Weird Situation, What would you do? Options

[Lindsay Richards]

Just had a weird thing happen to me. We are staying in a busy campground we used several years ago and wanted to extend our stay. We had to move. No problems there. When we go to our new site which is listed on their map as a 50 amp site and told to my wife that it was a 50 amp site and charged as a 50 amp site. It shares a pedestal with another site. The pedestal has a 30 amp and a 50 amp plug. The 50 amp is on my side and visa versa. When I go to plug in, the 30 amp guy is plugged into my 50 amp side of the pedestal. He has a 50 amp male plug on his cord. We go tell the lady (?) at the office and she says the person who gets their first has the choice even though they are clearly marked and charged differently. She then says since we are only a 33 ft class A, we can’t have a 50 amp system in our coach as they don’t start until 35 feet. Well, this gets my wife PO’ed and they end up calling the other guy and he agrees (finally) to let them switch to the correct hookup, but his adapter is locked up inside. The office lady (?) brings out the wrong adapter and tells me to change it. I try explaining male and female plugs and get nowhere, She calls her assistant, Mr. Personality, who explains the male and female plugs to her, but says we must not have a 50 amp system because we are only 33 feet and 33 ft Class A's don't have 50 amp. He also says it is standard practice for the first one there to get the best setup. I point to my 48 state filled in map and he says ,” That don’t give you the right to get the best plug.” I explain that it does let him know that I have been in hundreds of campgrounds and he doesn’t know what he is talking about. He switched the guy who paid for 30 amp to 30 amp and I put my very rare 50 amp plug into my $2.00 extra socket. It is in the 90’s today and I have been running both AC’S

[pianotuna]

Hi Galli,

The simple answer. If you have 30 amp RV and use a 50 to 30 adapter it is safe to do so.

If you have a 30 amp RV (as I do) it is possible to have a special 50 to 30 and 20 adapter made up. I got fancy and added circuit breakers and two 20 amp plugs. This will let me run the 30 amp RV and the block heater for the engine.

If you have a 50 amp rv and use a 30 to 50 adapter it is safe to do so, but it won't be possible to run everything at once.

If you have a 50 amp RV and use a "cheater" adapter that combines a 30 and 20 amp outlet it may work "sometimes" and when it does it will provide more power than the simple 30 to 50 adapter. It won't work with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter). My personal opinion is that such a device is not of much use.

I hope this helps.