I can't help myself, folks. I saw this on another site, and thought immediately of a similar devise referred to on this site. Ron was making one perhaps? It's been awhile. Refresh our foggy ol' brains? They were concerned about a plug that was melting. Maybe this is how to make the right connections? (pun intended)

"You can make a better 30A adapter for under $15.

Make a split cord that has 30A female on one end and two 15A male plugs on the other end. The two plugs are joined together to align with a duplex receptacle. When you plug this in you have two adapters making contact instead of just one. Also incorporate a hanger of some sort so that the weight of the motor home’s cord isn't supported by the duplex receptacle and plugs. A duplex receptacle is a standard household two outlet receptacle for those unfamiliar.

When you plug this in, the two 15A male plugs go into the same duplex receptacle.

I'm assuming that anyone trying to make something like this is experienced enough to select the right materials and wire it properly. Otherwise have one made up for you by an electrician friend.

Speaking from experience, a bad electrical connection can burn out electric motors: i.e. your washing machine, A/C etc."

This is useful if the receptacles are not capable of delivering their rated current. Many outdoor receptacles are in that condition.

With good receptacles, there is no advantage.

Yep, and unless you plug into individually protected receptacles (two breakers) the power delivery is limited to the single bkr size (20 amps).

My latest brainstorm, which came after getting up four times to reset a tripped 30-amp breaker, was to wire a 50-amp female receptacle (see, I ain't stuck on the M-M thing) to be fed from two 30-amp cords (normal male plugs). The campground had two 30-amp and one 20-amp female receptacles in each access box. I see where the camping supply places sell a similiar setup but with a 20 and a 30 male plug. Hmmmm, just pull your neighbor's cord out of the "spare" 30 an turn on both AC units and the water heater at the same time...

quote:

Originally posted by ron:
unless you plug into individually protected receptacles (two breakers) the power delivery is limited to the single bkr size (20 amps).

..

Oh, it gets worse. If you plug into two individually protected receptacles (two breakers), you could be picking up two different legs of a circuit and connecting them together. (here we go on the male male cord) One never can know for sure how an RV park power pole is wired.

You should be OK on both outlets of a duplex receptacle, but to be safe, I would check that hot to hot was zero before plugging in.

Lots of duplex outlets are just 15 amps.

And all this reminds me how glad I am that my Barth has never been plugged in.



[This message has been edited by bill h (edited August 18, 2005).]

Or if you only plug one in then you have a male to male plug...

Bill; Never?

quote:

Originally posted by SLOOP JOHN B:
Bill; Never?

I meant since we have owned it. Since 2000. I will pass on the opportunity for some Clintonian parsing here. Previous SOB was same way. We just left the cord plugged into the genset. The one before that probably, too, but can't remember for sure. But, on the other hand, we spent all the 80s and 90s with a series of trailers permanently in a park on the Colorado River. Plugged in 24/7.

Bill: I think its great that you are able to boondock without being pluged-in. We can run the house without power company , we did this when it got so that we were losing power every year due to downed power lines in our neighborhood.. Love our old trees but its the price you pay for shade. JKB

Wow, that's nifty, running the whole house. With trees, do you do solar, or what?