30 Amp or 50 Amp or extension cord

Rodbuster

Well-known member
Hello,
We are picking up our Key Largo tomorrow. The wife and I are like 2 excited little kids. It's our first RV and we are looking forward to very much.

We are planning a couple of trips already so I plan on parking the RV on the driveway for a couple of weeks so we can start packing it. Once we get the RV organized it will go out back where I plan on putting a 50 amp service along with a water supply.

My question is, how should I run electricity to my unit while it's on the driveway? I'm in Florida so it gets pretty warm. I would like to run both AC units and lights.
Do I have to run another 50 amp service out there or can I run a 30 amp service? What I would really like is to just use an extension cord that would satisfy my needs and plug it into the garage. The total distance is about 75 feet.

Thank you
Rodbuster
 

Rodbuster

Well-known member
Re: 30 Amp or 50 Amp oe extension cord

Sorry... in the title I meant to type "or" instead of oe.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Re: 30 Amp or 50 Amp oe extension cord

I am not an electrician but a 75 foot run would give you some voltage drop. I can tell you from experience that if you are trying to run both ACs on 30amps you will probably not be able to use anything else. We only use one AC at a time when on 30 amp service. Good luck and have fun BTW congratulations.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Re: 30 Amp or 50 Amp oe extension cord

We're in central Texas which is also pretty hot. We run a heavy duty extension cord from the 20 amp outlet on the front porch. That runs 1 A/C but not much else without popping a circuit breaker in the house. In mid-summer at 100 degrees I expect it might have trouble keeping the temp inside below 78. But mostly we're just loading/unloading, so it's not a big deal.

Not sure you can run both A/C units on a 30 AMP circuit, especially with a long run. I think each A/C is around 15 amps and you'll probably have some loss due to the 75 foot run.
 

hoefler

Well-known member
Re: 30 Amp or 50 Amp oe extension cord

Not only will you be running the A/C's, but you will have the converter going and anything else that is 110 volt. At 75' voltage drop should not be an issue if you are using the proper sized cord. You really need to run a 50 amp service and cord for what you are intending on running, 30 amp will be border line if anything.
 

jpdoggett

Well-known member
I have a 50 amp service at my garage door and that works great no extension cords. I also have a 30 amp just inside the door that was for my old camper that only had one AC
 

ParkIt

Well-known member
I have a 50 amp service at my garage door and that works great no extension cords. I also have a 30 amp just inside the door that was for my old camper that only had one AC

We lucked out as well, from the garage I re-routed the 50 amp where the initial washer & dryer were against the house wall back over to the breaker box and ran a dedicated box to the outside. Now its code to have a covered box if you run 50 amp on the outside of your home so it also stays dry and out of the elements and gets dedicated 50 amp - while next to the house.

Out and about I noticed CG's can either fill up quickly and you can be stuck with 30 amp only. I always carry two pigtails and one heavy duty 30' line so it won't matter aside from running the load inside.
 
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