Hi All,

I feel sure that this must have been covered a hundred times somewhere but I'm strugglin to find it.

I am renting a 25ft RV, I am told it is 30amps. Many RV sites quote 50 amps. Are they compatable and if so do I need an adaptor of some sort. I am hoping that the 50amps quoted by the parks is a maximum and that they would all have 30amps as well.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Yes, you can buy an 50 to 30 amp adapter for $20 or less. Look on line and you will see a lot of them. A tip: Most all parks will have 30 amps, some will have 30/50 amps, and only the high end parks that only take class A motorhome will have only 50 amps in the box. In most cases the high end resort for motorhomes will have 20/30/50 in the box. We have never found a park with only 50 amps (outside of the high end resorts) but I see this information come in on reviews at times. Call the park and ask before you buy this adapter. If park cannot supply 30 amps move on to the next park. You can also look up this information on this website. Pull up the park you had in mind and it will list 50 amps. If this is set to no then park only has 30 amps. If yes then it could have 30/50 or 50 only.

John's advise above is exactly right. I just wanted to add, that I have an older motor home with just 30 amp plug and I have never had problems plugging in. If you think you will be renting this motor home again, then you might as well invest in the 50 to 30 amp adapter, but if this is a one-time thing, you should be fine for this trip.

Just another thought to add to both John and Fitzjohnfan's good replies.

We hosted at a small, newish, private park in Oregon for a couple summer months. That owner had wired roughly half his pads for 50 amp only. (Long story revolving around wishful marketing.)

Was absolutely no problem with that standard 50-to-30 adaptor pigtail (which he lent out) to supply the correct amps for his predominately 30 amp 5th Wheel Rig customers.

I learned SO MUCH about amps that summer. You are safe with that converter pigtail to run a 30 amp coach. Just remember to keep it when your trip is over and you return the rig.

I've had campgrounds say, "yeah, we have 50 amps" when what they REALLY have is two connectors, 30 amp and 20 amp. Hey, 30 + 20 = 50 right? And whatever you do, do NOT make any homemade appliances to force "50 amp." Someone tried that at the park I'm hosting at now. If you are plugged into the 30 amp, it's ok to plug, oh, maybe a trouble light or something into the 20 amp if you need it. But don't try to force 50 amps.

Also, if you are 30 amp and using a 30/50 connector, do NOT assume you will get 50 amps. YOu will still only get 30 amps. Someone had to explain this to me 26 times before it sunk in.

JJ

Hi JJ,

And what happened?

I have had a whiz bang 50 to 30 and 20 adapter made up. It has a proper 50 amp male plug, and has a 30 amp breaker protected female, and two 20 amp breaker protected female outlets. I think it may prove quite useful to me.

Don:

I'm pretty sure she is talking about using a homemade cheater box to combine a 30-amp outlet with a 20-amp outlet to get 50 amps.

I have a real Cheater Box, which will combine two 30-amp outlets (or a 20- and a 30-amp outlet) into a 50 amp outlet. We use it once or twice a year. Of course, it won't work if one of the outlets is GFI protected, and you could theoretically overload your 50 amp neutral line, but you would have to work at it to do that (and have two in-phase 30 amp sources).

Hi Denali,

Yes, I agree that's what JJ is talking about--and that's why I want to know "what happened". *grin*.

I knew they would not work with GFI outlets--but since you have one...Would you care to elaborate?

The ranger at the park I'm hosting at said people try that all the time. The one that tried it when I was there, "blew" the box. The box can only take 30 amp, even though there is a 20 and 30 amp plug in, you can't use more than 30 amps.

JJ

Hi JJ,

Thanks. Perhaps Denali can expand on what happened.

I'm not sure what I can elaborate on. I have never had a problem using my Cheater Box, but I certainly wouldn't try to use it on the 20- and 30-amp outlets on a single pedestal. I assume that if there is no 50 amp receptacle on the pedestal, it isn't wired to take that kind of load.

The exception is often at fairground RV parks. Those seem to often have pedestals with multiple 30 amp connections to support several RVs during events. Two that I have visited multiple times are the Agricenter in Memphis, Tennessee and the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds in Antioch, California.

I suspect that the real question is about the availability of 30A outlets. ToddUK, the reason that you see parks state that they have 50A outlets is because not all parks do.But I have never seen any commercial RV parks here in the US that did not have 30A outlets as a standard part of the RV hook-ups. It would be very unusual to find an RV park that has 50A outlets and not 30A.

The short answer to the original question is "with an adapter you can connect a 30-amp rig to a 50-amp service. In fact, I have a 30-amp rig and carry an adapter. Occassionally, I will find the 30-amp service socket burned or worn out and making a poor connection. As a rule, 50-amp service is less used and generally the connector will be in better condition.

In the last 6 years I have found it necessary to use the adapter only 4 or 5 times but it was a life-saver when it was necessary.

Your rig master breaker will limit the input to your rig to 30 amps regardless of the capabilities of the power post you plug into.

The other, "home made" gadgets scare me to death. I, personally wouldn't use them.

Good luck,
Old Soldier

Camp on the Heart RV Park in Dickinson, ND has a 30-amp section and a 50-amp section. The 50-amp section has only 50 amp connections on the pedestals, but the park lends campers the appropriate adapter if they want to park a 30 amp rig in the 50 amp section.

A few years ago, we stayed at a park somewhere near Niagara Falls that had only 50 amp connections on the pedestals, but that may have been on the Canadian side of the border.

You are absolutely correct, though. It is rare.