General Boards > General Discussion
15 Amp Power Cord
Bill Sprague:
--- Quote from: Dick Simonis ---
I stored outs alongside the house for some time using adapters from 50A to 20A without any issues. One does need to watch the amps pretty carefully though. Fridge on propane if needed and HW heater off, and set power share on the inverter to 10 amps. I could run one AC unit if needed along with lights so it wasn't all that bad. Recently I had a 50A box installed which was much easier and cheaper than I had anticipated.
--- End quote ---
Dick,
I have too. My point of using the charger directly to the house batteries is that you don't have to carefully watch the amps or the volts.
It is like indefinite Quartzsite style dry camping without the need to run the genset once a day. Through the inverter, you can use everything at will except AC.
Another place it works well is where the power is suspicious, like an old state park that was built for old travel trailers. Instead of risking power spikes to the Beaver, the relatively cheap charger can take a hit and be sacrificed.
I have a friend that has a favorite scenic campground in Mexico where the power is terribly unreliable. Rather than risk the circuitry in his rig, he uses an autoparts store charger direct to his battery.
John Padmore:
Dick, I plan to install a 50 amp box in the future. Can I just get a box on ebay (50 & 20 amp) and have it hard wired into the system? I don't see why not.
On another subject, my coach as 2 house batteries. Should it have 4? Thanks....
John
Gerald Farris:
John,
If you are talking about wiring in a 50A box at your home for the coach, Yes you can get any weather proof 50A receptacle box and wire it into your home breaker box. You can purchase a 50A box at Home Depot for a little over $20 plus the breaker and wire.
As for batteries, your coach came with two 12V group 31 chassis batteries and four 6V golf cart batteries that were wired in series in pairs to produce 12V. If your coach only has two house batteries, they were probably changed to two 12V batteries (probably 8D), which is OK, but only if they are true deep cycle batteries. If you have two 12V cranking batteries, they will not last, or if you have two 6V golf cart batteries, you do not have enough capacity.
Gerald
John Padmore:
Gerald, I believe they are 2-12v group 31 chassis batteries. They are definately not 8D - I know these from my boat. When I installed a 2500watt inverter on the boat I installed 4 - 6v golf cart batteries and had ample power. Looks like I will need to do that again.
Good to know Home Depot will have a 50 amp box. I will pick one up next week. Thanks.....
John
Dick Simonis:
--- Quote from: John Padmore ---Dick, I plan to install a 50 amp box in the future. Can I just get a box on ebay (50 & 20 amp) and have it hard wired into the system? I don't see why not.
On another subject, my coach as 2 house batteries. Should it have 4? Thanks....
John
--- End quote ---
John, that's exactly where I got mine. Looks just like an RV pedestal box with breaker and an outlet. The location on the outside garage wall was right beside the 200 amp service entrance and I had an electrician come in and install 50 breaker, run the conduit, mount the box and wire it up. Total cost for everything was ~$300.00. In retrospect I would have gone with a bit more upscale box containing the additional 30A and 20A outlets for and additional $30.00 or so.
Be careful that you don't just get a 50 amp receptacle with no breakers as that will not meet code. You need breakers at both the receptacle and in the panel.
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