Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Electrical gurus, step inside please...

First let me say, I HATE working around electricity, and avoid it at all costs. I'll get one of my buddy's to do the work...

I have a travel trailer sitting on a permanent site at a campground. The camper is connected to the 30amp service at the pole. I also have a small shed on the site, and store my bass boat, golf cart there. On the power pole, there's a plug for a 50 amp service.

During the summer, with the AC running hard, the fridge plugged in, TV going, we're pulling right at 30 amps. During the heat of the day, the main breaker will sometimes trip. Turn anything else on, and it's going to trip in a couple minutes.

On my power pole, there's also a plug for a 50 amp service, that's not being used. My question is, can I add a distribution/breaker box in my shed, and plug into the 50 amp service?

What I want to accomplish is getting the fridge off the 30 amp camper service, and reduce the amp draw in the camper. I also want to add several outdoor plugs around my deck to power the on board boat charger, golf cart charger, add some outdoor lights.

Does this sound doable, or am I about to burn down my shed and camper??

You didn't say if the 30 and 50-amp receptacles each have their own respective breakers on the power pole. If so, then you should be able to load each one.

Your wiring defines ampacity.
The circuit breakers save you from the wiring.

For 50 amps, you need minimum 8 ga AWG wiring from the pole to the service panel. From there, your downstream circuits are limited by their respective AWG and breaker rating.

If I were in your shoes, I would put in 8 AWG copper wiring (or 6AWG aluminum) from the pole to the breaker box. Then, install a 50 AMP breaker (220) at the head of the breaker box.
Then, I would ensure that my wiring is adequate to feed subsequent circuits.

50 AMP = 8 AWG
30 AMP = 10 AWG
20 AMP = 12 AWG
15 AMP = 14 AWG

Provided that the service/feeder at the power pole is rated for both the 30 and 50 amp plugs to be utilized at the same time. Many are not...so it is one or the other. I would let the people who operate the campground field this one. I would tell them what you want to do and ask them to accommidate you.

If you are using this campsite as a perminent site...you are a valuable customer.

Already covered above, but it depends whether the circuits are fused separately from a main...take a look at the wiring for each circuit and follow back to tie in points.

Remember circuit breakers are only rated at 80% of face value for continuous load...the 30a is good for 24 amps continuous, 30a startup.

All breakers are load rated at variables from the breaker calibration which is commonly +-10% thermally and +-20% magnetically, along with ambient and wire temps can cause breakers to fail prematurely...so location in the sun, ambient, and device heat in enclosure, can trip circuit breakers in high demand. Wire is also temp rated, but no need muddying the water.

Can I assume that the 30A is 120v and the 50A is 240v?