Power Plug Adapter Question

[10forty2]

I find myself in a bit of a bind for a brief upcoming weekend trip, without the proper adapter for a generator. My power cord is the standard 4-blade RV 50amp plug. I have the 50amp RV female to 30amp three blade adapter, but I need to plug into a Honda generator which only has the 3-blade twist lock. I can get the plugs and wire through a local supply house, but the direct, pre-made adapter is not locally available. Soooo.......

When making the adapter, do I tie the neutral and ground together and run the two separate hots to the other two blades? Sounds right in my head, but I guess I need supporting feedback....

Thanks!!

[10forty2]

MrWizard wrote:
NO do not double up any wires
do NOT tie neutral and ground together
do not make 50amp to twist lock adapter

to make the adapter.
make it twist lock to 30amp RV female or buy it online
thats 3 wires, 1 hot 1 ground, 1 neutral

you use (2) adapters, 50amp female to 30amp male (this adapter is already wired correctly), then plug that into the NEW 30amp RV female to twist lock adapter

That's what I've decided to do. We got through the weekend by using our neighbor's external portable genset and running a drop cord to a fan. The nighttime weather was very pleasant! During the day, I ran the on-board genset with the Genturi, and whereas the CO alarm never activated with the Genturi connected, I brought the CO meter from my office and measured some pretty disturbing levels of CO inside the rig with the on-board genset running. Our "level of concern" when we go out to houses with alarming CO detectors is 12ppm. That's well below the immediate danger to life level is, but enough to know that there's a problem. CO detectors don't start alarming until the level reaches 70ppm, and by the time we arrive with a calibrated meter, the household has usually already vented the residence. We try to duplicate the situation by turning on gas-fired heat or other sources of CO. At 12ppm, we usually recommend that the household turn off/extinguish all sources of combustion until the CO source can be isolated and resolved.

With all that said, the meter readings I got while my on-board genset was running WITH the Genturi attached and properly working, (judging by the toilet paper suction at the venturi opening), were anywhere from 9ppm to 19ppm, depending on where I took the reading. The highest was at the closed kitchen sink window, directly above where the genset is mounted in the basement. Now, mind you, the 9ppm is almost background standard for outside, BUT, when it was creeping up to 19ppm, I was concerned. I let the genset continue to run for several hours and never got higher than 19ppm inside the rig. But that's too high for me to be comfortable trying to sleep with it running.

Sooo....I figure there may be a slight leak in exhaust manifold, a crack in the pipe somewhere or there is simply an inherent risk in running the genset that I'm just not willing to take when I'm asleep. I don't mind running it going down the road, or to cool off the rig in the daytime, but it gets shut down and ventilated before bedtime.

[MrWizard]

NO do not double up any wires
do NOT tie neutral and ground together
do not make 50amp to twist lock adapter

to make the adapter.
make it twist lock to 30amp RV female or buy it online
thats 3 wires, 1 hot 1 ground, 1 neutral

you use (2) adapters, 50amp female to 30amp male (this adapter is already wired correctly), then plug that into the NEW 30amp RV female to twist lock adapter

[wa8yxm]

I will agree that the CO Deaths all have several things in common

Most common source is a PORTABLE generator or a neighbor's generator (I've had CO from a neighbor set off ye old alarm)

NONE, not one, was from an ON Board Generator with a Gen-Turi. NOT ONE.

Fact set 2
When My RV was new 2 hours of On-Board and BEEP BEEP BEEP went the alarm Unless I was driving then at 55mph the fumes never reached the inside of the RV

WITH THE GEN=Turi.. 25 hours and not a peep out of the alarm

Fact 3
Some folks yammer about how with the Gen-turi releasing the exhaust fumes near the roof "The air conditioner can suck it in".. THEY ARE LIARS. Period

Oh some models of Fantastic Fan Can "Suck" but just set the fan on BLOW and you wont' have that problem. (exhaust)

[Bird_Freak]

AllegroD wrote:
Use the onboard with genturi. Have done it for years.

I agree. Completely safe with genturi.

