DOUBLING UP

[mountainborn]

Doubling up at a rally is a pretty common thing, when campground rules allow it. It saves a little money and often times puts good friends closer so they can share a campfire ect..

So, here is the scenario; Your friends arrived first and since they knew you were to be there soon, they left room on the same site for you. All is cool. It is later that you discover that in order to plug into electricity, you will need a adapter, because the 30 amp outlet is already being used by your friends. You will have to use the 20 amp rated ( household looking ) outlet. You will need an adapter similar to this:.

Now the reason we use the hard plastic adapter is that the rubber adapter builds up heat and distorts, losing power sometimes.

The reason ? Your Ollie is rated at 30 amps and you are trying to power it through an adapter that is rated at 15 amps. It is kind of like having a kink in a water hose when you are trying to water the lawn.

So, is there a 20 amp rated adapter out there ? Well, yes and no. There are some still in stock at Rv supply places, but they are being sold as generator adapters on eBay. Here is what ours looks like:.

Now here is the reason why:

Yep, the bottom prongs are exposed to being touched, shorted out or grounded by water ect..

When used as intended by the manufacturer the orange adapter is safe. However should it be used to plug into a drop cord as shown in the last photo, it is a dangerous thing.

Should you have one of the older adapters, it will give you more ampre carrying capacity, if used correctly, but could be dangerous, if not used as intended.

Please note that both of our adapters are travel worn from carrying, and that the plug prongs are not shiney from use. The last time we used the orange adapter was at the RVERII last year.

Good to have with you ? I say yes. Worth the cost ? Again I say yes. But the end user, that's us as RV'ers, has to exercise common scense when using them, keeping safety in mind first.

Oh, yeah, should you find one or two still on the shelf in a RV store, pick up an extra for us, we would like to have a spare, just in case . . . .

[tumbleweed]

We got one for use at RVII last year and when used AS DESIGNED, seems safe but there are those folks that......... Will not work with GFI plug.

Chuck

[mountainborn]

The 08' and up RVs have built in GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interuption built into them. When you plug A new GFCI trailer into an existing GFCI Circuit you get an automatic trip of the breaker . GFCI circuits can't be stacked one on another. We have had to have the park disable or replace their GFCI outlet on the power pedestal ( a older park ) so we could get power.

[astrocaster]

We have a 15A male to 30A female dogbone adapter that we use when 30A is not available, such as when we have our Oliver hooked up to household current through a heavy extension cord here at home. We are careful not to attempt to draw more than 15A, and we have not any problems with heat build up.

 

 

If you are looking for one of those orange adapters that combine two 15A plugs to one 30A receptacle, they can be purchased through Amazon.com. See the following link:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Dual-15-adapter-generator-convert/dp/B000H9UFV8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1220314350&sr=8-3

 

I have been advised to bear in mind, though, that if you hook this up to a generator, you still get no more amps than the generator will produce! Similarly, you will not get 30A when plugging this into a 15A duplex outlet, since the outlet is (or should be!) breaker-protected for only 15A.

 

Steve