First Timers List

caissiel

Senior Member
There is a serious problem with the Electrical description of 240 Volt plug, as of Dryer and Stove. House wiring is said to be 240 only if the 2 off 110volts are connected. On the stove and dryer plugs its a 4 Wire connection and the 2 lines are truly 120 volts with one neutral common that takes the opposing load of the 2 120 volts line. It has to be wired that way so as not to overload the common line. If the 120 volts lines are not opposing, the common line on our RV will be overloaded. Welding machine, heater, and 240 Volts 3 wire plugs should be avoided. I have a Stove connection on my home and they carry 120Volts on each line with a common neutral line. We do have to understand what 120V lines AC are about before doing electrical connections for our RV. If you use a 30amp and a 15 amp combined connection the common neutral line will not get overloaded as only 45 Amp will be in the line, thats why you can buy an adapter that will wire 30amps and 15amps to 50 amp connection. It only gives you 1/2 the power of 50Amp as required by the 50Amp RV connection, so I don't bother with it anyway.
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
Campground 50amp IS 240. I just measured the voltage across the two hot wires inside the breaker box inside our Landmark and it is 244 volts. Nothing in the trailer is wired hot to hot, but it is there.

The four wires on a RV 50 amp are; +120, -120, common and ground. To have something powered at 240 it must be wired +120 to -120. and nothing in the trailer is wired that way, but dryers and ovens are. The trailer has all of its circuits wired either +120 to common or -120 to common. and that is way we only have 120 volt outlets, but we are technically using a 240 volt supply.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
That is what I mean by 2 line feeding in one common neutral. In house wiring its one side and then the other, as its in our trailers. Known as red and black wires while the white is neutral, Green is the ground wire, in a 4 wire plug.
 

wyleyrabbit

Well-known member
Not that I would EVER do such a thing, but just so I understand...is a stove/dryer 240 receptacle the same as the 50A plug at a campground, or is it a completely different and incompatible beast?
 

caissiel

Senior Member
Its wired the same, using the 4 wire method.
But there are 3 wire plugs for hot water heaters, welders and heaters that are only 240Volts.
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
Here are common dryer and range plugs

4 pin dryer
220voltdryer.JPG


4 pin range
220voltrange.JPG


3 pin dryer
dryer_outlet.jpg


3 pin range
range_outlet.jpg
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
BTW it was Kookie Kookie lend me your comb....and Kookie was a valet parking attendant.
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
Here is a much better picture showing all the 4 pin 2x120/240 volt wireing.
125250v3p4wgrnd.jpg


RV use the 14-50R which IS the same as your household range outlet, so as long as the house hold plug is wired correctly the RV should work just fine on it because the RV 50 really is 240.
 

wyleyrabbit

Well-known member
Alan, you are truly a wealth of knowledge or are just really good at "googling". :)

So, in a pinch, someone could plug their RV into their range outlet? I'm still never going to do that, but it makes for interesting conversation.
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
Alan, you are truly a wealth of knowledge or are just really good at "googling". :)
A bit of both.

Chris, I believe so, I would double check the polarity if the outlet first, but I can remove my breaker box cover inside out Landmark and use my DMM and measure 240 volts right now inside the trailer. I wish a electrician would verify but to the best of my knowledge RV 50 amp is the same as 240 range service. again I am not a electrician and this is just MHO.
 

htneighbors

Unbelievably Blessed!
A bit of both.

Chris, I believe so, I would double check the polarity if the outlet first, but I can remove my breaker box cover inside out Landmark and use my DMM and measure 240 volts right now inside the trailer. I wish a electrician would verify but to the best of my knowledge RV 50 amp is the same as 240 range service. again I am not a electrician and this is just MHO.

Yes...verified! Our 50A RVs are 240VAC, 2-hots, 1-neutral, 1-ground. :)
 

DW_Gray

Well-known member
AC Current

The four wires on a RV 50 amp are; +120, -120, common and ground.

I don't think you meant this. With AC current in a single phase (any 1 hot wire), the voltage constantly reverses or shifts phases. It goes up to +120 volts and then shifts down to -120 volts at a rate of 60 times per minute (60 Hertz). (Technically, it more than 120 volts but I'm keeping this simple.)

Also, one of the primary reasons there are two phases of 120 volts coming into a home is to balance out the usage of power throughout the house. The circuit beaker box is split into two sides. In a 100 amp box it is disired to have one half of the house powered by 50 amps and the other half powered by 50 amps. It's rarely perfect but this is what is desired.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
A 100 amp entrance to a house is 100amp at 240Volts , one side is 100Amp at 120V and the other side is 100Amp at 120v. But the common line never sees more then 100amps because of the alternating current.
 

DW_Gray

Well-known member
A 100 amp entrance to a house is 100amp at 240Volts , one side is 100Amp at 120V and the other side is 100Amp at 120v. But the common line never sees more then 100amps because of the alternating current.

True, but that misses my point and my intention to keep this simple for a novice to understand. The desire is to use only enough circuit beakers totaling 50 amps worth on each side and not more than 100 amps total both sides combined.

And yes, you can actually have more than 50 amps worth of circuit breakers on either side and that's not uncommon. But if all appliances are being used at the same time and it is more than 100 amps, the main 100 amp circuit breaker should trip. When there is a significant imbalance of power used on one side, it will create additional watts used therefore costing the customer unnecessarily more.
 

Riverman

Well-known member
True, but that misses my point and my intention to keep this simple for a novice to understand. The desire is to use only enough circuit beakers totaling 50 amps worth on each side and not more than 100 amps total both sides combined.

I think most missed the point of the thread. The original poster was discussing tips for a first timer. Amazing how that gets changed to Electrician class # 101?:confused:
 
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