[BigRabbitMan]

AllegroD wrote:
Use the onboard with genturi. Have done it for years.

simple solution that works!!

[Bumpyroad]

I think most of these deaths were at race tracks and the CO was from RVs next to them, not their own.
bumpy

[AllegroD]

Use the onboard with genturi. Have done it for years.

[Lwiddis]

"but still don't like having an internal combustion engine running underneath where I will be sleeping....just doesn't compute in my head as being safe, no matter what device is connected to it."

Wise words, 10forty2.

[Bumpyroad]

get the 30 to 50 adapter at walmart and the rest will be standard/normal wiring, no additional wire jumping/connection required.
bumpy

[jplante4]

google camco generator adapter

[wa8yxm]

YOu should be able to get the needed adapter at any decent size RV store or Camping world or Generator store.. I would not be surprised to find 'em at Wal*mart et-al.

PROPER wireing is like to like that is the bright screws get the white wire dark black and green the green, DO NOT join anything together except at the 50 anp end you can "Bridge" the two legs

NOTE: If you go to the RV/Generator/Wal*mart you need TWO adapters

One is the RV/Generator 30/30 (TT-30 outlet twist lock plug)
the other is the 50-30 RV adapter (50 outlet 30 plug)

Note 2: IN some cases (if you have, for example, and HW-50c) you will get "open ground" errors when using a PROPERLY wired adapter.. That is the ONLY time you join neutral and ground. DO NOT otherwise

[10forty2]

DrewE wrote:

10forty2 wrote:

I have the standard RV 4-blade 50amp plug on my rig that normally supplies power when plugged in. On that plug, I understand that there are 2 120VAC hot leads, one ground and one neutral. The generator is a Honda 3000iU that has a 30amp/120VAC female twist lock outlet. I need to adapt the 50amp 4-blade RV plug down to the 30amp 120VAC twist lock that has 3 blades.

So, again, do I tie the neutral and ground together from the 50amp plug to the single ground blade on the 30amp twist lock, and run the separate hot leads (one each) to each of the other blades on the 30amp twist lock plug?

No. The 30A twistlock has a neutral, a ground, and a single hot. The neutral from the 50A socket goes to the neutral on the 30A plug. The ground from the 50A socket goes to the ground on the 30A plug. The two hots from the 50A socket are tied together and go to the single hot on the 30A plug.

Alternately, you could connect a 30A RV receptacle to a 30A twistlock plug (with like contacts wired together, of course) and use your 30A to 50A adapter along with it. The net effect would be the same.

If you have an EMS, you may need to bond the neutral and ground at the generator to make the EMS happy.

Thanks!!!

[DrewE]

10forty2 wrote:

I have the standard RV 4-blade 50amp plug on my rig that normally supplies power when plugged in. On that plug, I understand that there are 2 120VAC hot leads, one ground and one neutral. The generator is a Honda 3000iU that has a 30amp/120VAC female twist lock outlet. I need to adapt the 50amp 4-blade RV plug down to the 30amp 120VAC twist lock that has 3 blades.

So, again, do I tie the neutral and ground together from the 50amp plug to the single ground blade on the 30amp twist lock, and run the separate hot leads (one each) to each of the other blades on the 30amp twist lock plug?

No. The 30A twistlock has a neutral, a ground, and a single hot. The neutral from the 50A socket goes to the neutral on the 30A plug. The ground from the 50A socket goes to the ground on the 30A plug. The two hots from the 50A socket are tied together and go to the single hot on the 30A plug.

Alternately, you could connect a 30A RV receptacle to a 30A twistlock plug (with like contacts wired together, of course) and use your 30A to 50A adapter along with it. The net effect would be the same.

If you have an EMS, you may need to bond the neutral and ground at the generator to make the EMS happy.

[theoldwizard1]

I am 95% certain that the RV 50A plug is an NEMA 14-50



and the Honda receptacle is a L6-30



Buy a standard RV 50A female to 30A male adapter, cut the TT-30 plug off and install a L6-30 plug.