RV Problem Solver

Electricity is great, right? It does so many wonderful and magical things for us that it’s impossible to imagine life without it – you’re certainly not microwaving a burrito and binging the latest season of Last Game of Marvel Squid without it. So, connecting your rig to the almighty grid to tap into that sweet, sweet power is likely one of the first lessons you’ve had to learn as a new RVer. But unlike a typical “sticks and bricks” home, where you’ve probably never given a second thought to where that power comes from and how much of it you use, in an RV, electrical power is a precious resource (among several) that needs a bit of caution and tending to use properly. These three tips will help you to connect your RV to shore power safely and with confidence.

Tip number 1: Use an inline surge protector. It may not seem obvious at first. You plug in your rig like you’d plug in your toaster at home and then go about your business thinking all is well. But one thing to keep in mind is that plugging in your rig to shore power is less like a toaster at home and more like wiring your house onto the grid. And every time you move to a new RV park or new location, you’re rewiring your entire system, from scratch, to a new segment of the grid. On top of that, unlike in your house, where there were professionals and experts whose job it was to attach that wiring correctly, you have no idea how “professional” the RV park wiring was actually done. And let me tell you, in ten years of hopping from RV park to RV park across the country, I’ve seen plenty of unprofessional work done. But you still need power; that burrito isn’t going to microwave itself, and you haven’t even scratched the surface of making your own power. So, to protect yourself, and your rig, and your very expensive equipment inside that rig, including the microwave for that burrito, you need a way to isolate your internal electrics from the (more often than not) janky wiring you may be plugging it all into.

You could, of course, get out your multimeter, stick the probes into the plug socket, and measure this, that, and the other to make sure the wiring and connection are safe and correct before frying your equipment. But, unless you know what you’re doing and what it is you’re looking for, this can be frustrating and slow at best or downright dangerous at worst. This is where an inline surge protector comes in. And I’m not talking about the cheesy “surge protector” power strip with a “protected” LED that your computer might be plugged into right now, but a quality device, that actively measures for all these variables, in real-time, all the time, and has the intelligence and ability to disconnect your rig when things get a little too janky.

There are a few players in this space, and I’m hesitant to recommend a specific product, but I’ve had great success with Progressive Industries products. I’ve used their hardwired inline protector for ten years now, and it has saved my… burritos on many occasions over that time –from backwards wiring, to missing ground, to 220volts where 120 should be to… well, you get the idea. It stopped all of that and more. Their support is actually quite outstanding, a rarity these days, and their products are well built to last. There are 30 and 50 amp models, and your options are a hardwired version (like what I use) or a more convenient plug-in variety that plugs into the RV park outlet and then your plug into it. I chose the hardwired option because it suited my needs better with a few more features, I knew what wires went where, and I didn’t want a $300 piece of equipment to grow legs and walk away. But that aside, the plug-in variety is plenty adequate to do the job, and I consider either as essential equipment.

Tip number 2: Lube that power plug. On the topic of plugging into power, one tip I know few have heard of is to coat the shore-plug prongs with dielectric grease. What? You might be asking. Doesn’t di-electric mean not-electric, as in not going to conduct electricity? Should I be putting that on the very plug I’m using TO conduct said electricity to my rig? Yes! Let me explain.

Everything, in theory, can conduct electricity, and that includes air. What keeps us from getting zapped by the hundreds of thousands of volts whizzing around us in power lines all over is the resistance of that air over distance. Exceed that resistance, and zap you conduct electricity and in a hurry –think lightning. What does that have to do with your power plug? Turns out, plenty. Referencing the earlier janky wiring, now add to it age, weather, and the constant plugging and unplugging of honking, huge power plugs, and things start to get a bit worn and frayed. Why does that matter? Well, electricity wants to flow, no matter what, from high potential to low potential and the only thing stopping it is resistance. As the outlet socket ages, as all things do, it gets a bit… saggy, and what was once a nice, smooth and firm copper on copper connection is now a loose, wavy and occasionally touching friction contact. In between the imperfect points of that contact, electricity still wants to flow, but now, instead of using the copper in the plug and socket, it will use the lowered resistance of minute air gaps between them. And just as with lightning arcing across, the process of moving electricity in this way produces A LOT of heat. That heat, over time, can not only damage both the plug and socket, but also start a fire. (See pic below for a real-world example of what can happen over a very short time. This happened only an hour after plugging in and then noticing that things weren’t “quite right”, but there was no other indication.)

So, what does a dielectric do here? As its name implies, a dielectric blocks the flow of electricity by increasing the resistance of whatever it’s applied to. When that is the copper of your plug, and that plug is not in full contact with the matching piece of copper inside the socket, it raises its resistance and displaces the minute air gaps, arresting the movement of electrical arcs between them. But when there is a solid copper-on-copper connection, the dielectric grease is squeezed out of the way, allowing for the clean flow of electricity. And using this couldn’t be simpler. Any tube of (typically silicone based) dielectric grease (from an auto-parts store or online) will work and last forever, as very little of it goes a long way. You’re not trying to marinade the plug in silicone. Simply apply a very thin layer to all sides of the copper bits of the plug and then wipe away the excess. The almost invisible residue will do its job, without greasing the plug, socket, your hands, and everything else it comes in contact with. I would reapply a new (again very) thin layer every few months of plugging and unplugging and avoid dragging the plug along the ground where it could collect dust and debris.

Tip number 3: Match the wiring to the load. This is one of those things that seems obvious at first but is easy to overlook. All wiring is rated for how much current (in Amps) it can safely carry, without getting hot, catching fire, or exploding. A 30-amp plug, wires, and matching socket means that entire circuit has been designed and tested to safely move 30 amps of power through all of those components. Exceed that 30 amps and things start to get risky. When there is a 30-amp breaker in the circuit, it will get hot enough to gracefully break the connection before it’s broken elsewhere down the line much less gracefully –think fire. Circuit breakers and fuses are unsung heroes and might seem annoying when you’re trying to troubleshoot a problem or to plug in that one piece of whatever that keeps popping them, but trust me, they are your friends desperately trying to keep you safe.

One bare minimum safety item to keep in mind is to always use wiring rated at (or preferably above) whatever the load device uses. I’ve seen so many people (admittedly, including myself) using cheap, orange extension cords, rated at 15 or less amps, running a drill, a saw, a compressor, and a heat-gun, and… it’s truly cringe worthy. Your rig is not immune to these same factors as every device inside is connected along a chain of wires. So, it’s essential to make sure all wiring from the shore plug to that microwave is rated properly for the load.

A 30-amp plug (in the US @120 volts) means a maximum of 3600 watts can flow through it (Watts = Amps X Volts). A 20-amp outlet inside, fed from the main 30-amp shore power, where hopefully only your microwave is plugged in, can carry a maximum of 2400 watts. Your microwave, running at 100% power, is likely to draw 1400+ watts. A single rooftop air conditioner, fed from an internal breaker, draws 1800 or more watts while running and way more than that when starting up. So, it’s easy to see that microwaving a burrito on a hot day can easily tax your power system, especially if the fridge also kicks in and uses another 600 to 800 watts to start up its compressor. This can be particularly dangerous if you plug your 30-amp rig into a 50-amp outlet since that breaker is now allowing a full 50 amps instead of just 30! And while a fully 50-amp rig pushes this threshold out further, the basic concerns of total vs maximum allowed power passing through each wire in the chain remain the same.

Electricity is truly a wonder of modern life and one we cannot imagine going long without, but we often take its convenience and availability for granted. Being cognizant of and paying attention to what loads are running when and where will help minimize potential damage to all that expensive equipment in your rig, and possibly avoid a fire.