Joining 15 and 30 amp plugs?

[Kimber45]

I am buying my first 5th wheel with 50 amp service. Most parks I go to only have 30 amp plugs. I am aware of the "dog bone" adapters leaving me with only 30 amps and one air conditioner.

I found a pig tail advertised that seems to plug into the 15 amp and 30 amp joining the plugs on a typical rv power station for a total of 45 amps?

I tried to attach a picture, i hope it works. does anyone have any experience with this or used this? Ok pic did not attach.

[Ford Idaho]

Like this?

[Kimber45]

That is the exact picture i was trying to post. need to figure out how to do that.

Does it work? will it run both air conditioners or does it pop either breaker?

[Ford Idaho]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

That is the exact picture i was trying to post. need to figure out how to do that.

Does it work? will it run both air conditioners or does it pop either breaker?

I have no idea if it plays well with a power pedestal or not, I am thinking it might pop the breaker on the pedestal.

Right click on the IMG, select copy.

Click on this IMG above, click the black X, right click select paste, click ok box.



If done right you should see 4 blue feet.

[glen1971]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

I am buying my first 5th wheel with 50 amp service. Most parks I go to only have 30 amp plugs. I am aware of the "dog bone" adapters leaving me with only 30 amps and one air conditioner.

I found a pig tail advertised that seems to plug into the 15 amp and 30 amp joining the plugs on a typical rv power station for a total of 45 amps?

I tried to attach a picture, i hope it works. does anyone have any experience with this or used this? Ok pic did not attach.

It isn't a total of 45 amps... Depending on how the pedestal is wired you could have a 15 amp breaker on one leg, and a 30 on the other.. In this case, you'll have 240 volts at your receptacle.
Or you could have one leg with a 15 amp breaker and a 30 amp breaker. In this case, you'll have 120 volts at your receptacle and if the 15 amp one gets overloaded, it will trip, leaving you with the 30 amp one..

[tmfaulksr]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

That is the exact picture i was trying to post. need to figure out how to do that.

Does it work? will it run both air conditioners or does it pop either breaker?

there are multiple threads from those trying to use them.
they claim the gfi outlets at the pedistal will not let it work.
the ad i looked at to purchase stated it didn't work with gfi outlets.
it appears that if the CG has older outlets without gfi it will work.

as i said there are multiple threads on this question.
hope this helps

[elind]

I would guess that the pedestal could have only one hot wire if it was a 15 & 30 amp breakers. Both breakers could tie into the only 30 amp hot wire. To have 50 amp you need to have two hot wires (along with a neutral & ground) and would have a 50 amp receptacle in the pedestal.

[Jay2504]

Trying to learn here. The way that adapter is wired would be to have the ground wire for the 50amp side ran to both the 15 and 30amp sides of the adapter. Neutral should be wired the same way. IF and a big IF the power pedestal is wired correctly both the 15 and 30 amp ground and neutral would hook up to the correct terminal on the 50amp side of the adapter. That leaves the hot side. The hot side could be wired at the pedestal one of 2 ways. The first possibility would be both the 15 and 30amp would be off the same leg. In that case one side of the panel in the camper would be supplied with 15 amps and the other side of the camper panel would get 30 amps, for a total of 45 amps, not the 100 amps provided at a 50 amp plug in. The second was the pedestal could be wired would be to have the 15 amp on one hot leg and the 30 amp on the other hot leg. Plugging into this would have the EXACT SAME result inside the camper. One leg would 15 amps one leg would be 30. To my understanding, that is how 50amp RVs are done. One 50 amp leg to half the panel and the other 50 amp leg to the other half of the panel. If I am wrong please correct me Jay

[Kimber45]

thank you tmfaulksr. It appears as if you are right on the money. After further investigation there are mixed reviews online. Some say its the best thing ever/some say it pops breakers. I found the item on etrailer.com for 1$ more then home depot but with free shipping.

Clearly in the item description it says will not work with GFI protected outlets. I have one on order and we will see. I dont believe the park i camp at the most has GFI protected outlets.

[Flybob]

In many parks ( especially older ones) the 30A pedestal has a single phase running to it and there are three 30A pedestals protected by a 100A breaker in a locked panel upstream. If there are campers in the two other sites on the leg you are on and combined they draw over 100A the upstream breaker trips. This means a ranger or manager has to come out to reset and ask questions. The 30A and 15 A plug in the pedestal is provided to allow the site to be all purpose ( RV or Tent with electric) . In most pedestals the 15A outlet is on a GFCI as it is used by tents with no protection.

[formerFR]

yes, we have used 15/30 to 50a dogbone many times for our coach... but

- this adapter will not work if the 15a residential outlet is a GFCI type

...but

if you can find another 15a 'non GFCI' outlet in the area, such as on a building nearby, then you can still make use of this adapter, just run an extension cord from the building
to the 15a side of the adapter...

another option:
purchase a 30a/30a to 50a dogbone, if you have two 30a plugs that you can use, along with a 30a extension cord - we've also done this several times, especially when needing two a/c units running along with everything else...

