and want to understand what the RV dealer told me when I bought my GD TT. She said if we were going to wire a dedicated outlet at our home for the TT to be sure we understood how it is to be wired as it could wreck our TT electrical system.

Let me state what I think I know and please confirm or correct me. The confusion for an RV outlet is that it looks like a dryer plug outlet which is 220V AC. However, the wiring and power for an RV are the same as wiring an outlet in your home at 110V AC. The only difference is the outlet type you run the wires to. Is this correct?

Wiring for trailers is different than how a house is wired. A trailer sitting on wheels has to be grounded differently. I am not an electrician, i'm sure one will chime in here soon to help out. Your salesman was right. Even Lowe's sells electric box's for rv's. If you don't know how to do it I would recommend getting someone who knows about wiring an RV.

[Dick Noble]

I am confused. I have assumed that a 50 amp plug is no more than 50 amps. Even though there are two "hot" sides it is still a max of 50 amp per side and that does not make a total of 100 amps. Is this not correct?

[kevinpo]

Hello Dick,
That is not correct. Because they are out of phase each phase has the potential to deliver 50A which can deliver a maximum of 100A to the RV.

Regards,
Kevin

[Cate&Rob]

@SJMaye,

Since you have a 30A trailer, you do not need to worry about the 50A "split" electrical supply used by the larger trailers. A 30A 120V trailer electrical plug looks similar to an older clothes dryer 240V plug, but they are not identical and not interchangeable. The "caution" that your dealer was talking about is that you can't just change the outlet on an old dryer 240V feed and plug in your 120V RV.

WRT cooling down your fridge . . . either shore power or propane will supply about the same amount of cooling (if the fridge is working correctly). Something to remember is that even when running on propane, the fridge requires a significant amount of 12V (battery) power to run the control circuits and the back-of-fridge cooling fans. Without shore power to keep the RV battery charged, your limitation on cooling down the fridge on propane is likely to be discharging your RV battery.

Rob

[Steven@147]

I am totally new and want to understand what the RV dealer told me when I bought my GD TT. She said if we were going to wire a dedicated outlet at our home for the TT to be sure we understood how it is to be wired as it could wreck our TT electrical system.

Let me state what I think I know and please confirm or correct me. The confusion for an RV outlet is that it looks like a dryer plug outlet which is 220V AC. However, the wiring and power for an RV are the same as wiring an outlet in your home at 110V AC. The only difference is the outlet type you run the wires to. Is this correct?

Well yes and no. Your dealer person is right make sure you get it right or you will damage your RV. Your thinking is correct though. You can just get an RV dog bone adapter to reduce the RV 30amp cable to a 15 amp house hold plug and be done. But as others have said you will be extremely limited on what you can run in the RV. You can even reduce a 50 amp RV cable down to a 15 amp house hold plug with RV adapters. Both 120VAC sides of the 50 amp RV cable will be powered from the household plug. The RV dog bone adapter does this for you. But in any case you can not pull more than 15 amps from the household plug in, because that plug is being feed from a 15 amp breaker in your distribution panel..

No the plugs dont all look the same. Thank goodness all of the different type of high voltage plugs RV, Dryer, Stove, Welder and so forth are all different (mostly). Notice that a dryer 4 wire plug has a dog leg neutral. So you can't physically plug an RV cord into a dryer outlet, it wont fit.

I should add for clarity line AC voltage is typically 110 -125 VAC.

The problem comes from people wiring the receptacles wrong. I have also heard of people who hired an electrician to wire up an RV outlet and they did it wrong and blew their RV. The vast majority of electricians know what they are doing.

For the benefit of others that may find and view this thread. Lets help and try to add a couple of pictures. It would be my strong advice to only ever use the correct plug, cable and power receptacle for the device your trying to connect.

[Dick Noble]

Now I'm even more confused. I know that the main line in can deliver a lot of amps but we can only use (draw) up to 50 amps. Anything over 50 amps will cause the breaker to blow, so we can never draw 100 amps even though more than that is delivered by the electrical company.

[JKellerJr]

Now I'm even more confused. I know that the main line in can deliver a lot of amps but we can only use (draw) up to 50 amps. Anything over 50 amps will cause the breaker to blow, so we can never draw 100 amps even though more than that is delivered by the electrical company.

I'm no expert but I believe you cant draw more than 50 amps PER LEG. so yes you can pull 100 amps. The 50 amp breaker is actually 2 50 amp breakers linked together.

Any triple air unit would pull more than 50 amps if more than 1 started at the same time. Add in microwaves, hair dryers, etc and I'm sure they pull more than 50 amps quite often

[Steven@147]

Now I'm even more confused. I know that the main line in can deliver a lot of amps but we can only use (draw) up to 50 amps. Anything over 50 amps will cause the breaker to blow, so we can never draw 100 amps even though more than that is delivered by the electrical company.

I would say it has a lot to do with how the campground power pedestal is wired and up stream to a distribution point, how cheap they wired it, and or what size beakers they have in the panel and how old they are. If the power pedestal for the 50 amp RV connector is feed by two 50 amp breakers, (usual) then you should be able to theoretically pull a maximum of 50 amps from both legs or 100 amps total. However, these breakers are not really a switch and from prolonged use, neglect and age, they may not be able to sustain up to a 50 amp draw from both legs of a 50 amp connector. They get weak and trip. Since the two 50 amp breakers are tied together with a single bar, one gets weak, trips and causes the other to trip.

Then too how is the camp ground feeding the 50 amp power pedestal from a central distribution point up stream. They may be limiting you to only pull up to say 70 amps total.
See this link on how a power pedestal should be wired. http://www.billgehr.com/images/MH_20...r_Trip_101.pdf

They really should call these things 100 amp connectors because that is what they really are.

[gbkims]

I am totally new and want to understand what the RV dealer told me when I bought my GD TT. She said if we were going to wire a dedicated outlet at our home for the TT to be sure we understood how it is to be wired as it could wreck our TT electrical system.

Let me state what I think I know and please confirm or correct me. The confusion for an RV outlet is that it looks like a dryer plug outlet which is 220V AC. However, the wiring and power for an RV are the same as wiring an outlet in your home at 110V AC. The only difference is the outlet type you run the wires to. Is this correct?

As said, the 30A 120VAC dedicated outlet is wired with a Single Pole CB so it has a Hot, Neutral, Ground and only supplies 120VAC to your TT.
The caution is if a electrician wired the outlet by mistake using 2 Pole CB with Hot, Hot, Ground which would be 240VAC and damage the TT's electrical appliances.

Side note, I always like video/pictures when it comes to explaining electricity.
Found some I like by Engineering Mindset that have some use in our home and RVs:
* Ground Neutral and Hot wires explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-W42tk-fWc
* 120V 240V Electricity explained - Split phase 3 wire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJeRabV5hNU&t=188s
edit: Above video shows how our house panels are wired. The RV panels are a bit different, they're like a Sub Panel w/o Neutral to Ground Bond.
* Voltage Explained - What is Voltage? Basic electricity potential difference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w82aSjLuD_8
* What is CURRENT– electric current explained, electricity basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Posj4WMo0o
* How does a Transformer work - Working Principle electrical engineering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UchitHGF4n8&t=22s
* How Inverters Work - Working principle rectifier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9VZIL8rVs
* Solenoid Basics Explained - Working Principle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbmocfETTFo
* 3 Way Switches Explained - How to wire 3 way light switch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u5ORnhqn8g