Bighorn - Electrical

I have two questions one if I have a 50 amp fifth wheel and I go to a park that has only 30 amp service can I use an adapter I know I won't have power to run the air conditioners and large service but will it charge my batteries run my small lights and a few small 110 items or is this dangerous for unsafe ? Question number two if I have a 1000 W generator and I know that I should have a 3000 W generator run 50 a.m. coach can I hook up a small generator and have the limitations that I cannot use air conditioning and the cannot see the usage of the generator but will it work to charge the battery to run a small power items ? I am a newbie with questions but thanks for your help I am really dumb on electrical .

Hi Propaneguy,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

You can purchase a 50-->30 Amp adapter just about anywhere. The single hot wire at the 30 amp receptacle gets split out inside the adapter to provide power to both legs of your 50 amp service. The 30 amp receptacle will let you run anything in the coach that consumes less than about 3600 watts.

Your power converter that provides power to the 12V DC fusebox and charges the battery, consumes between 2 and 8 amps most of the time, but can have a momentary surge that's higher at startup. If you plan on using 8 amps, that would leave 13 amps to run one A/C unit, with 9 amps left for TV, ceiling fan, and other small devices. Coffee pots, microwave ovens, toasters, and similar devices can each draw 13-15 amps, so obviously you'll have to manage what you have running concurrently. You'd want to run the water heater and refrigerator on propane to minimize how much electricity they use.

Same with using a generator. 2000W inverter type generator would probably be a better choice. 1000W would keep the battery charged and let you turn on lights. But 1000W is about 8 amps and the 1000W rating is likely peak rather than continuous, so it might actually be less than you think.