Help with hard wired 30amp electrical

[Toy4Rick]

Hello all

Our 2021 Sunseeker 2250LE has a 20' hard wired 30amp power cord that must be plugged into an outlet in the electrical bay when on coach batteries. When I move to shore power, I must remove the plug from the outlet and plug it into shore power.

Ideally I would like to update this so the 20' cord is more like an extension cord that is used when on shore power and can be rolled up and more easily stored when on coach batteries...

I guess I'm looking for a solution to rewire it with a switch box to be able to plug in the shore power and flip a switch or remove extension cord and flip the switch back to coach batteries.

I have an electrician who will do the work, just need some ideas on what my options are

Thanks, Rick

[NavyLCDR]

Actually, this is what you really need:
https://www.amazon.com/JONASC-Automa...dp/B08T94Q6NG/

Wire the shore power side to normal power and the power from the outlet in the electrical bay to the backup power side.

If you prefer something more "American":
https://www.amazon.com/WFCO-T30-Amp-...dp/B008OJ7EIA/

On the WFCO, you would want to connect the shore power leads to the generator terminals and the electrical bay outlet to the shore power leads on the transfer switch. That way when you connect to shore power, the transfer switch out disconnect the electrical bay outlet and connect the shore power.

[Toy4Rick]

TY, I was looking at this exact product this morning but since I am not an electrician, wasn't sure it was correct.

How would the shore power cord come into play here?

I was also looking at something like this, off to insert/remove shore power, switch to 1 or the other based on battery/shore power

Auto switching would be cool, manual would be fine as well since I would be in there anyway to go to shore power

[NavyLCDR]

Your shore power cord is the simplest form of transfer switch there is. When it is plugged into the outlet in the electrical bay you are connecting the 120v AC electrical panel to the generator. The outlet in the electrical bay is the output from the generator. When you unplug the shore power cable from that outlet and into a shore power outlet, you are transferring the power supply to the 120v AC electrical panel to shore power and disconnecting the generator output.

To install a real transfer switch you would take the wires coming from the generator and move them from the outlet in the electrical bay to the generator side of the transfer switch. Then you would disconnect the shore power cable from the 120v AC electrical distribution panel and you would connect it to the shore power side of the transfer. Then you would wire the output of the transfer switch to the input to the 120v AC electrical distribution panel where the shore power cable used to be wired to.

Now, instead of physically moving the shore power cable plug to transfer the 120v AC distribution panel from the generator output to shore power, the switch would do the transfer.

[Toy4Rick]

Agree, the hard wired cord is the simplest yet the biggest pain in the *****. 20' to feed into the electrical bay via a 3" hole and somehow coil it up inside the bay into something that is manageable, thus the desire to turn the shore power cord into an extension cord that gets plugged into the electrical bay and when not in use, take 3' out of the RV and coil it up

So in principal, I understand how to wire in the transfer switch... where is the outlet for the shore power cord to plug into before flipping the switch? Unless I missed the "in principal" part completely... which might be entirely possible

[NavyLCDR]

The outlet to plug the shore power cable into before flipping the switch would be on the pedestal at the campground site, or on a wall if plugging it in to a building.

[Toy4Rick]

Yes that I get, sorry I wasn't more clear, where will the other end of the power cord plug into the RV since this transfer switch doesn't have an outlet?

[formerFR]

are you saying that when you are not parked at a campsite and plugging your shore cord into the campground outlet, you MUST plug the male end back into some outlet IN your RV? If that's really REQUIRED, why??
That's very strange, and I'm not really sure it's a requirement, since you probably don't have any type of Inverter, which is the only reason I could see needing to do anything like this. Even then, it's hard to imagine that plugging the shore cord into an outlet in order for it to have inverter power would work, since the outlet it's plugging into is ALSO on the inverter.

[formerFR]

actually, the ONLY time you need to 'plug in' the SHORE CORD into the outlet within the RV is when you are using the GENERATOR - this is a 'manual' transfer switch - and while it may seem aggravating, it's just the simplest way to get power from the Generator to your BREAKER PANEL, and therefore to all your needs. You don't need to do this anytime other than when using the generator.

