How to convert the 15 AMP power inlet to a 30 AMP

[tbkillen]

I am updating the wiring for more plugs and air conditioning. I have a breaker box which has room for two 15 amp breakers. Currently there is only one breaker being used. I was planning on adding another 15 amp breaker for the new plugs and a/c, but I noticed my power inlet is a 15 amp. Should I switch that 15 amp inlet for a 30 amp? With both the breakers being used it would be 30 amps.
Thanks,
Thomas

[tbkillen]

Well..... I guess I should have done this first. After adding the amps for my fridge, a/c .... the 15 amp breaker should be fine.
Thanks,
Thomas

[dlarrow]

I realize that you have decided not to convert, but I had the same situation and I added another Federal Pacific 15A breaker that I got off ebay and then replaced the 15A power inlet with a 30A inlet that I got from Vintage Trailer Supply. Just had to drill a slightly larger hole in the skin to allow for mounting the new inlet. Now I can make toast and run the lights.

[tbkillen]

I might go ahead and do that for the upgrade.
Thanks,
Thomas

[shasta66]

You might want to reasearch the Federal Pacific breaker you bought on Ebay. I believe there were fire issues and recalls on a number of them. No way I would use one ,especially with an unkown age and history.

[joek]

Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panels were the fire prone ones. The breakers have a tendency not to trip until it's too late.

I have one of these on my house. It hasn't caught fire yet. Knock on trailer interior (wood).

[tbkillen]

I read the 30 amp inlets were designed to be used with a single 30 amp breaker instead of two 15 amps. Does anyone or has anyone had a problem using two 15 amp breakers? I saw this info at: www.myrv.us/electric/
Thanks,
Thomas

[shasta66]

If you plan to add A/C you need a 30amp service with at least 10ga wire to supply it. Your A/C (RV A/C ) needs to be on a circuit larger than than 15 amps or you will damage the A/C due to the load at start up.

[harmony]

I was very happy to find this thread.

I am adding 3 receptacles to the 120V system on a 1971, 13', Compact.

This will give me 5 receptacles. A 15A circuit breaker will handle a continues load 80% of its rating, so I am good for 1400W. This will handle the small loads planed.

This is what worries me, www.inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

My wife uses this trailer for her Sisters On The Fly outings. So I will be looking at all of the loads she will be using to make sure she keeps the current flow down.

I think I will replace the Federal Pacific breaker panel and maybe upgrade to a 30A service cord and panel next year.

I am new to this forum and have found it very helpful.

Now if I could just get my wife to quit buying vintage trailers, she also has a 1965 Aristocrat and is looking for a 60s Oasis.

Dave

[vikx]

I would think the 71 Compact should be fine as long as your wife doesn't use an electric heater, Dave. Anything with a motor or heating element can put stress on the system.

I have a 64 Oasis undergoing a full rebuild right now. What nice cabinetry it has! All curved edges. This is my second Oasis and they tend to have good interiors but rot around the edges. I did convert this one to 30 amps + cord and upgraded the wiring.

[Bob]

Our 1973 1400 has a Bryant breaker box with a 14/2 power cord with a 15 amp plug, and it had a single 15 amp breaker. There is space on the box for 2 breakers, so I used a 15 amp dedicated line for the fridge and a piggyback 15 amp breaker with one circuit to the AC and the other circuit to the receptacles and lights. I'm going to change the power cord to 10/2 and a 115v 30 amp plug.
When I got it, the box was wired with the power in wired to the breaker and the single circuit out wired to the bus bar... kinda backwards.

As posted before, be sure to upgrade your power inlet cord to 10/2 if you're upgrading to 30 amps.

