# 30 Amp Outlet



## weekender (Jan 24, 2009)

I would like to install a 30amp plug for my TT, will I need to run 10/3 or 10/2 (red,black, and ground) ? Help


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Need a lot more details on the how far away you are to the breaker box to the outlet. You will not have any red wires, it should be Black, White and bare ground, 10/2 at a minimum, not 10/3. These are wired 30 amp, 110 vac, single phase, DO NOT WIRE IT LIKE A DRYER PLUG which is basically the same looking outlet but wired for 220 vac, two phase. Below is a typical oultet install with which wires are terminated where (I got it from some guys web site where he installed a 30 amp plug).


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## Sweathog62 (Jul 28, 2005)

Cheat and call an electrician.. It's not cheap, but i got a nice pedistal in the driveway and at least I can hookup while loading and run the a/c without worrying about burning the house down....


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

bradhelton said:


> Cheat and call an electrician.. It's not cheap, but i got a nice pedistal in the driveway and at least I can hookup while loading and run the a/c without worrying about burning the house down....


Even if you call one make sure they FULLY understand it should be 30 single phase. There have been plenty of destroyed trailers that were messed up by Licensed electricians wiring it like a drier outlet.


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## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

I'll probaly call electrician to do this but anyway want to ask. I have a 220 2 phase outlet in the garage for a dryer. It is not used since our dryer is gas. Instead of running new wiring from the panel could I just use one hot lead and neutral and convert this to 110 single phase?


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## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

Im sure an electrictian could wire it up. I stay away from electricty. A 30A single phase is not really hard to do. I WATCHED the electrican do mine. Hey for 25$ it was worth it ( neighbors son )


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

ED_RN said:


> I'll probaly call electrician to do this but anyway want to ask. I have a 220 2 phase outlet in the garage for a dryer. It is not used since our dryer is gas. Instead of running new wiring from the panel could I just use one hot lead and neutral and convert this to 110 single phase?


Yes you can but you have to replace the breaker and cap the spare wires.


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## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

Thanks. Having the panel and ground (or lack of ground) upgraded in a few weeks. I'll get the experts to do it when they are here. Will need all new breakers anyway.


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## DuaneEllison (Feb 26, 2006)

A couple of years ago our A/C in the house popped and we were stranded running generators and staying in the TT for the weekend a a few days into the week. We had always thought about putting in a 30 amp breaker/outlet but never did. Long story short, DW called an electrician who installed the service, breaker, outlet and everything for $80. Unless you really know what you are doing give an electrician a call. Heck, even if you think you know what you are doing give them a call because maybe the cost won't be a high as you might think. I always put it off because I figured it was going to be a few hundred dollars.

We pretty much keep the trailer plugged in all the time and use it as a "guest house" when relatives come by.

OBTW, I'm one of those "I hate messing with electricity" types and it scares me.

Good luck, and don't put it off because you never know when you will be in a jam and wish you had it!

Duane...


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

CamperAndy said:


> I'll probaly call electrician to do this but anyway want to ask. I have a 220 2 phase outlet in the garage for a dryer. It is not used since our dryer is gas. Instead of running new wiring from the panel could I just use one hot lead and neutral and convert this to 110 single phase?


Yes you can but you have to replace the breaker and cap the spare wires.
[/quote]

NO.... you can't its a completly different plug.

John


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

johnp2000 said:


> I'll probaly call electrician to do this but anyway want to ask. I have a 220 2 phase outlet in the garage for a dryer. It is not used since our dryer is gas. Instead of running new wiring from the panel could I just use one hot lead and neutral and convert this to 110 single phase?


Yes you can but you have to replace the breaker and cap the spare wires.
[/quote]

NO.... you can't its a completly different plug.

John
[/quote]

I guess with electricity you can never assume anything but I assumed he was replacing the plug but just asking if he could reuse the wire as he wanted to reuse the installed wiring and location. You are correct and I was remiss for not stating specifically that the dryer plug could not be reused. The wiring and location are okay, the breaker must be changed and the spare wire must be capped at each end.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

This is what an older dryer plug looks like and you can see why they get confused with a trailer outlet.

