for a couple hundred bucks...depending on the length of run for wire...you could put in a 30 amp rv outlet on the side of the house as well. and be able to use the full function of your rig. i plan to do this next summer...
when I built our shed 10 years ago I wired for 20 amp,,I plug in usualy week before trip,I have run the ac with no problems as well,depends on your hookup,,
We actually ran a 30-amp 240v circuit to the edge of the driveway where we keep our RV year round. On the outside of the house we have a 240v disconnect. The 50-amp 240 volt wire is really difficult to run and also very expensive. We happened to have a large piece of 30-amp 240 volt wire available to us, so the fuse inside the house is 30-amp 240v and is run to a 50-amp 240v outlet next to the RV. This gives us two 30-amp circuits for a total of 60-amps at the RV.
Remember, it is the 30-amp 240v breaker inside the house that protects the wiring from overload. If I ask for more than 30-amps on either side of the circuit, the breaker in the house will pop; and that has never happened yet!
A lot of people are confused about amps and volts.
AC is alternating current. The “hot” black wire swings from plus 120 volts to minus 120 volts 60 times a second. The white wire is ground. The maximum voltage measured between the white and black wires is 120 volts, alternating between plus and minus voltage.
A 240 volt circuit is the same thing, but there is a third wire, a second “hot” red wire. Geek Talk: 180 degrees out of phase! Basically, when the black wire is at plus 120 volts, the red wire if at minus 120 volts, and vice versa. The maximum voltage between the red and black wires is 240 volts, the difference from plus 120 and minus 120. BUT, there is still a white ground wire. The maximum voltage between the red and white wires is 120 volts, same as between the black and white wires. The circuit will support both 240 volt connections between the two hot wires and a pair of 120 volt connections between one hot and the ground. Almost all circuits in an RV are 120 volt. I’m sure there are a few with 240 volt lines for clothes dryers, but they are rare.
The fuse box inside the RV connects half of your circuits to the red wire and the other half to the black wire, sharing the load and giving each side a maximum of 50-amps before the outside breaker pops. OR, in my case the inside breaker pops if I exceed 30-amps on either side.
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I cheated and had an electrician buddy run me a special 30 Amp.line
for my trailer. No worries...
I was out the price of a small box and the wire...
(and a case of beer)
I went CW Saturday and bought a 50' 30amp extension cord and Heavy duty adapter. Every time I tried to plug the TT into a plug with a ground fault protector it would kick it.
A friend came over and came to the conclusion that the ground faults did not like the way the TT was wired (I think just as Sandy & Shirley mentioned above: "The fuse box inside the RV connects half of your circuits to the red wire and the other half to the black wire, sharing the load and giving each side a maximum of 50-amps before the outside breaker pops. OR, in my case the inside breaker pops if I exceed 30-amps on either side.")
I plugged it into a 15amp circuit w/o GFP and it's ran perfectly since.
I had this same problem with the “floating RV” I had before I started RVing on dry land The problem was that when they wired one of the outlets, they connected both the white and clear wire to the neutral side of the plug. You can’t have the white and neutral connected or you will pop a GFI.
The GFI measures the micro-milli-amps, going out the black wire against how much is coming back on the white wire. If is it off by the smallest fraction, it assumes a GF (Ground Fault) and pops the breaker. When white and clear touch inside the circuit, some of the current has to come back on the clear wire so the white isn’t equal to the black.
It will work perfect with a non-GFI circuit, after all, the white and clear are on the same bar in the fuse box inside the house, but not if the white passes through the GFI as it does on that kind of circuit.
Do this:
Turn off all the circuit breakers in the RV, then plug into the GFI circuit.
If the gfi still pops, you have major problems!
One by one, turn on each circuit in the RV until the GFI pops.
Once you have that circuit flagged, leave it off and try the others, again one by one.
Now, leave those circuits off and see what is not working in the RV. Take off the plates and see how each outlet is wired. The clear ground has to be on its own connection, not connected to the white!
"Turn off all the circuit breakers in the RV, then plug into the GFI circuit.
If the gfi still pops, you have major problems!"
I actually tried this first (all breakers off in TT panel), before I bought the 30 amp cord and thought that my well used, cheap orange extension cord was shorted. After getting the 30 amp cord it still popped the GFI.
So splitting the circuits between the red and black wire is not what is causing this?
If every circuit in the RV is turned off, then the problem has to exist between the plug on the side of the RV and the circuit panel itself. That is something an electrician has to deal with !
Does the GFI pop with the extension cord plugged into the home, but not the RV?
Does it then pop when you plug it into the RV with all of the circuits in the panel off ?
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The problem was that when they wired one of the outlets, they connected both the white and clear wire to the neutral side of the plug. You can’t have the white and neutral connected or you will pop a GFI.