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by Flybob

In many parks ( especially older ones) the 30A pedestal has a single phase running to it and there are three 30A pedestals protected by a 100A breaker in a locked panel upstream. If there are campers in the two other sites on the leg you are on and combined they draw over 100A the upstream breaker trips. This means a ranger or manager has to come out to reset and ask questions. The 30A and 15 A plug in the pedestal is provided to allow the site to be all purpose ( RV or Tent with electric) . In most pedestals the 15A outlet is on a GFCI as it is used by tents with no protection.

Exactly, and the 15 amp outlet is tapped off the 30 amp feed to that pedestal. It's how it was done back then and you don't have 45 amps availible, your actually lucky to have 30 if it's a long run back to the main. When they list sites as 30 amp it's usually for a reason. If they had a full 50 at the pedestal why is there not a 50 amp receptacle?

Or you could be like the guy at a state Park we were at on a memorial day weekend who decided to wire things up himself so he could run both his AC units and shut down the entire loop along with frying some other people's stuff in the process.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Forest River Forums mobile app

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by formerFR

if you can find another 15a 'non GFCI' outlet in the area, such as on a building nearby, then you can still make use of this adapter, just run an extension cord from the building
to the 15a side of the adapter

Seriously? I don't know where that would be but I can see them having a slight issue where we camp if I was to break out the extension cords and start running them to shower houses, offices, or other buildings. But maybe not LOL.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Forest River Forums mobile app

[Telstar]

Your not going to get more than 30 amps out of a 30 amp pedestal. generally the 15 or 20 amp beaker is wired to a single 30 amp breaker serving the pedestal.

[Jay2504]

Can someone explain why this adapter won't work with GFCI outlet? Just for the sake of discussion, let's say that the neutral and ground wires are hooked up correctly at the pedastel and the 30amp and 15amp are fed by 2 different hot wires. I know the directions say it won't work I just wonder why? Any explanation would be appereated as I want to learn. Jay

[Kimber45]

I spoke to a friend of mine who has worked in the field for over 20 years. The best he could say/think is that the pig tail adapter itself probably pulls 1/2 from each leg? no real way to pull more from the 30 amp plug side and less from the 15 amp plug side? If you look at the photo closely it kinda makes sense. you are plugging into to separate outlets but joining them into one?

Dont know but I have it on order and if its ever 90 plus degrees and i need both air conditioners we are going to sure try it and find out.

[Tapex]

Or bring out some fans, anything for a breeze

[ScottBrownstein]

OK, let's look at this more simply. First, phase doesn't matter as the coach doesn't actually care if it's split or single, since each side of the panel (50 AMP) is used independently at 120 VAC and is fed independently, while the neutrals and grounds are common.

Now, on the pedestal, in order to have a 15 or 20 amp outlet, it must be protected by a 15 or 20 amp breaker. This cannot be the same breaker that protects the 30 amp...well, since it ain't 30 amp and visa versa. So in order to conform to the NEC, there has to be a 30 amp breaker and a 15 or 20 amp breaker on a pedestal that has both kinds of plugs. Maybe the who shebang is protected at the source (or locally) by a 30 amp breaker, in which case if you draw more than 30 amps you will pop it. However that would be a hell of a way to wire a park since each pedestal would have its own separate feed back to the main panel. That is a lot of wire. Easier to feed something bigger to more than one pedestal and drop it at each with local breakers as a branch panel.

So, one side of the dogbone gets the 30 amp breaker and the other side gets the 15 or 20. Each has a separate hot in the 50 amp power cable since, without that the adapter would be an illegal "suicide adapter" with 120 VAC showing up on the prongs of whichever plug wasn't being used at the time.

So, you might get only 30, you could get 45 or 50. Now hopefully the 30 goes to the side of the panel with all of the big stuff (HWH, AC, Microwave)...but I doubt it since that would be really imbalanced.

In short, it will help...is better than 30 amps...and maybe even 50, but remember that a 50 amp system gets 100 amps

[ScottBrownstein]

Originally Posted by Jay2504

Can someone explain why this adapter won't work with GFCI outlet? Just for the sake of discussion, let's say that the neutral and ground wires are hooked up correctly at the pedastel and the 30amp and 15amp are fed by 2 different hot wires. I know the directions say it won't work I just wonder why? Any explanation would be appereated as I want to learn. Jay

Well...it might...sometimes...and not others. I use a GFI outlet with a 15 amp adapter and it works. Others have tried the same thing and it won't. Its kind of a mind bender. A GFCI measures both the current in the hot and the current in the neutral. If they are ever different it trip, assuming that some of the "missing current" is going through the ground and maybe from your fingers to your feet! GFCIs are sometimes really delicate and if there is even the slightest lag in the match they trip, sometimes only because there is an inductive load doing it.

Never a good idea to feed an RV with a GFCI, but well, if its any port in a storm you do it anyway.

[CedarCreekWoody]

Kimber, I don't think you are realizing that RV 50 amp service is actually 100 amps. They are two hot wires from the plug, each on a 50 amp breaker. If this adapter actually works (which is iffy) you will have one hot wire with 30 amps and the other with 15 amps. NEITHER hot wire will have 45 amps. I would be very careful with this adapter.