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15 Amp Power Cord
John Padmore:
Since I bought my coach with nothing in it (except the 50 amp cord) I need to outfit it with various adaptors and a good 15 amp power cord to plug in while at home. I purchased a 50 to 30 and a 30 to 15 adaptor. I read somewhere that I will need a heavy duty 15 amp cord. Any recommendations? Thanks....
John
Karl Welhart:
John,
I would be very careful about plugging into a 15amp service. It must have good voltage and do not run more than a 30' extension (30am cord is best). Before you plug in, make sure all the heavy loads are turned off. This would include AC, electric hot water, charger (and inverter), and your frig... Then, after you plug in to your 15amp service, you can only turn on the charger. After you are fully charged, you may be able to turn on the frig, but watch carefully to your voltage.
LarryNCarolynShirk:
John,
It is best to run out your 50 amp cord to plug in your adapters to the 15 amp receptacle. If you can not reach the receptacle with the 50 amp cord, use the largest gauge cord available to reduce voltage loss.
Larry
Joel Ashley:
John-
Karl is right about watching how many devices are on in this scenario. If the batteries are fully charged, you can fudge a bit, and turn on the fridge to prep for a trip; but watch it if you want to add electric-side hydronic heat for example, or turn on the microwave or something. The longer the extension cord the more the voltage drop, which can damage some component induction motors on startup (they need 120 volts but are getting only 105, and burn up from working too hard). I use a 25 ft. 12 guage from my 30 amp house RV outlet. I have a big 30amp RV cord stored in the coach for campground situations if needed, but at home I don't use it, as the 12 guage is fine. If I was going to put up guests overnight or longer in the coach by the house, I'd switch to the 30 amp extension so they'd have more household use.
In my case I have a 30 to 15 adapter at the 30 amp house outlet, then the 12 guage cord with a 15 to 30 adapter at the female end, into which plugs a 15 inch yellow 30/50 pigtail, and the coach 50 amp cord goes into that.
If you are plugging into a 15 amp outlet at home, you can skip my first adapter of course. I used to run a 14 guage cord, but after its high resistance resulted in a burned adapter once, I went out and got the much larger yellow 12 guage cord, and you should also. The shorter you can go there the better... and less spendy, too... 6, 12, or 15 foot - whichever will minimally reach for you. Bigger guage, shortest length = least resistance to easy current flow, less voltage drop, and a cool cord and adapters. Be sure your adapters are high quality as well - don't skimp on price there. Inevitably, those little black adapters are what will melt and fail. That and the nifty handles are why I splurged on a nice 50/30 yellow pigtail last summer.
In my coach, I also set my Magnum inverter/charger panel for 15 amps to control things, but you may not have that option on your rig.
Joel
Bill Sprague:
--- Quote from: John Padmore ---Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that I only want to keep the batteries up....not run a bunch of appliances.
--- End quote ---
When you buy a cord for this, spend extra for one that says it is made with 14 gauge wire. It will be imprinted on the cord itself. That is typically what a house is wired with for 15 amp outlets. Lowes, Home Depot, Ace and Tru-Value typically have them.
If you plug in directly with adapters, your motorhome can fool you a little. On mine, if the inverter/charger is set to defaults and the batteries have been used, the charger wants to start with about a 25 amp charge and tapers off over time. Obviously that will trip the 15 amp breaker in the house. On mine there is a choice on the inverter/charge control panel to tell it I have a 10 amp limit.
My prefered alternative when limited to 15 amps is to use a standard automotive charger hooked directly to the batteries.
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