[tbkillen]

Just wanted to update something on this topic. Many Shasta trailers have a breaker box with 2 - 15 amp breakers with an inlet for a standard extension cord. The ext cord plugs into a regular household outlet. You would think you could wire a new 30 amp inlet to your old breaker box (2 - 15 amps = 30 amps), but I learned this is not the case. According to the myRV electric web site, the 30 amp inlets are supposed to be wired to a single 30 amp breaker instead of 2 - 15 amp breakers. So to add a 30 amp inlet, you would have to upgrade to a breaker box that accommodates a single 30 amp breaker. The web site I mentioned is a great resource for RV electrical questions: www.myrv.us/electric/

[vikx]

A properly wired 30 amp inlet will accommodate more than two 15 amp breakers. I have worked on many modern RVs with more breakers, say a 20 and two 15s. Since they will not all be used at one time, the general rule is less than double the incoming amperage. 30 amp inlet=less than 60 total.

Of course all wiring must be the proper gauge and the system not overloaded.

Depending on the trailer, the MAIN breaker would be 30 amps, yes. But some trailers don't use a Main. Instead, they rely on the shore power breaker. This means that with a 30 amp inlet, you can have a 20 amp circuit for a microwave or small AC, plus a 15 for the lights and a few plugs. Sometimes there is a second 15 amp circuit for a few more plugs.

For an air conditioner only used some of the time, it might make sense to run a separate cord to shore power rather than using the trailers internal system. This can be accomplished with a small opening in the floor of the trailer or a handy electrical hatch. Bypassing the trailer system makes it possible to run cooking appliances without having to worry about tripping a breaker.

Always keep in mind that most vintage trailers have a 15 amp inlet and 14 gauge wiring to the breaker box. To upgrade to 30 amps, the wiring must be changed to 10/2 from inlet to breaker box.

Hope this clarifies the above.

[offspringin]

i agree with vikx on this one. Well planned out all power usage taking into account the fact that if everything was run at once it would trip breakers. Since it was a panels off restore we upgraded the feed line to the breaker box to 10/2 and upgraded ( think all lines but outside outlet used mainly for fan/lights) other lines to 12GA. I think we have either 1 30amp and 3 15 or 2 30 and 2 15. The heat/ac outlet has its own circuit (since you would never run both at once). Other outlets were planned out according to what was going to be used on them. Toaster oven or microwave etc etc.

Looking at the warning label on the ac unit it tells you it really should be on its own 15amp dedicated circuit.

I had never heard of this 30amp 1 breaker limit for 30amp service. I'm quite certain my parents trailer (stock 1992 model) has a couple of breakers as well.

[tbkillen]

I doubled checked the web site I referenced concerning the single 30 amp breaker when installing a 30 amp inlet. I was wrong on that one. The single 30 amp breaker rule is for the breaker box at the service pole not the RV.

[mikec]

One thing to consider is some campgrounds don't have 30 amp service so you would be using an adapter anyway making the whole 30 amp conversion useless.

[vikx]

Good point, MikeC.

All of us should always remember that a 15 amp receptacle will only allow 15 amps to the trailer before tripping the breaker. Long extension cords lower amperage as well. So, if a trailer is plugged in with a 10 foot cord, you might get a full 15 amps. With a 50 foot cord, it drops considerably.

Of course, the amperage use inside the trailer makes a lot of difference in the above scenario. One thing at a time and you're good to go. Plug the toaster and a heater in at the same time: Not so.

Try to think of using amps as how much power you NEED for each appliance/fixture. A 30 amp receptacle won't "throw" 30 amps down the cord, but allows you to use up to 30 amps with the proper size wiring. In other words, you can use a heater (13 amps) and a toaster oven (another 13 amps) without popping a 30 amp breaker. Make sense?

[Bob]

In my continuing effort to over-build, I just added a 6 space/12 circuit Square D QO load center with a 30 amp main that feeds two combination arc fault circuit interrupters. Arrr Arrr Arrr.

Additionally, both branches are GFCI protected, with a receptacle ahead of the GFCI in one branch in case my fridge doesn’t play well with ground fault interrupters. My little camper will now be more to code than my house (and it was built in 1997).

[kto17]

I read through this thread and I may have missed it but I don't think I saw any discussion of grounding.

If you are upgrading, especially if you are adding outlets and GFCI outlets you need/should add a ground.

[vikx]

Thank you kto17. Grounds are most important and should always be mentioned.

