Howdy. Thanks for starting and sharing. While I do not have my trailer yet, I imagine I will have something similar so I also am curious.
I wanted to find out whether you do or will use this in winter also? I figured that if I don't have water, I probably could use mine as a guest room, albeit primative.
__________________ Phil and/or Sue (with Gus, Penny and Roger)
(Buffett RIP 9/15/08) 1983 31' Sovereign 1973 31' Sovereign (project)
'01 Dodge Ram 2500 Quad LWB 2x4 6sp Cummins Turbo Diesel
AIR 1753
it depends, i usually have it winterized. but if i were to have extra folks around i could have the batteries in it and plugged in in less than 15 min.
it gets alot more use as extra space in the summer.
I have installed a 30 amp outlet also. Mine is located just inside the garage door so I didn't need the weather proof box. The cord fits in a groove at the weatherstrip, so the garage door can still be closed.
I haven't used the trailer as a guest house, but I do power up the air conditioner while we prepare for a trip or if I am working on it during a hot day.
John,
Good thinking..
This is what I use here. Slightly different because I wanted an outlet for power tool, etc as well. This is spliced off of the 200 amp service box. Shown with the lid cover down.
ciao
I dropped a 30 AMP breaker off the main (Door open to show breaker) and then split off that for a 30 AMP RV plug on the left, and a 20 AMP receptical on the right to backfeed the house from my generator if the power goes out. You MUST turn off the main breaker to prevent backfeeding the utility pole before using the generator.
Randy
We built a post and beam barn onto our house several years ago. When we did so, I put a 30A box in the barn. The trailer is stored in the barn and plugged in to keep the batteries up to snuff. Very convenient to use the trailer, load and un load for trips.
We built the barn because our previous trailer, and Award, suffered so much damage from the weather seeping in. I know the AS is built so much better than the award, However we have the land and the use for the barn, why not?
__________________
-Life is a journey, not a destination.
Aerosmith
What if you don't have a 30amp connection? I have an adapter that allows the factory supplied cable to connect to a standard house outlet.
In my travels with my family, on the rare times we had connections to AC power, a fair number of places only had the standard outlets. Few had the large round 30amp connections.
The dealership told me not to use the A/C off the standard wall outlet in my garage since the adapter would most likely melt (even though they were the ones that gave me the adapter to use).
Any truth to that? I can understand doing the 30amp at home an all since I do have a 30 wired circuit to the garage, but what happens when you all run into one of those campgrounds that doesn't have the proper 30amp connector and you want to run your A/C among other things like fridge, etc?
You can run you AC on the 15 amp small plug using an adapter. It WILL lead to a premature failure of the compressor or fan motor or both.
Most RV AC units need between 15 and 20 amps to cycle properly. This will overload the outlet and could also cause a fire, not to mention a melted plug converter. I would verify the draw on your AC unit and be sure you have the necessary power available when you plug in.
One other thing to consider is that if the campground only has 15 amp boxes, it is more than likely an older one and the wiring may not even feed a full 15 amps.
Almost all of the campgrounds we have stayed in have had not only the 30 amp outlets but a 50 amp as well. The 50 amp feed is for the newer Motorhomes because they have 2 roof AC units.
__________________
Brett G
WBCCI #5501 AIR # 49
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan
Wise men talk because they have someting to say; fools, because they have to say something. -- Plato
In politics, absurdity is not a handicap— Napoleon
So if I read you right, besides checking the loads from the A/C, having a dedicated 20amp circuit to the garage (using standard household outlets) might not be sufficent for running the A/C and fridge (I think those take the most amps to run) using the cheater adapter and factory supplied (10 gauge I think) power cable to that 20 amp garage circuit. More over, when in Rome, don't do what the rest do if they only have what appears to be a 15 amp circuit at some of the older parks.
I guess the real question here would be just cause I have a 20 amp circuit might not mean that I am going to get 20 amps out of the outlet in the garage even though it is the only thing drawing power on that circuit. It sounds like the standard house outlets are only rated at 15amps if I read you right so in my wildest, I'd never really get much more than 15amps out of a standard wall outlet. So here is yet another question, how do home window A/C units work since some have more BTUs than this roof mount unit and still work on the same 15 amp house outlet? By design?
So in the best of circumstances regarding the camper, I would just pull a seperate circuit to the detached garage (about 50 feet) through the existing burried conduit to support a real 30 amp circuit for the camper. Any particular gauge wire I should consider to do this?
Thanks for you help. I really want to do this the right way. I know some of my questions are kind of simple, but I'm a bit excessive complusive!
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