Quote:
Originally Posted by dkoldman
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But I agree with what the OP is stating. In fact, I can take it further, because of my actual experience of what I may or may not do on 15/20 amps service is pretty much the same as what I can do on 30 amps. ...
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yes, the difference is not as 'much' as many may think, because in most situations with any 30amp RV, the usage is actually not as close to that 30amp maximum as might be thought. With 20amps, you might obviously much closer, but even then, chances are that unless you are doing almost 'everything' all at the same time in the RV, it would work just fine.
Now, let me also add a few additional thoughts about this 'plugging in' to a regular outlet, or a GFCI outlet, like I first discussed.
- there is several possible scenarios that may be in play when you encounter a situation like this. One that may not at first be evident is that your RV may not be the ONLY draw from that circuit. If you are visiting relatives, parked in their driveway, and your only 120v power option is their garage GFCI outlet, chances are, they may ALSO have some draws on that same circuit, such as maybe a freezer in the garage, an outside device such as an irrigation timer, etc.
In that case, you can certainly ascertain that you are not really going to have to 'full' amount of amperage that I may be seeing here where I'm plugged in. This commercial building has several GFCI outlets located around it's perimeter, and while there is nothing else plugged into any of them, I can only assume that I'm the only draw, though it's really a throw of the dice until you know you are running everything you wish, successfully.
- another scenario is that the breaker for the outlet's circuit may be either 15amp or 20amp, but if you have no access to the breaker, like I don't here, then you are just 'guessing' about the amount of power you can use. The only 'real' way to know is to ramp up usage, slowly, and see how much of what you 'need' to do is possible, without losing power. I am successful here, but if this commercial building had another GFCI outlet, unknown or unseen to me, being used by a live device, I may have found quickly that this same outcome was not as possible, at least with ALL that I am currently powering. I may have lost power, tripping the breaker, and having to find either another 'live' outlet to access, or otherwise be without shore power, or go somewhere else that does.
My point is that in unique situations like this, you just don't necessarily have all the information to know your limitation, other than taking a test to see. If it's temperate weather, and you don't need any air conditioning, then you probably will have no problem. If it's really hot, and the real 'need' you have is for the air conditioner, you might find it successful, or you may find yourself without power, all together.
Finally, someone mentioned something about an adapter puck versus a dogbone. I found this adapter puck at wmt today, and found that since it has a somewhat 'clear' body, you can see the stout size of the internal wiring, which makes me even more confident that these pucks are really wired just as 'correct', and 'safe', as any other type of connector, and maybe even more so because they don't need to make use of any additional 'wiring cable' between the two connections - and it's all 'encased' within this simple body.
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