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Old 09-09-2015, 09:53 PM   #1
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Cable prices

I've been looking around at cables. As those reading other threads will realise, I'm opting for a 30A system that can be upgraded with relative ease to 50A. Upgrading to dual 50A is harder but possible.

Anyway, my investigations have revealed that 15A cable works out at $38 for 50 feet, 30A cable works out at $150 for 50 feet.

That all has me thinking...
If I use two 15a sockets then I can use regular 15A cable. One cable for a 15A supply and two cables plus a 30A plug to two 15A connectors Y adaptor.

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Old 09-09-2015, 10:24 PM   #2
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No no no.

Here you go again trying to make a dangerous mess.

Buy the right stuff, and stop this non sense before you kill yourself or a innocent bystander.

It's been a long time since one person has posted so much fail on this site.

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Old 09-09-2015, 10:25 PM   #3
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The price you have for 30A cable is bogus. At that price you could buy a heavy duty 50' 30A RV extension cord for $75 at Camping World and use that for cable alone.
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Old 09-10-2015, 12:45 AM   #4
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That could work in a perfect world and they would have to be EXACTLY the same length and connectivity inside the plug (which won't happen), but if ANY thing were to happen to that system and one of those 15 amp lines got severed, disconnected, unplugged... you would be pumping twice the rated load through that one cable and plug which would start getting hot fast to the point where the insulation would melt or burn off now leaving you with hot live exposed wires that will catch stuff on fire and start arcing.

Now if it were only your own life, bus, family you were putting at risk by being a tightwad then I wouldn't even care, go ahead cook yourself. BUT what you are doing has some serious implications that could KILL other people, do you understand that?

30 Amp RV Extension Cord - 25’ - Voltec Industries 16-00558 - Electrical Cords - Camping World

Cut the FEMALE end off and wire that into you breaker box before you kill some one you don't need 50A service in your bus unless you are plugging in a home model electric stove AND a Home model electric dryer that you want to run at the same time.
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Old 09-10-2015, 07:25 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zephod_beeblebrox2 View Post
That all has me thinking...
If I use two 15a sockets then I can use regular 15A cable. One cable for a 15A supply and two cables plus a 30A plug to two 15A connectors Y adaptor.
If you run two 15-amp shorelines to a home made Y-adapter plugged into the 30-amp socket at a campground pedestal, then the 30-amp breaker for the pedestal would not protect the cables from overloading with more than 15 amps on one side.

If each of the two shorelines had its own 15-amp overcurrent protection powering separate circuits on the bus end, then using the Y-adapter would be no more dangerous than plugging a #16 lamp cord into a 20-amp outlet at home.

But the photo of your breaker box submitted on the other thread shows your breakers fed from a single feed to both common bus bars. If you tie both of the split 15-amp shorelines to feed these bars, you have lost all protection for those cords.

What you need is #10 wire. Lowes has a #10 fifty-foot cord in safety yellow for $99.97 (#68598 ). They call it "20 amp" and put 15-amp connectors on it, but you would have to buy the 30-amp RV plug to make your pigtail anyway. This is only $24 more than your two 15-amp cords.

But as CaptainInsaneo has said, you can get the cords with the 30-amp plug molded on already for less at Camping World. The 25-foot length in his link (#78919) is on sale for $36.98, and the 50-foot length (#69601) is on sale for $74.97, three cents less than your wire cost alone without the connectors. It would actually cost you more to do it wrong.
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Old 09-10-2015, 12:00 PM   #6
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Bah. Online ordering! Pay out the yahoo for shipping!

I checked a lot of thus online crud and it always works out more expensive. $10 - $15 shipping knocks cheap wire back pretty much to what Lowe's charges.

The breaker box you've seen is the distribution panel. The main breaker is elsewhere. The main breaker is currently set up with a 30A breaker. There is no reason on earth why I can't put two 15A dual breakers in, one for each 15a line then combine them after the breakers. In fact, that's the general plan.

15A cable is more commonly available and far less desirable to the five finger discount crowd.

It also makes it easier to use a 15A supply when 30A is unavailable. Just plug one cable instead of two.
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Old 09-10-2015, 12:05 PM   #7
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If you tie both feeds from the pedestal to a single bus bar, you will have a dead short in a 240 circuit and at that point you hope the circuit breaker in the pedestal is good since if it does not work you will be dead or have a nice fire. Do NOT take shortcuts with electricity, most motor home fires start because of bad wiring.
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Old 09-10-2015, 12:08 PM   #8
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Quote:
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If you tie both feeds from the pedestal to a single bus bar, you will have a dead short in a 240 circuit and at that point you hope the circuit breaker in the pedestal is good since if it does not work you will be dead or have a nice fire. Do NOT take shortcuts with electricity, most motor home fires start because of bad wiring.
Think about what you're writing. This is exactly how many 50A setups are done.
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Old 09-10-2015, 12:56 PM   #9
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NO THEY ARE OUT OF PHASE FROM EACH OTHER THAT IS WHAT THE 4TH WIRE IS FOR. If you tie those into the same phase...