*DRYER OUTLET*


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## jozway (Jan 28, 2008)

All you need is 10/2 romex, single pole 30 amp breaker and 125volt 30 amp plug( they have ready made rv plugs at lowes and home depot). The plug is pretty simple to wire. Just make sure you test it before you plug into it.
Joe ( 16 yrs as a electrician)


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

jozway said:


> All you need is 10/2 romex, single pole 30 amp breaker and 125volt 30 amp plug( they have ready made rv plugs at lowes and home depot). The plug is pretty simple to wire. Just make sure you test it before you plug into it.
> Joe ( 16 yrs as a electrician)


What he said









And if in doubt hire a licenced electrician.
Take what the guys at Depot and Lowes say with a grain of salt I've heard some of them give some scary advice.

John ( also an electrician)


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

The distance from your house electrical panel to the socket where you plug in the TT 30 amp cable is important, too. Longer distance = bigger wire needed. You do not want to undersize the wire--you'll get significant voltage drops if the cable is loaded down with power demands, and your a/c unit will not be happy running on 105 volts or some such.

I went to the electrician2.com site and got the following:

Wire distance is the actual wire length from the house panel to your receptacle where you plug in the TT power cable. All assume 30 amp service. These numbers DO NOT apply to 50 amp service. See your friendly electrician or use the electrician2.com site to determine wire size for pulling 50 amps.

100 feet: Use #8-2 with ground. You'll get a 4% voltage drop, i.e., say you have 125 volts to start, you'll have 120 at the receptacle. Should not be a problem.

50 feet: #8-2 with ground gets you a 2% voltage drop (125v to 122.5v). No sweat.

25 feet: #10-2 with ground will get you a 2% drop. No problem.

21 feet: #12-2 with ground gets you a 2% drop. But the difference in cost between 10-2 and 12-2 is very small. Go for the bigger wire (the #10-2).

If you bury the cable, or if the cable will be exposed to sunlight, be sure to get cable made for burial or sunlight exposure. 
Remember the last time you camped and hooked up to power? Most times the power feed comes up out of the ground in a pipe (no sunlight) and so the installer did not need to use the more-expensive burial cable.

If you plan on putting a receptacle on the side of your house, then you don't need the burial cable. If you have my situation, the house is 65 feet from the driveway--therefore I have to use burial cable from the house to the small pedestal where the receptacle will be. The 65 feet plus the length inside (Murphy's Law says that the electrical panel will always be on the far side of the basement, of course!) means I'll be in the 95 foot range, so I'm using the 8-2 with ground. (And you have to add 3 - 4 wire feet for the run vertically from the burial trench up to the receptacle..)

Finally, one size larger wire (i.e. using #6 instead of #8) is always nice, and the additional costs are small. Check it out at Home Depot or Lowes and see what the cost difference really is.

Hope this helps.


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

Yep thats the extended version one problem don't use 12/2 its only rated for 20 amps not 30









John


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## russlg (Jul 21, 2008)

johnp2000 said:


> Yep thats the extended version one problem don't use 12/2 its only rated for 20 amps not 30
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I used 10-3 and didn't use the "red" wire in the strand and capped the red wires on both ends. Bought a 30 amp SINGLE POLE breaker for my box and the 30 amp RV outlet from my local Ace hardware store. I did it myself. I am not an electrician. I have trememndous respect for the amount of current the wires carry. I shut off the main power to my box before I work. I check my work with a polarity tester. I also wired an outlet for my Generator to hook up to my house and a disconnect switch to disconnect the "house" from the utility when the generator is in use. It is important to remember that the Outback uses 120 volts, not 240, thus the single pole breaker.