[formerFR]

many, many motorhomes are designed this way, especially 30amp coaches.

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by Toy4Rick

Yes that I get, sorry I wasn't more clear, where will the other end of the power cord plug into the RV since this transfer switch doesn't have an outlet?

I'm a little confused. Is your power cord plugged into some type of outlet at both ends? Or is it plugged in on only one end of the power cord and the other end is hardwired into the RV panel?

[Toy4Rick]

The power cord is wired directly into the RV and is 20 ft long in the electrical compartment which must all be brought out through a 3-in hole to go to shore power.

When not on shore power that same 20-ft cord is just pulled back inside the electrical bay and plugs into a 30 amp outlet to complete the circuit for the generator This is why I called it hardwired so maybe I added confusion by not being clear, sorry.

Some RVs have a plug on the side or inside a compartment where the electrical cord just plugs in to go to the shore power assuming then a switch is changed to go from battery to shore power.

[NavyLCDR]

1st you are confusing battery operation with generator operation. For battery operation you don't use the shore power cable at all. And unless you have an inverter, you have no 120v AC on battery power either, only 12v DC.

So your description of what you have is what I thought you did. To keep the power cord hardwired in you would:

1. Move the wires from the outlet in the electrical bay to the generator side of the transfer switch.

2. Move the shore power cable connection from the inlet to the 120v AC Power Distribution Center (the "breaker box" with all the circuit breakers in it) to the shore power side of the transfer switch.

3. Connect the outlet of the transfer switch to the same inputs to the 120v AC Power Distribution Center that the shore power cable used to be connected to.

Now, if you wanted to switch to a standard, fully detachable power cord instead of one that is hardwired, instead of step #2 above you would add the correct type of receptacle to the RV to accept a standard detachable RV power cable and you would wire that receptacle to the shore power side of the transfer switch instead of the bare end of the existing power cable.

This is type of receptacle you would add to the RV and wire to the shore power side of the transfer switch:
https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Power-In...10-30INVP.html

Then you would replace your power cord with the standard detachable type:
https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Power-Co...OR36SBOEM.html

When you wanted to run on generator power (what I think you refer to as battery), you would just start the generator and the transfer switch would connect the generator to the RV. Your shore power cord would just be stored away, not connected to anything. When you wanted to connect to shore power, you would connect one end of the power cord to the shore power outlet you added on the RV and connect the other end to a shore power outlet on the pedestal or building wall. The transfer switch would then disconnect the generator input and connect the shore power to the RV.

[Toy4Rick]

First off, thanks for all the replies as I work through this

You are correct, I was confusing battery connection with the generator connection inside the electrical bay.

In my mind, when I disconnected from shore power, I had to plug back into the outlet inside the electrical bay before switching to battery, I realize now this is not the case and would only be necessary when running the generator, TY

As for the power cord, yes my desire is to turn it into a fully detachable power cord to make usage/storage much easier

I will follow the great instructions provided here

Thanks again
Happy Trails

[nayther]

simple. Cut the existing power cord about 6' from the coach. Wire on a new male 30 amp plug. Then take the remaining portion of the shore power cord and wire a female end to where you just cut it to make an EXTENSION CORD! Make the hard wired cord long enough to reach most pedestals. This is what I did for my last trailer

[dave1650]

Originally Posted by nayther

simple. Cut the existing power cord about 6' from the coach. Wire on a new male 30 amp plug. Then take the remaining portion of the shore power cord and wire a female end to where you just cut it to make an EXTENSION CORD! Make the hard wired cord long enough to reach most pedestals. This is what I did for my last trailer

If you look at the link to the WFCO T30 switch provided by NavyLCDR it shows you exactly how to hook it up for what you need to do. There is a schematic on the unit that indicates where each connection is made. Installing an inlet you could use the cord you have now by cutting it and connecting to the WFCO T30 switch from the breaker panel and the generator plug and cutting it to length you would have a length of it to go from the switch to the inlet. You would need to purchase a cord to go from the inlet to the shore power pedestal but I believe that would do what you want with a cord you could unplug and store. After the switch is installed it would switch automatic between shore power and generator.