Connecting to a 50 AMP Service

[marsman]

Hello everybody, well the cold weather has started up here in the 'Great White North', today it never went above freezing....brrrr Starting to think fondly of my trip down to the sunny south to visit my American friends this winter.

Even though I have been on this site for a while now my "newbie status" once again comes to play I have just completed making some reservations for February and March 2022 in Florida and Georgia; ended up having to book the last site at one of my favorite RV parks in Georgia and all they had left was a site with a 50 amp service.

I have the 50 to 30 amp dogbone in my electrical kit so no problem there...however, after watching some videos on the subject I became aware that when you're plugged into a 50 amp service the breaker on the service post being 50 amps does not protect the RV. I have the EMS system installed in my 2019 5.0. My question is, should I get a surge protector to plug in between the dogbone and my 30 amp plug?

Thanks for the advice

[Brian B-P]

The breaker on the service post is never to protect the RV, only the wiring which supplies the receptacle and arguably the cord to the RV. The main breaker in the trailer protects the wiring within the trailer from accidental excessive current, and unless the accident is damage to the shore power cord which causes a short, the trailer's main breaker will also protect the shore power cord from excessive current. If there is damage causing a short in the cord, it probably doesn't matter if the campsite breaker is for 30 amps or 50 amps - it will still trip.

A surge protector is not an overcurrent protection device, and I don't think anyone bothers with a portable circuit breaker for this situation.

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

The breaker on the service post is never to protect the RV, only the wiring which supplies the receptacle and arguably the cord to the RV. The main breaker in the trailer protects the wiring within the trailer from accidental excessive current, and unless the accident is damage to the shore power cord which causes a short, the trailer's main breaker will also protect the shore power cord from excessive current. If there is damage causing a short in the cord, it probably doesn't matter if the campsite breaker is for 30 amps or 50 amps - it will still trip.

A surge protector is not an overcurrent protection device, and I don't think anyone bothers with a portable circuit breaker for this situation.

Some surge protectors will shut off with over current, I have the Bulldog version and the progressive industries ems will also shut it down. Isn’t that over current protection? My bulldog is a portable one

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by oldwave

Some surge protectors will shut off with over current, I have the Bulldog version and the progressive industries ems will also shut it down. Isn’t that over current protection? My bulldog is a portable one

Sure, but that's not surge protection. If whatever device you use has overcurrent protection, it would be useful for this purpose; anything that is just a surge protector wouldn't be.

I can't imagine duplicating the cost and functionality of an entire EMS at the end of the cord just because it's a 30-amp cord plugged into a 50-amp outlet.

Every low-power device with a light cord (e.g. an 18-gauge lamp cord) plugged into a household 15-amp outlet is in the same situation of not being able to handle the current which the circuit breaker supplying the outlet would allow.