Has Anyone Ever Upgraded Their Power Distribution?

[F4Jock]

Has anyone ever upgraded their power control to a digital readout and/ or their electrical service? I am contemplating a 30 to 50 amp upgrade, essentially to run the AC units off one leg and the rest of the coach on the other. Also wanted to upgrade the battery disconnect to a Powerline controller with digital readout. Yeah I know . . . . . But it's a rainy day and I'm bored.

[kmb1966]

tropical36 wrote:
On our old 30amp gasser, I split the circuit to the rear ac with a 15amp plug and outlet, that was fed from the genset's 20amp breaker. This allowed for plugging into a separate outlet on the shore pedestal for the rear ac and leaving 30amp for the rest of the coach.

yes! this is a situation that the "Dual Power Adapter" worked perfect for!
That is what we have in our 30 amp unit. There is an outlet in the rear that has a 20amp breaker/switch and a pigtail that stays plugged in while driving, running the generator, or plugged into 30 amp only. But unplugging the pigtail allows a 2nd shore cord to be plugged in (most RV pedestals have more than just 1 30 amp) and this allows one a/c to run on that 2nd shore cord. Then you have a full 30 amps remaining on the standard 30 amp shore cord to run the 2nd a/c and other items. This setup works great and we have enjoyed it for many years.

[tropical36]

On our old 30amp gasser, I split the circuit to the rear ac with a 15amp plug and outlet, that was fed from the genset's 20amp breaker. This allowed for plugging into a separate outlet on the shore pedestal for the rear ac and leaving 30amp for the rest of the coach.

[oldave]

You can make your own dog bone adapter so you can plug into a 50amp
receptacle , run the coach on one leg and the second a/c on the other leg .
This would provide more power than you could ever use in a 30 amp coach .

[ScottG]

You can easily run two or even three AC's off one leg of 50A.
If you camping where there's usually 50A then it's a worthwhile upgrade. It works to add a 20A outlet to run the second AC but your stuck using what is commonly a worn out 20A outlet at the pedestal where even the 30A receptacles are oftenbarely able to support a single AC.
With 50A you just don't hav to worry about power anymore.

[oldave]

I believe you could run 2 A/Cs off of 1 side of 50 amps , not sure
why you would want to do it that way tho .

Rewiring the coach for real 50 amps is quite an undertaking

In my opinion you would be better to just use the extra cord dedicated to
one A/C as Jim@HiTek described .
Many people have done it that way .

You could make an adapter so you could plug both into a 50A receptacle
when you wanted to .

[Jim]

A Suggestion:

Just wire a heavy duty extension cord into the A/C switch (that's assuming your RV has a big switch to switch between the front and rear A/C). Or you could just run a separate wire directly into the rear A/C and have it available to plug in the extension cord when needed. A simple relay lock out (like an ATS only smaller) is recommended so both wiring setups can be used...the original OEM version, and your additional wiring. (Contact me for a drawing if you want one).

Then when you're at a RV park, plug the new extension cord into a 20 amp outlet. Either at your power station, or the next RV spot over.

Of course you clear this with the RV park management if necessary. Some parks will ask you to pay for a 50 amp spot but that's really not fair since a 50 amp spot supplies 100 amp, not just 50 amp. Whatever, you work it out with them for what's best for both of you. I see it a lot these days. A 30 amp RV cord and a 20 amp contractors cord from the power tower to the same RV. There's really no safety issue for anyone or anything. If it's popping breakers, that just means you should plug into the neighboring power tower. Usually...YMMV.

Much less expensive or labor intensive to do it that way.

[theoldwizard1]

I don't think you will be able to run more than 1 AC unit off of 1 leg. Having 2 AC units is usually the big motivator for 50A service.

[Ductape]

If you do that go all the way and install an energy management system to shed loads to prevent overloading a 20 or 30 amp connection or your generator. Nice to have.