Cheater box for my Georgetown

[dlitten]

Recently I've been thinking of purchasing a 50A cheater box for my Georgetown. As most of you know, the majority of campgrounds offer 30A/20A, and though this has met most of my Rv needs, my thinking is that if I can boost my power to 50A then well, why not since I'm already paying for it. Has anybody had any experience using one? What would be any potential problems? It seems pretty 3 + 2= 5 to me, but I'm definitely no electrician. Also, if 50A sites are available, they generally cost more and if I want to save a few bucks and use a cheater box on a 30A/20A site, is there an ethical issue? Thanks in advance.

[LadyWindrider]

The way I understand it, and I have not verified this is, is that 50 amp service is actually 240 volts. This gives you 2, 120 volt legs so to speak. Each of these legs is on an opposite phase. One leg feeds one AC and microwave and stuff, the other leg feeds the other AC. Each leg is only good for 30 amps each. Combined they will give you 50 amps total, (actually 60 on paper).

Now you can use transformers and boost voltage, but you can not boost current. If that was possible, you would have 15 amp service at your house and could boost it up to 200 amp. Then you could just have a plug in the yard and plug your house in like your camper.

Now if you are not confused enough, don't think you can plug in to the 30 amp service at a campsite, and the 20 amp service, and get a total of 50 amps. For one thing, this is only 120 volts, and it is only one leg, and therefore one phase, and the max out of that box is going to be 30 amps.

Hope I've not been too confusing. If all else fails, look at it this way. We have large wires on our campers to handle large currents. The power company has to use large wires to supply large current to our house, work place, etc. If they could use a smaller wire, how much cheaper it would be, and then all they would have to do is boost it on site. Believe me, they have tried to figure this out, and have been unsuccessful. The current is what you pay for, not the voltage. It takes big wire, big plugs, and more money, to supply and to maintain. Good luck.

[Bama Rambler]

While technically you might be able to get 50 amps, I wouldn't suggest trying it.

Windrider is right you can't really get 50 amp service for your rig by using the 30 amp and the 20 amp plug.

But that's probably not what you really want anyway. You most likely want 30 amps on one leg and 20 on the other. That's what a cheater box does.

Usually an RV (even one with 50 amp service) doesn't use 240 volt power. The way to look at it is that what you really have is (2) 120 volt services. Most 50 amp RV's put most of the items on one leg of the service and a second A/C etc. on the other. In that case a cheater box would work.

However, Read your rental agreement very well. Most rv parks (even public ones) prohibit you from doing that! There's a specific statement in the rules that tell you that you can't do what you're proposing.

To me it's not worth the risk to your investment (the RV) to try and save a couple of bucks. Wired incorrectly it could be damaging to your rig.

[Mr. Black]

Aside from what these guys already said, my question to you is Why?

There really is nothing to gain from it??????