The option to run a 30 amp recreational vehicle or rv from a 50 amp outlet is useful to many rvers.
Can you use 50 amp service 30 amp rv.
Truth be told you can plug a 50 amp rv into a 30 amp electrical service.
To hook up you ll need a 50 amp female to a 30 amp male electrical adapter a.
Lately we have seen lots of people that have a camper that has a 30 amp cord and a 30 amp main breaker using the 50 amp service.
Even the largest rvs when plugged into 50 amp service still almost universally use this double hot pole or double bus installation to draw only 120 volts to two separate 120 volt circuits simultaneously thereby accessing a possible 12 000 watts of power.
This is why larger rvs will predominately use a 50 amp feed and only smaller rvs can use 30 amps.
A 50 amp plug has four prongs two 120 volt hot wires a neutral wire and a ground wire that supply two separate 50 amp 120 volt feeds.
Plugging a 50 amp rv into a 30 amp pedestal.
However note that with a 30 amp rv the maximum power you can use is 30 amps regardless of the receptacle you plug into in other words you won t be able to use 50 amps of power by plugging into a 30 amp receptacle.
A 50 amp service rv provides a maximum 12 000 watts.
If you were to somehow plug the 30 amp rv service into the 50 amp campground pedestal without an adapter it could easily overload.
This is easily done by using a 50 male to 30 female connector.
According to betterrving s master certified rv technician steve roddy the conversion could take upwards of 8 hours of labor and we all know how much that costs not to mention a new distribution panel and shore cord.
The process might be a bit pricey though.
So there is a need to step down the power of the 50 amp campground pedestal to the 30 amp rv service.
There s a really simple answer which i ll expand on a bit here.
However most people who run campgrounds will tell you otherwise.
Since a 30 amp rv has wiring that can only safely handle 30 amps of power you don t want to overload it.
If you do want the 50 amp hookup we do charge 5 a night for it.
Conversely if you use an adapter for a.
Back to your question.
Surprisingly you can convert a 30 amp rv for use with a 50 amp pedestal.
A 50 amp service is not a 30 amp service and a 20 amp service joined together.
To avoid catastrophic damage to appliances equipment and wiring circuits and a real danger of fire the amperage must be stepped down to 30 amps.
Even with an adapter your 30 amp service rv won t receive more power than the 3 600 watts it can handle.
You ll just have to be more conservative when using your rv s appliances.
With this type of setup you ll enjoy the full benefits of your rv s 30 amps of power.
As you can see using a hair dryer will use nearly half of the available wattage on a 30 amp rv.
But we don t charge more for a 50 amp site just the service.
