I have a 30 amp pedestal at my home for the RW... Its been there for 20 years , and I am 100% clueless when it comes to electric..

I want to upgrade that box to 50 amp... Here is what I DO KNOW -
1- I need a 50 amp/double pole breaker
2- I need #6 wire for the run
3- I need a 50amp outlet outside on the pole..

I DONT KNOW - Are these Redwoods wired for 240 .. OR 110 ??

Joe

Joe,

My understanding is the power originates at 240 Volt and 50 amp. It is then split ashore into 2 - 110 Volt, 50 amp supplies. Therefore, effectively we receive 100 amps at 110 Volts.

All A/C power within the RV is 110 Volt.

Sorry, can't help with the specifications.

Joe, I was thinking about doing something similar but on a smaller scale. I have a 30 amp plug in the garage for the RW now, but I've got 220V in the garage for an air compressor, not enough for 50 amps but good enough for 30 amps on each leg.

Wiring in a dual 30 amp breaker would allow me to run both A/C units or some higher amperage stuff. I haven't done it yet as the 30 amp plug works well for just parking the RW.

Maybe this will help....

Here is a diagram (see below) for a typical 50 Amp RV Shore power receptacle. The same applies at your house.

First, there is Voltage. On the RV, EVERYTHING runs on 120 Volts (except for things that run on 12V thru an inverter...).

What you have is (2) legs of 120 Volt power.

If you measure voltage between each hot leg, you will have 240 Volts.

If you measure between the hot leg and ground or neutral, you will have 120 Volts.

Next, there are Amps (Heat). Each of those hots legs can carry 50 Amps of load.

There are (2) 50 Amp legs available.

For those wanting to change out a 30A receptacle to 50 Amps, you will be setting yourself up for a potential fire if you do not change out the wire and breaker protecting the circuit. In short, you just need to run a new 50 Amp circuit.

If you decide to do this, you will need a 3-wire #6 with a #10 Ground wire. If you are installing this in conduit, use a 3/4" conduit and use THHN wire. You'll need a 50 Amp 4-wire receptacle. You'll also need a 2-pole 50 Amp breaker for your panel and maybe a junction box to mount the receptacle in.

Here are a few diagrams that might help you understand:

The costs vary with the distance required. If you have a run over 200', you'll need to up size the wire 1 size (3-wire #4 and a #8 Ground Wire). That will also increase the size of the conduit.

Almcc's method could work in theory if nothing else in the RV is on. The issue is distance and the A/C Load. On our unit, we pull about 15 Amps per A/C. A 30 Amp circuit uses a #10 wire. Having said that, there will be a voltage loss on the #10 wire due to the load. Is it enough to cause a problem? With lower voltage, it will result in higher Amps. How much? That's a good question and I would have to put a meter to it to find out. Lower voltages are hard on your equipment. As stated, the lower the voltage, the higher the Amps. Amps is heat. Heat has detrimental effects on electrical equipment. In the short term, this could work with no harm done. Over the longer haul, damage could occur. In theory the math adds up. Almcc is using a 2-pole 30 Amp circuit in place of the 50 Amp 2 pole circuit. 30 Amp Pedestals at the RV camps are usual single pole. That would mean one leg of 30 Amps and only 1 A/C for sure. I would still make sure and keep the load off if 2 A/C's are running on the 2-pole 30 Amp circuit. No sense in adding too much heat.

Almcc's method could work in theory if nothing else in the RV is on. The issue is distance and the A/C Load. On our unit, we pull about 15 Amps per A/C. A 30 Amp circuit uses a #10 wire. Having said that, there will be a voltage loss on the #10 wire due to the load. Is it enough to cause a problem? With lower voltage, it will result in higher Amps. How much? That's a good question and I would have to put a meter to it to find out. Lower voltages are hard on your equipment. As stated, the lower the voltage, the higher the Amps. Amps is heat. Heat has detrimental effects on electrical equipment. In the short term, this could work with no harm done. Over the longer haul, damage could occur. In theory the math adds up. Almcc is using a 2-pole 30 Amp circuit in place of the 50 Amp 2 pole circuit. 30 Amp Pedestals at the RV camps are usual single pole. That would mean one leg of 30 Amps and only 1 A/C for sure. I would still make sure and keep the load off if 2 A/C's are running on the 2-pole 30 Amp circuit. No sense in adding too much heat.

