30 amp service at home

[Gary F]

Spent the day installing a 30 amp outlet in my garage. Items needed for the project are as follows.

1. 25 feet of 10/2 wire, 30 amp 10 gauge.
2. Metal gang box, nail in type
3. RV 30 amp receptacle
4. 3/8 wire lock
5. Single pole 30 amp breaker switch

Even though my BH is 50 amp I figured that 30 amps should meet my needs when having the RV in the driveway for any pre or post camping getaways.
Running the A/C and items like a vacuum, stereo and refrig should be safe during this time.

Someday if I decide to start camping out in the drive, I may upgrade to 50 amp however I do not see that happening any time soon.

Total cost of the project was $50.

I was fortunate that my main electrical service is located in the garage on a unfinished side wall. Simple straight forward installation when you can see everything from the receptacle box to the main service panel.

 

[jbeletti]

Nice deal Gary. Wish I could bring my trailer home! You'll be in good shape with 30 amp service unless you run 2 ACs or run the AC and the microwave at the same time.

Have fun!

Jim

 

[cdbMidland]

Gary, thanks for the post. I am planning something similar to this for my unit - not sure if 30 or 50 is the way to go, but certainly 30 beats the 15 that I am hooked into now.

 

[Gary F]

Jim,
I live in a housing development that has a home owners association and its a big no-no to have RV's, boats and cargo trailers permanently on your property. The exception is, you are allowed to have the RV on your property for up to three days for loading / unloading purpose.

Kind of sucks but I understand the logic behind having the association governing what you can do with your property and home.

I pay to keep my trailer in a 24 hr access storage lot with security cameras all over the place. Fifty bucks a month to keep the trailer secured at a Shurgard facility.

 

[Gary F]

Chuck & Saundra,

Here are two websites with good info on the ABC's of RV wiring. Found these over on the RV.net site sometime ago.


1. http://users3.ev1.net/~crossstitch/RVWiring/wiring.html

2. http://www.myrv.us/Pgs/RV/50amp.htm

Enjoy.

 

[jbeletti]

Gary,

I too now live in a PUD (planned unit development). New townhomes. We have covenants too but the streets are dedicated to the village I live in so parking there falls under village rule. Would you believe, no street parking at all - not even for cars? It's crazy.

My building of 4 units is perpendicular to the road and I an on the end opposite the road. We have the wide, long concrete drive off the road and the last 3 units use that drive to get down to our units and into our garages etc. I back my dually from the street down this drive and I park it in front of my unit on this common drive (no complaints yet).

This drive would fit my trailer too but no one could use it to get into their own garages. You know what's interesting is there is an RV dealer "right" behind my building. A 10' high board on board stockade fence separates the property but if I stored my trailer there, I would be able to see it from my 2nd floor bedroom window!

We elected to pay little more ($1250/yr) and store it about a half hour away on a seasonal site at a campground. Works pretty good for us as we can actually camp within 35 minutes from the house when we want but don't feel like actually hitching up and going (which we do a lot of too).

I wish we had developments here like Florida does (with all those retirees) that have small homes/townhomes with RV ports next to each unit with hookups etc. That would so darm cool/handy. One day!

Jim

 

[cdbMidland]

Thanks, Gary for the website links.

 

[Rick]

Be Careful

For a little bit more money go ahead and run the fifty amp line. That is what the trailer is made for. True you can run one of the Ac's plus some of the other stuff keeping in mind how many amps you are pulling. Also just because it works on 30 amp doesn't mean you aren't overworking the AC's and other equipment. Just my 2 cents worth. Rick & Sandi (TIN CAN TOURISTS).