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Old 07-30-2004, 01:50 PM   #1
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Shore Power

In scanning the Internet and several publications, I have found MANY shore power plugs, both male and female adapters. I have pretty well decided on the wattage that I need. My questions are: 1)OK, which type do I buy, male, female or both?; 2) when you go to hook this bad boy up, which type (male or female) of hook up is usually supplied at the hook ups? and 3) what is the most common length of wire do most people use to hook up w/? I don't want to get a 10' and most sources are 15'.

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Old 07-30-2004, 03:12 PM   #2
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Re: Shore Power

"1)OK, which type do I buy, male, female or both?"

Depends on how you will have you have your bus set up. Chances are you will have your cord hardwired to your coach in which case you need a Male (prong) to plug into the electric box.


"2) when you go to hook this bad boy up, which type (male or female) of hook up is usually supplied at the hook ups?"

At a campground there are usually 20 amp, 30 amp and increasingly 50 amp. These are all Female recepticles.

"3) what is the most common length of wire do most people use to hook up w/? I don't want to get a 10' and most sources are 15'."

This is the fun part. For the (30 Amp) pop-up we carry a modified 25 ft heavy duty extension cord (sometime we swing the pop-up around to fit on the site more conveniently). Our shore power cord (male on both ends... camper side has a locking connection and all we could find in a flush mount was female recepticles) is 15 ft long... it has been too short at times. We also use extension cables for our 20 ft CATV which has also been too short. It has been few and far between that we have needed to use the extensions but we did in Nashville. Long pull thru sites with the power/CATV/Water hookups were at the edge of the road. Roughly 25 ft. This was the farthest I have run into. Usually it's the water connections that require super long hoses to reach. We like little used public campgrounds that often share the hose bibb with 3 or more sites.... we use a "Y" splitter at all times.

For the Eagle, our shower power cord will be able to be disconnected at both ends. and we will carry 2 cords of different lengths. But our Eagle will be set up to use on construction sites, so it is a bit different that using in a campground.
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Old 07-30-2004, 03:18 PM   #3
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On my bus I have a male connector on the side of the bus and use a normal extension cord to connect the bus to shore power (disconnects on both ends).

In all the county parks I have been to you can park right next to power box. These were out of the way parks that only provide electricity to the site, no water or other hookups.

BTW - Do you know where you are going to get your connector for the side of the bus?
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Old 08-01-2004, 06:25 PM   #4
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Haven't decided where yet, still shopping around. There are several RV supply shops in the Dallas area and have looked on the internet. Personally, I would rather hold it in my hand before I purchase. That way, I know I am getting what I want. I have purchased things on the 'net before and it not be exactly what I ordered and had to go through all the hassle of exchanging, etc.
Also, thanks for the input from both of you!
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Old 08-02-2004, 06:35 AM   #5
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Greetings,
I had it kinda easy as I just pulled the breaker box, distribution panel and shore power wire/plug from the 5th wheel I scavenged for parts.
For the extra plugs and wires, I went to Home Depot.
They have the exact plugs and sockets and are labeled as 30 amp RV parts.
The shore power wire already with the trailer was 25'.
I also bought a 25' RV extension cord (30 amp) from WalMart for 19.95.
I wired a 30 amp service plug inside my shop next to where I park BruinGilda and between the extension cord and shore power cord, it is easy to park when I return home and power up.

Now I am working on a dump station plumbed into my house septic system for dumping purposes. As of now, the last stop before we get home is a dump station and that's kinda a problem sometimes as we get in late and they are already closed!
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Old 08-02-2004, 08:36 AM   #6
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One thing to remember.... While I have heard a lot of bus converters (I hang out on the coach conversion boards) talking about putting in 50 amp plugs, you need to remember that many small private and most public (State/Federal/COE) campgrounds are still set up for 30 amp max. And many of our favourite public campgrounds here in the south are 20 amp with no plans or funds to update in sight. We carry a 30-2-20 amp adapter (and a 20-2-30 amp adapter for the extension cord). If you set up for 50 amp you will need to get an adapter to allow you to plug into the 30 and 20 amp recepticles at the same time. Only problem with this is that I have seen alot of electrical boxes with only 15 and 20 amp recepticles. But we usually stay in public campgrounds as opposed to "RV Parks" which normally (and sometimes exclusively) have 50 amp hookups. If we feel that if we want to camp in a parking lot, we can stay in a "Wally World Campground" (Wal-Mart parking lot).
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