You know what you should store a can of gasoline right next to your breaker box and start smoking at night just speed along your inevitable fire. I have never said this to anybody, go die in a fire (that you will cause). Please let us all know which bus is yours so we can NOT park anywhere near it.
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Old 09-10-2015, 01:04 PM   #10
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If you're planning to plug two 15 amp cords into a duplex (two receptacle) outlet you'll only get 15 amps total. Both of those receptacles are fed from one 15 amp breaker. You'd basically be spending a lot of money to get the same functionality as tossing a 15A extension cord out your window.

Guys, we're wasting our time here. Anyone who's read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows that the Zaphod character does everything as outrageously unconventional as he can. These threads of his aren't about getting his electrical system right and they're not about saving money, they're basically just a troll to show us all how clever he is.
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Old 09-10-2015, 02:10 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by roach711 View Post
If you're planning to plug two 15 amp cords into a duplex (two receptacle) outlet you'll only get 15 amps total. Both of those receptacles are fed from one 15 amp breaker. You'd basically be spending a lot of money to get the same functionality as tossing a 15A extension cord out your window.

Guys, we're wasting our time here. Anyone who's read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows that the Zaphod character does everything as outrageously unconventional as he can. These threads of his aren't about getting his electrical system right and they're not about saving money, they're basically just a troll to show us all how clever he is.
I knew there was gonna be trouble when they said they wanted to throw their poo out while going down the freeway.
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Old 09-10-2015, 02:10 PM   #12
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Guys, we're wasting our time here. Anyone who's read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows that the Zaphod character does everything as outrageously unconventional as he can. These threads of his aren't about getting his electrical system right and they're not about saving money, they're basically just a troll to show us all how clever he is.
Yup.

Like I said before. Post a video of the bus burning when you plug in the main cable for the first time.

This is the best "How Not To Wire AC in A Bus Thread" ever posted on Skoolie.net.

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Old 09-10-2015, 02:34 PM   #13
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I do electrical work as part of my building maintenance job, up to 480 3 phase, my boss has been an electrician all his life, I do have training in this so just ignore the advice here and make sure you have someone with a camera taking video when you turn the electric on the first time
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Old 09-10-2015, 03:27 PM   #14
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I'm guessing he's never heard of phased power.
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Old 09-10-2015, 03:35 PM   #15
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I'm guessing he's never heard of phased power.
Everyone knows what that is
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Old 09-10-2015, 05:05 PM   #16
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At this point I am likely to believe he is just trolling us. Because if he isn't he is just making us look bad.

A little part of me reallllllllly hopes that Zephod is just another account nat_ster made for a really long drawn out prank and that there will be the big reveal and Zephod will fade into legend.

However I have worked in enough jobs and dealt with enough people who did things similar to this, to believe it could be real.
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Old 09-10-2015, 06:42 PM   #17
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If you only knew how all the garbage that's been spouted at me on this forum was coming over!
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Old 09-10-2015, 07:41 PM   #18
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By garbage do you mean people telling you not to kill yourself, put others at harm and not set everything on fire with poor workmanship?
There is a difference between trying something different and being a menace to yourself and others.
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Old 09-10-2015, 07:53 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zephod_beeblebrox2 View Post
That all has me thinking...
If I use two 15a sockets then I can use regular 15A cable. One cable for a 15A supply and two cables plus a 30A plug to two 15A connectors Y adaptor.
I'd say the only way to do this somewhat safely is if you had two completely separate 15a or 20a circuits inside the bus. Plug one 20a cable into the pedestal and half of the bus outlets are powered. Plug the other 20a cable into the pedestal and the other half of the bus outlets are powered. This would limit you to 20a since - as noted in the other thread - dual receptacles are usually wired to be pulling from a single 12ga at the pedestal with a 20a breaker upstream.

Then perhaps you could create a cable that is a TT-30P on one end with two 20a female outlets on the other end in an appropriately sized sealed device box. Each 20a outlet should have it's own run of 12ga wire connecting to the 10ga wire via a bus bar. You could then plug into 30a service and plug each individual circuit into the outlets at the end of the cable.

If you don't have two separate circuits you will end up with a suicide cable after plugging the first 20a plug in!!

What I don't like about that set up is that the 20a outlets in the cobbled cable won't be fixed in a high vertical position and thus rain/dirt/slop can get into them.
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Old 09-10-2015, 08:03 PM   #20
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Clearly you don't understand the gravity of what you are doing. The reason there are not as many deaths and fires in North America and Europe as there is in Asia (China and India) is we have standards that are followed. Would you be so caviler if you saw more death and distruction caused by electricity? I can post videos of what goes wrong in those countries.
I have a feeling you are going to say yeah but my wires aren't that small I will be fine, sure probably there is a good chance nothing bad will happen. But when electricity goes bad it goes bad very quickly. I lived in a house with an old screw in style fuse box this place was probably built in the 40's or 50's. One day the lights started to flicker at the pace of a campfire. Now if I didn't have a good bit of knowledge about chemistry and physics I might not know that Fire conducts electricity quite well. That flicker told me that there was a fire in the electrical system and if I didn't have a fire extinguisher by the kitchen which was only about 15 feet from the fuse box I surely would have been homeless. This is not a made up story this happened to me. That box was to code in 1950 and was acceptable enough to have been insured as a rental in 2006 (when we moved in).
The way you try to cut corners is not smart it isn't clever simply posting it even if you are only trolling lets others like think it is ok. It isn't, it is incredibly dangerous.
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