Wiring an adapter

[SDLIVING]

I live in my camper year round in the norther midwest for work. The newest place that I am has a 3 straight prong range outlet on the box and I am trying to figure out how to wire a 30 amp converter together properly. I tried a couple times already and every time that I plug my camper into it my breakers trip and I blow a fuse in my microwave. Can someone help with the proper way to wire this so that it can work.

 

[danemayer]

Hi sdliving,

I'm afraid you're engaging in a very dangerous trial and error approach. It's probably time to get a licensed electrician involved before you get hurt or you have serious damage to the RV.

That said, here's a link to a website that shows various outlets/wiring. If you click on the 30AMP button on the left side, it'll show pictures of outlets and discuss the wiring. You may be looking at what they refer to as a Welder Service outlet that is not suitable for RVs because there is no neutral. If that's what you have, your attempts to convert may either be creating an unsafe condition where there's no ground path, or some other configurations where you're inadvertently running 220V to your appliances.

Regardless of what the outlet looks like, you should not make assumptions about how it's wired. It could be wired in a way that doesn't comply with electrical codes and you could get hurt or worse. Get a licensed electrician or find another power source.

 

[priorguy]

Range outlets are 240V and the RV is only 120V. Electrician probably needed here.

 

[evolvingpowercat]

It would be best to have an electrician or qualified handy person who knows what they are doing to convert it to a proper RV outlet. If you need a 30 Amp RV outlet they would change the breaker from a 40 amp 240 V range type to a 30 amp 110 V type and re-use the existing cable from the panel to the outlet (cable would be slightly over-sized but that's OK).

If you need a 50 Amp RV outlet then they would keep the same 40 amp 240 V breaker and replace the outlet. It would only be able to provide two 40 Amp feeds to the 50 amp shore cable but that's OK IMO there is no Heartland model that needs more than 40 amp x 2 anyway, even in the summer with all the ACs running. It's only the big motor home "rock star RVs" that need 50 amps x 2.

The only issue for the 50A outlet scenario would be if its a older standard range outlet it has no ground wire to the panel only L1, L2, and Neutral. In some jurisdictions it would be against building code to derive the ground at the RV outlet from the neutral wire, and the Electrician would not be able to re-use the existing wire from the range outlet to the panel.