30amp/15amp pigtail adapter will this work?

[Bolt guy]

I have a 50amp plug on my fifth wheel. My state parks all have a 30amp and a 15 or 20 amp plug at the box. Camper World has a 50 to 30amp and 15 amp all in the same y adapter. My question is could I plug both into the box at the park and gain any amps. Sounds good but?? Has anyone tried this.

[bruceatlam]

I think that I understand what you're looking at but I don't think that will get you much ---- maybe not anything. So you'll take your 50 amp male and plug it into this "y" adapter 50 amp female. Then you'll plug in both a 30 amp RV plug and a 15 amp house plug at the campground power pole. How is this "y" adapter wired??? One of you RV circuits will get 30 amps and the other will only get 15 amps??? What's on the 15 amp circuit??? Hope not your AC or your heater.

Wold you not be better off with just a 50 to 30 adapter where both of your RV circuits get potentially 30 amps??

[fast murray]

It seems likely depending on what you were pulling through the 15 amp side that you could end up burning up the 15 amp recep and that side of your new adaptor. Sometimes because companies make a product doesn't mean its a good idea. 5th wheel to gooseneck adaptors for example.

[Evereddie]

When a campground only has 30 amp sockets it is because they didn't run a big enough wire to the power pedestals. No matter how you slice it there is only 30 amps available. Now you might get just a little more usefulness out of have some items on the 15 amp line and not overloading the 30 amp and tripping a breaker. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't most 50 amp setups have the extra air conditioner on the second leg of the 2 legs for a 50 amp service and only that second air unit? So I don't think that that second leg being on the 15 amp breaker will do you any good.

[Harkerr]

You could run a separate extension cord to the 15 amp and use that for a single separate load

[Bolt guy]

This is a Y that has a 50amp female and 2 30amp males with a 15-20amp adapter for one of the 30amps. I haven't seen one before but just got to thinking (I know that is dangerous!) what would I get plugging them both in to feed the 50amp plug?

[Bolt guy]

Well, I don't want to burn anything up this is a new 5er and my first time on 50amps (15 and a13.5 air conditioners) Been on 30amps for many years and even just 15 amps before that, not many air conditioners back then. Been camping 40+years.
Thanks for all the replies and I am still open to more!

[conceptumator]

I've shared this before, but we kept our 30A RV powered up in the drive on a standard 15A outlet for years. Biggest load it had was the AC, which it handled just fine, even with the TV and lights on. The only gotcha would be the microwave; can't do it and the AC together. As far as the heater, we used the furnace, which is LP and actually runs on 12V, not 110V.

[Evereddie]

A thought: it might be possible there is more than 30 amps available at the power pole but the campground limits useage by having only 30 amp sockets and breakers. Campground and power poles might have been built long enough ago that 30 amps was all anyone needed. There may be just enough amperage available to run what you need or almost everything you need. You can try it but I would absolutely monitor your voltage to be sure you don't run an air conditioner on too low a voltage and burn it up. Do you have a power management center like a Dynamics industry unit? From what I know about how the power is spit up in a 50 amp trailer a lot of the stuff and one air conditioner is on one of the legs and the other air conditioner is on the other leg but I may be wrong. Someone who knows 50 amps systems should chime in here.

[Flybob]

Many parks wire three 30A pedestals ( campsites) through at 100A breaker further upstream. If the other two sites on your 100A breaker are using less than their 30A allocation, you may get 30A via the 30A plug and another 15-20A on the household outlet. But that is a crap shoot,

[Bolt guy]

conceptumutor; I have a 50-15amp adapter for home on a 20 amp breaker, and as long as I keep it plug in to at least a 14-3 cord or larger I can keep the fridge and 1 air conditioner on for a bit enough to load or unload for a trip( as long as the beer fridge doesn't kick on!)

[Bolt guy]

Flybob, Good info thanks!

[fast murray]

If you have a pedestal with 2-30 amp outlets and 20 amp outlets they most likely have 240 volts going to that pedestal. The 30 amp outlets are still only 120 volts because they are being fed from separate phases. The pedestals that we install with 1-30 amp outlet and 1-20 amp outlet are still 240 volt pedestals with the 30 amp outlet on one phase and the 20 amp outlet on the other phase. These pedestals are rated at 70 amps and get fed from a 200 amp 240 volt power supply. They are feed through design so several pedestals are connected to the same circuit. Its hard to say how many are pedestals are wired together as when the campground was probably built, campers didn't require as much power.

[Bolt guy]

So What will happen if I use this Y on either both 30 amps or a 30 and a 15-20amp combined?

[Evereddie]

If the pedestal has 2, 30 amp sockets, give it a try. Or even a 30 amp and a 20 amp outlet. If I were you and wanted to be super careful and not blow anything up in case the pedestal has 'weird' wiring I would get a pin out on your 50 amp plug that plugs into the trailer and verify that there is 110 volts on each of the hot legs to neutral.

By the way, if you get 240 volts (around 220 to 240) between the 2 hot legs you indeed have 2 phases of power and a good chance this will al work. Good luck!

[Bolt guy]

Thanks Evereddie! Kind of what I thought but as I said before it can be kina dangerous when I get to thinking, (or that's what DW says!)