Some good information in Gip's post.

In terms of running 30 amps on two legs I would do it if you have an understanding of electrics and what the RW pulls in terms of amps. Here in Canada most RV parks are 30 amps (1 leg only) and I'm used to running an amperage calculation mentally in each park to ensure that I don't blow the breaker at the pedestal.

The other way to ensure that you don't have any low voltage problems is to use a surge guard, I have both 30 and 50 amp portable units and the 50 amp one plugged into a 2 leg 30 amp circuit that I suggested would protect against low voltage. It goes without saying that you should size the conductors correctly.

I picked up some of this knowledge in Mexico where we were running on 15 amp service (and at one park 3 of us were running on a 30 amp plug, at that time I was pulling about 4 amps or so (measured with a clamp meter).

On Almcc's issue...When using the "compressor" 2-pole 30 Amp circuit, you're going to need a "neutral" and "ground". If you did not have those two at the compressor, you would have to go through a lot more work and it might not be worth it. I would just run a separate circuit to begin with. And if that's the case, you might as well run the 50A circuit...

Almcc's method could work in theory if nothing else in the RV is on. The issue is distance and the A/C Load. On our unit, we pull about 15 Amps per A/C. A 30 Amp circuit uses a #10 wire. Having said that, there will be a voltage loss on the #10 wire due to the load. Is it enough to cause a problem? With lower voltage, it will result in higher Amps. How much? That's a good question and I would have to put a meter to it to find out. Lower voltages are hard on your equipment. As stated, the lower the voltage, the higher the Amps. Amps is heat. Heat has detrimental effects on electrical equipment. In the short term, this could work with no harm done. Over the longer haul, damage could occur. In theory the math adds up. Almcc is using a 2-pole 30 Amp circuit in place of the 50 Amp 2 pole circuit. 30 Amp Pedestals at the RV camps are usual single pole. That would mean one leg of 30 Amps and only 1 A/C for sure. I would still make sure and keep the load off if 2 A/C's are running on the 2-pole 30 Amp circuit. No sense in adding too much heat.

Some good information in Gip's post.

In terms of running 30 amps on two legs I would do it if you have an understanding of electrics and what the RW pulls in terms of amps. Here in Canada most RV parks are 30 amps (1 leg only) and I'm used to running an amperage calculation mentally in each park to ensure that I don't blow the breaker at the pedestal.

The other way to ensure that you don't have any low voltage problems is to use a surge guard, I have both 30 and 50 amp portable units and the 50 amp one plugged into a 2 leg 30 amp circuit that I suggested would protect against low voltage. It goes without saying that you should size the conductors correctly.

I picked up some of this knowledge in Mexico where we were running on 15 amp service (and at one park 3 of us were running on a 30 amp plug, at that time I was pulling about 4 amps or so (measured with a clamp meter).

The surge guard is a must. Having had one in service now, it has protected our RV on at 2 occasions (1 self-inflicted as I wanted to test the operation of the equipment to make sure it would work. I dropped the voltage down to 102. It worked as designed).

Sold have mentioned that the circuit is a true 3 wire plus ground circuit at 30 amps, installed that way in the past "just in case".

Don't forget your surge and voltage protection monitor

I have 1 surge suppressor breaker in the square d breaker box and a add on pedestal monitor also to protect the power supply and electronics

GipCT -

Wow, that's the best explanation of 30amp VS. 50amp I've seen yet.

Well done.

Spend the money and enjoy a safe 50 amp connected circuit

Plug cost 15 buck

4 prong exterior box 20 bucks

Wire 4 conductors 6 Guage x length

Surge protection voltage monitor

Surge breaker and a double 50 breaker

As said will protect electrical components as engineered

Safely

GipCT -

Wow, that's the best explanation of 30amp VS. 50amp I've seen yet.

Well done.

Thanks Ken...

I did leave out the part about Phasing...If you have an issue with a 240 V circuit, you would also need to know about phasing...But since nothing has 240V on the RV, it's a topic for another day...Just like power factor corrections, harmonics, and corona of higher voltages... 🙂

Thanks to ALL.. Especially Gip for the great show and tell.....

Got the breaker.... The outlet box is on order.... Buddy is getting the wire.... And he FULLY understands the RV now...
Thanks again.... Will post pics when it's done, although it won't be for several weeks, got a ton of stuff planned for the next 4-5 weeks . .

Joe