Power up RV while in storage - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Crazy70red · RV-Dreams Community Member

Power up RV while in storage

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Have an electrician in and he can easily hook up a 50 amp RV receptacle for you.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

light duty power up using 110

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

They're not hard to do. But if you're not knowledgeable get an electrician and make sure he understands motor homes.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you are not going to “live” in the rig, don’t need air conditioning and only want just a little basic power to run the lights, run the gas furnace or perhaps keep the batteries charged – there is a simple adapter that will allow you to plug the 50 amp connector into a regular house outlet.

You will actually need two adapters – one to get you to a 30 amp plug

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/50-amp-125250v-rv-female-to-30-amp-rv-male-pigtail-adapter-with-pull-handles/69613

and one to get you from the 30 amp plug to the 15 amp plug outside the house

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/30-amp-rv-female-to-15-amp-male-plug-pigtail-adapter/69611

These are examples only but should give you the idea. Any RV store will have many examples of these and can assist if you don't want to purchase on-line.

Bill

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree with Bill....most of the time you will only need to keep the batteries charged and use lights. For this you can run a heavy duty extension cord from the closest house outlet to the RV. Or go the more permanent route and have an electrician install an outlet near your RV. I installed a 20 amp outlet near where I park the RV,the RV power cord reaches it without the need for an extension cord. I didn't need a 30 or 50 amp because I wouldn't be using the A/C or furnace.

The 20 amp circuit handles the lights, refrig and even a vacuum cleaner.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

The Bear II wrote:

The 20 amp circuit handles the lights, refrig and even a vacuum cleaner.

When you don’t use air conditioning or any electrical appliances, like a fry pan or hair dryer, you would be surprised how much you can power in a trailer with just a 20 amp “house outlet.”

Bill

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I knew someone that said that trying to run the A/C with the house current ruined their A/C. Is that what happens or would get just kick the breaker off?

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

One small caveat on 15 or 20-amp plug is if you have an inverter/charger instead of a converter, make sure the power share (how much power the charger uses) is turned down to 5 to 10 amps.

SnowGypsy: If the voltage drops too far the A/C can take some damage but not pop the breaker, which is easy to do with an ordinary household circuit. Adding extension cords makes it worse. That is why people need EMS units, they cut off the power if the voltage drops too much. I have seen voltages in the high 90s/low 100s when trying to run a big load on 200 feet of extension cord.

Crazy70red · RV-Dreams Community Member

Probably should have added the caveat that I am currently in a rental home, so modifying the electricity is a no-go. But Bill and Linda hit on where I was going. Thank you all so much for the input.

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

I never run my AC with less than 108 volts...even then I don't like it.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Also, if your connection on the trailer is not right at the house, make sure any extension cords you have are heavy as well. When we had 30 amp trailers, we had to go further than the length of the trailer cable to reach our nearest outlet. So, I made sure that my "extension cord" was a 30 amp cord, not just a small cord running to the coach, even though I was still operating off of 20 amps. The longer an electrical cable needs to run, the heavier it needs to be.

Terry