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## jozway (Jan 28, 2008)

If your under 75 ft #10 wire should be just fine. If your gonna be over that distance than you should calculate for your voltage drop and size your wire accordingly. Even at 100 ft you would still have only 5% voltage drop. Which would give you about 114 volts at your plug. Most calculations only allow for 3% drop though.
Joe


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## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

Thanks for clarify the issue. I did know I had to change the plug but glad you all mentioned it in case someone else does this. Found out the house has no ground system so will have an electrician run the wiring for me when the panel and ground system are updated. 
I traded the foreman when they were closing down a job site at our hospital avocados for the heavy duty feed line they were using. The problem is it has twist lock connections on it. The local Lowes stopped carrying 30 amp plugs. They have lots of pre fabbed standard to 30 amp adapters but no male or female plugs. No one in the store seems to knows why. Weird.


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## russlg (Jul 21, 2008)

ED_RN said:


> Thanks for clarify the issue. I did know I had to change the plug but glad you all mentioned it in case someone else does this. Found out the house has no ground system so will have an electrician run the wiring for me when the panel and ground system are updated.
> I traded the foreman when they were closing down a job site at our hospital avocados for the heavy duty feed line they were using. The problem is it has twist lock connections on it. The local Lowes stopped carrying 30 amp plugs. They have lots of pre fabbed standard to 30 amp adapters but no male or female plugs. No one in the store seems to knows why. Weird.


 Go to a different store! I bought mine at my locally owned Ace hardware store. Loonnngg before the giants of Home Depot and Lowes, we had nice little hardware stores like Ace, Tru-Value, ServiceStar and Aubuchon....


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Any Electrician worth his salt should know the plug is Nema rated for 30a at 120V and shouldn't get it wrong but I have meet a lot of stupid so called electricians.

I see post refer to 220 volts as 2 phase power, there is no such thing as 2 phase power, there is single phase and 3 phase but no 2 phase power. Homes have single phase power with a center tap, the center tap is pulled to ground as a netural.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

N7OQ said:


> Any Electrician worth his salt should know the plug is Nema rated for 30a at 120V and shouldn't get it wrong but I have meet a lot of stupid so called electricians.
> 
> *I see post refer to 220 volts as 2 phase power, there is no such thing as 2 phase power, there is single phase and 3 phase but no 2 phase power. Homes have single phase power with a center tap, the center tap is pulled to ground as a netural*.


This is true and I am guilty of using a common reference "two phase" for the two buses in the typical house panel. Even among electricians the same phrase is used, as are other descriptions for the separate power sources within the panel. Since you have clarified the point on how the voltage is derived can you tell us what is considered the most correct way to reference the two poles, legs, buses or phases in the panel?


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> Any Electrician worth his salt should know the plug is Nema rated for 30a at 120V and shouldn't get it wrong but I have meet a lot of stupid so called electricians.
> 
> *I see post refer to 220 volts as 2 phase power, there is no such thing as 2 phase power, there is single phase and 3 phase but no 2 phase power. Homes have single phase power with a center tap, the center tap is pulled to ground as a netural*.


This is true and I am guilty of using a common reference "two phase" for the two buses in the typical house panel. Even among electricians the same phrase is used, as are other descriptions for the separate power sources within the panel. Since you have clarified the point on how the voltage is derived can you tell us what is considered the most correct way to reference the two poles, legs, buses or phases in the panel?
[/quote]

Well this is like the airplane on the treadmill argument with electricians, I have argued this with other electricians sense I can remember and they seem to be split down the middle. I have seen some almost come to blows over this subject. Most will refer to the 2 hots as legs or buses and others will refer to them as phases and I guess a lot of it has to do with how they were taught. In the Air force we were taught that DC current flowed from negative to positive but friends in the Navy were just the opposite either way it works.

Now that being said there was a time when there was true 2 phase power, Edison tried to use it but with 2 phase power if they are 180 degrees out they would cancel each other out so he made it 90 degrees out and found it was to hard on motors, caused them vibrate real bad, three phase power won out with each phase at 120 degrees from each other. So you can see what side of the fence I'm on, I know I should just leave it alone but I have this urge to set the record straight even on trivial things, drives the DH crazy.


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