What were they thinking?
Everyone,
I’ve seen some pretty crazy and dangerous campground hookups, and this one is certainly in my Top 10.
Why is this dangerous?
The biggest danger is if one white/neutral wire is pulled out of the 30-amp pedestal outlet it would be energized with 120-volts. That’s because the voltage on the black/hot wire would feed through the resistance of the appliances pugged into it, and back out the neutral wire. So while the appliance would stop working, it would provide enough current on the neutral to severely shock or kill you.
Since there’s no GFCI protection on this outlet, if the green ground wire pops out of the outlet, there’s a potential shock hazard if anything goes wrong in any appliance plugged into this jury-rigged extension cord.
There’s less chance of an electrical fire from overloading the skinny extension cord being plugging into a 30-amp outlet because that outlet strip most likely has it’s own 15-amp circuit breaker.
How to do it right!
All they needed to do this safely would be a 30-to-15 amp adapter plug like this one. I use these all the time in my lab for testing and they work pretty well. But they don’t have GFCI protection, so it’s extremely important that the ground pins on any extension cords are intact. You can get this Camco adapter plug for less than $10 HERE.
Make it safer
Since these adapters don’t limit the load current, it’s possihble to overload any extension cord plugged into it that has a heavy load, such as an the combination of an electric griddle and slow cookers. So an power strip with a 15-amp circuit breaker is still a good idea. You can get for around $10 on Amazon HERE.
Let’s play safe out there… Mike
Some of the products above have affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
At the large aerospace company where I worked, plastic molded strips were forbidden by our in house fire department. All had to have metal cases for increased safety. I have adopted that practice at home.
Mike,
If the photo included in the article “What were they thinking?” is how the wiring was actually connected, and the 30a / 120v pedestal outlet and load, (RV) were wired CORRECTLY, the white wire would be connected to the “hot” leg of the outlet and the black wire would be connected to the “neutral” and grounded leg of the outlet. If the white wire ‘was pulled out’ of the outlet, the circuit would be broken and no voltage SHOULD be present.
If the pedestal outlet was actually wired for 240v (like a home dryer outlet) rather than 120v 1ph and the white wire was pulled out of the outlet, that would be a “deadly” mistake looking for a place to happen.
Maybe the photo was reversed?
Other Mike
Good catch…
I was speaking about a properly wired outlet but forgot to look closely at how he stuck the bare white and black wires into the 30-amp outlet. But no matter what, it’s a dangerous mess!
I have been in the RV world almost 10 years. This is the most dangerous step that I have seen campers do.
On the campground side, I have seen equally dangerous pedestal set ups. Like no breaker cut off. Open, live 110 outdoor outlets with no covers some with no outlets just wire nuts. Burned to a crisp 30 amp outlets, just to name a few.
Sometime, someone is going to get seriously injured or killed. There are still a large number of newbies out here that need guidance. Thanks Mike for keeping these important messages out in front !
Pardon me while I go assist a young newbie unclog a mess with his black tank. His wife is clean freak and instead of reusable towels in the bathroom, she keeps paper towels by the sink and flushes them. Her quote “They go down” My quote “Yep, and they don’t come out” 🥴🥴🤮🤢
Those 30>15 amp adapters are also useful for quickly checking 30 amp outlets with an outlet tester (that we all carry, right?) that is 15 amp configured.