Luckily, all of my trailers (20?? or more?) have had a solid ground to the frame from the breaker box. Most were copper, a few aluminum.

GROUND IT.

[rentschlerke]

Hi all. I'm not sure if I should start a new thread or continue on this one, but I'm restoring a 63 and getting ready to run wiring but trying to really study up before I finish buying materials and actually starting. I am not usually a hands on girl, so this isn't easy for me to understand so I thought I'd tell you all what I was thinking and you could all point out what I'm doing wrong or haven't thought of.

Ok, first thing is I bought 14/2 wiring... Is that ok? Things that'll need power for me... Microwave, fridge, 5 lights, 4 other outlets (?), and one other receptacle to be used for a heater or a portable AC unit. After talking to my father in law who remodels houses, he said I would want 3 15 amp breakers... One for fridge / microwave, one for heater / AC, and one for lights and outlets. Is that even a possibility? And you are all talking about 30 amp plug... I don't even understand that... But I know that our pop up has a standard male plug that we run a big ole orange extension cord to the electric box at camp sites, and you said that 30 amp may not even do a person any good because of that. Finally, I had some cute lights picked out from VTS, but realized they are 12 V lights... So I cannot run those with a 110 system, is that what I'm hearing? And, FYI, I'm planning on eventually adding a converter / inverter system, but not yet. i know a lot of people do the whole converter / inverter system... Is that just if you are going to be off the grid or are their other advantages to that system?

If anyone wants to help me generate a shopping list, or a to do list starting from scratch, that would be awesome... Along with answering my other questions, I'd really appreciate it. This site is one of the few places that gives me hope that YES my shasta, The Neverland, will someday be complete.

[vikx]

PM'd you, Rentschlerke...

[bearhunter720]

Kinda Fun reading your post !! I have a Fpe 2 circuit panel in my 62 Astrodome, every where I go they have 30 amp outlets and I use the adapter. There is also on all of the pedestals a 110 outlet, I made it so my air and Heater unit has its own outside outlet, I have a 15 ft. 14 gauge cord and plug it into the 110 outlet / Owned trailer since 82 and never have had a problem.

[soup]

Your campers cords should not be like this, play beginning of this video!
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=a+christmas+story+movie+leg+lamp&view=detail&mid=06F142B73D1F691EBE4606F142B73D1F691EBE46&first=0
LOL

[djnrf]

Mar 21, 2010 16:51:00 GMT -5 tbkillen said:

I am updating the wiring for more plugs and air conditioning. I have a breaker box which has room for two 15 amp breakers. Currently there is only one breaker being used. I was planning on adding another 15 amp breaker for the new plugs and a/c, but I noticed my power inlet is a 15 amp. Should I switch that 15 amp inlet for a 30 amp? With both the breakers being used it would be 30 amps.
Thanks,
Thomas

In reading through this entire thread I find that everyone is
mostly concerned with the breaker size. That is a big mistake!
Your first concern should be the size of the wiring in your
trailer, and how many lines are there of that size. Fires start
by more current flowing through a line than the line was
designed to carry.
A rule of thumb is:
14 ga wire is for only a 15 amp draw through the entire
line circut.
12 ga wire is for 20 amp total draw on that circut.
10 ga wire can handle 30 amp total IF less than 50 ft of
wire. Any longer run of line for use or supply requires
8 or 6 ga wire.
All these sizes are for copper wire. Aluminum wire must
be larger.

Most small AC units must have their own 15 or 20 amp
circuit for safety. Nothing else should be running on that
circuit while the AC is in use.

Even an electrician can sometimes make mistakes by
not paying attention to these details. Where I always
use a 50 ft, 10 ga supply line to a 30 amp circuit, I
have melted an outlet amd wire by using a 14 ga wire
instead of a 12 ga circuit line.
Pay attention first to your circuit wire size, and not
the breaker size. .

Just think about all the fires at Christmas time due
to overloaded circuits. It isn't the tree that starts
the fires, it is the wiring overload.

Dave.