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Forum
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RE: Pop-up trailer for newbies.
I bought my popup used, it's my first RV ever. I still have it and it's 15 years old. A Rockwood Freedom 1940LTD, and it was 2 years old when I bought it. Only thing I would change on it would be a refrigerator that I can get to without opening it. The wife and I love it, and it's still in great condition.
Keep the tents clean, don't close it up wet unless you can get it open again soon to dry it out.
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sparkydave
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07/29/19 03:00pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: 15/30/50 SHORE POWER PLUG IN ?
Sparkydave,
My profession as well, registered in the state I reside in. I won't be stamping the design proposed. In your appliance example, you are plugging your UL listed #18 wire device into a NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 receptacle without an adapter, else you would be violating its listing.
https://rvnerds.com/2017/06/12/power-adapter-101/
True, it's not really up to code, but do the math. Shore power cord "burning up"? Horrors! Pardon me, but that sounds a little like worrying about the fire department getting your carpets wet if your house is on fire.
These seemingly unlikely faults that somehow draw exactly 50 amps and happen to occur between the dogbone and the circuit breakers must be a genuine concern and cause shore power cords to burn up all the time. I should get rid of my 50 amp to 30 amp dogbone right away, because if I'm plugged into a 50 amp pedestal with my 30 amp RV, I can't be violating UL and have my shore power cord rating possibly being exceeded while my RV is burning to the ground.:R Circuit breakers can and do fail, so plugging a 30 amp into a 30 amp pedestal must be dangerous too. If these faults that can cause a 50 amp fault to happen between the pedestal and the breakers, then it must be equally likely you could have a 30 amp fault in the same place while plugged into a 30 amp pedestal, but we can breathe easy because we won't be exceeding the shore power cord rating and having it "burn up". The RV will only have a 3560 watt problem inside it instead a 5900 watt problem, so the fire in the RV won't be as big :B
Now do you see what I'm getting at? Focusing on a minor issue instead of the much bigger issue in an unlikely occurrence.
Nah, I think I'll worry more about the condition of the wires and the outlets in the pedestal. I'd also worry more about the chuckleheads who wire RVs such as mine; I had all the ground wires from the 12 volt side jammed under one wire nut. Even the rat's nest of electrical tape couldn't hold it together.
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sparkydave
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07/25/19 04:35pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: 15/30/50 SHORE POWER PLUG IN ?
These "adapters" don't seem to include circuit breakers. Your camper wiring and cord ahead of the camper's distribution panel is designed for use on a 30 A circuit protected with a 30 A breaker. The 50 A circuit will allow the wiring to overload and possibly catch fire. Are these things UL listed?
Note that going the other way is not a problem, since 15 and 20 A breakers will protect the 30 A rated circuit. Doesn't your friend have a 15 A receptacle?
Ah yes, the old "your 30 amp shore power cord could burn up if you use a 50 amp to 30 amp adapter". I did the calculations and a write up a while back on why the probability of that happening is non existent. I'm an electrical engineer. If you get a short circuit (most likely failure), then the 50 amp breaker will trip quickly. If you happen to get some fault that somehow takes in excess of 30 amps but less than 50 amps before your 30 amp breaker (extremely unlikely), then the cord will be dissipating about 100 watts. Not good, but won't necessarily burn up as much as getting warm. However, the other 5900 watts (at 50 amps) will definitely be making whatever is causing the fault to get very hot very quickly.
An analogy: If you plug an appliance with an 18 AWG cord into a 20 amp outlet in your home, the cord is not rated for 20 amps, but the cord is not going to be the thing burning up if the appliance malfunctioned. Why? Because again, short circuits are far more likely and they will trip the breaker quickly. Even if it was an very unlikely partial failure that somehow took just under 20 amps, once again, the malfunctioning appliance would be catching on fire long before the cord.
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sparkydave
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07/25/19 09:16am |
Tech Issues
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RE: RV outlets reliable?
I suppose they are not failure prone as RLS7201 points out. My unit is 15 years old and hasn't had problems with them. I do use a space heater occasionally, but it's plugged into the GFCI that actually uses screw connections. I just check on the one I plug the coffee maker into to make sure the plug isn't getting hot.
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sparkydave
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07/01/19 09:43am |
Tech Issues
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RV outlets reliable?
After embarrassingly getting some water through the refrigerator vents while hosing off the camper and getting some water into the AC outlet, I had to take the outlet apart to get the water out as it was tripping the GFCI. I've not seen these outlets that use the metal blades that pierce the insulation to make contact before. Looks like some of the paper insulation that was part of the romex had soaked up the water and was touching the blades. I pulled out the wet paper and dried out the outlet with the heat gun, but how well do those metal blades hold up? I have little faith in residential outlets that have the spring clips where you insert the wires through the holes, and this looks to be a similar deal where the blade might eventually weaken its grip on the wire and cause hot spots.
Anybody have problems with these "vampire tap" outlets?
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sparkydave
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07/01/19 09:02am |
Tech Issues
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RE: New converter, or whole power center?
Sorry to hijack a little, but has WFCO quality gone down or are they usually iffy? The 8712 in my popup has been working fine for 15 years. I'll keep a closer eye on it if they are known to be problematic.
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sparkydave
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06/28/19 09:55am |
Tech Issues
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