Powering my RV with the PowerBoost 7.2K Pro Power Onboard Generator

[pushrods]

I have a pretty much standard 30amp 110 volt power cable on my RV to plug into camping sites. The propower receptacle for a 30amp circuit is 208v. What type of pigtail or adapter are folks using to plug their RV 30amp 110v cables into the propower for 30amp service?

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[BoilerTimmay]

I have a pretty much standard 30amp 110 volt power cable on my RV to plug into camping sites. The propower receptacle for a 30amp circuit is 208v. What type of pigtail or adapter are folks using to plug their RV 30amp 110v cables into the propower for 30amp service?

I’m curious on this. Would like to power a camper with the 7.2kw but not sure if the 220 is needed or if you can run the AC, or get it started with 3.6kw? I’m new to camper AC units. Most of the time there would be a hookup, but this would open possibilities.

 

[Crapblaster]

Something like this?

 

[BoilerTimmay]

It looks like most campers just take 110, so you have two 3.6kw circuits which should be sufficient for most AC units. Am I correct here or will 220 come into play often?

 

[Crapblaster]

They are only 110. Only three wires. Ground, Neutral and one hot. But instead of 15 amp they 30 amp.

 

[SJLCJL]

I had always assumed that campers were 240v.. That really sucks then because you are leaving half the available power and only pulling from one leg..

 

[BoilerTimmay]

I had always assumed that campers were 240v.. That really sucks then because you are leaving half the available power and only pulling from one leg..

And if it’s 110 and 30 amp... I don’t think the pro power has that. I’m sure there are converters.

 

[BoilerTimmay]

They are only 110. Only three wires. Ground, Neutral and one hot. But instead of 15 amp they 30 amp.

Is the pro power 110 plug 15 or 30? Seems largely incompatible with campers then in 30 amp Is 240 and 15 amp is 110...

 

[SJLCJL]

It has two sets of 20a 120v receptacles and one 30a 240v receptacle.. You can use an adapter cable, sometimes referred to as a dog bone, to utilize the 30a 240v on the truck as 30a 120v for the RV but will only be using one half of the trucks capacity..

 

[Matt604]

Agree this will work with a physical adaptor. I'm assuming 240v is two hot wires of 120v each so the adaptors (just like the one above w/ 4 pins going to 3) connect just one of the hot therefore providing 30a and 120v which is exactly what most RV's use. This is why i don't think a voltage step down converter is needed unlike when you travel to Europe.

You can see TFL doing it in this video but ignore that they split it to run two trailers at once. If they ran everything turned on including AC units in both trailers at once i expect the breaker would trip.


In regards to AC, my RV experience is it varies RV to RV but 2000-3000W is what you need to power everything including one AC unit. ProPower is 3600W rated on the one connection which is more than enough. RV's typically have 1-3 options - 110vx20a or 15a giving 2400W using standard household extension cord, 110v x 30a giving 3600W using heavy duty cord with big 3 prong connector, and 110v x 50a giving 6000W and big 4 prong connector. The latter is for the huge rigs with 2 x AC and standard size kitchen appliances. Assuming these would not work with the ProPower.

If the above is accurate then the single top plug of ProPower is indeed equivalent of a large and expensive portable generator that everyone already buys to run their RV's. You're not losing anything because you can't get all 7200W on one plug.

 

[BostonTruckGuy]

yeah I have researched this. The 7.2Kw Pro onboard generator is a 30amp 240v plug.

With the right connector you can utilize one of the legs for your RV. Its basically the same as you hooking up to a 30amp receptacle at the campsite. So you can run everything you normally run when hooking up to a campsite yeah.

 

[daemonic3]

The 4 prong 50A rv service plug is actually 2 hot 120V circuits out of phase, just like the 240V generator plug. Internally a 50A rv will never short them together it will run one hot to one portion of the rig and the other hot to the other portion. Only one AC unit is connected per hot leg.

The propowers plug called a NEMA L14-30 240V will directly pass through with a dogbone to an rv NEMA 14-50 plug. Technically that plug is "240V" as well but rv's never utilize the hot-to-hot to generate 208V. So that's why it's only called a 120V 50A plug.

The stuff about the 30A rv service plug is all correct, it will use one hot leg from the truck like the dogbone crapblaster showed, or the splitter in the tfl vid.

All the other plugs in the powerboost are rated 20A vs regular household 15A. You can tell because instead of 2 flat prongs and ground one of the flat prongs is T shaped.

I am VERY much looking forward to testing out my 50A trailer using propower and seeing the power draw in my Fordpass app. I very much doubt that even running both ACs that I can ever exceed 30A per leg. But I need to test which AC is on the same circuit as the microwave or the 15A outlets (coffeemaker).

 

[Mrtosh]

The 4 prong 50A rv service plug is actually 2 hot 120V circuits out of phase, just like the 240V generator plug. Internally a 50A rv will never short them together it will run one hot to one portion of the rig and the other hot to the other portion. Only one AC unit is connected per hot leg.

The propowers plug called a NEMA L14-30 240V will directly pass through with a dogbone to an rv NEMA 14-50 plug. Technically that plug is "240V" as well but rv's never utilize the hot-to-hot to generate 208V. So that's why it's only called a 120V 50A plug.

The stuff about the 30A rv service plug is all correct, it will use one hot leg from the truck like the dogbone crapblaster showed, or the splitter in the tfl vid.

All the other plugs in the powerboost are rated 20A vs regular household 15A. You can tell because instead of 2 flat prongs and ground one of the flat prongs is T shaped.

I am VERY much looking forward to testing out my 50A trailer using propower and seeing the power draw in my Fordpass app. I very much doubt that even running both ACs that I can ever exceed 30A per leg. But I need to test which AC is on the same circuit as the microwave or the 15A outlets (coffeemaker).

Really curious to hear the outcome of your testing. I have a large 40' Park model RV that only has one AC but runs a 50 amp cable. I'm thinking the Pro Onboard would still run the RV without issue with the Nema adapter you mentioned above.

 

[daemonic3]

Really curious to hear the outcome of your testing. I have a large 40' Park model RV that only has one AC but runs a 50 amp cable. I'm thinking the Pro Onboard would still run the RV without issue with the Nema adapter you mentioned above.

Oh for sure you should be fine. Is yours plumbed for a 2nd A/C? Usually a 50A will be.

Hope you don't mind waiting! My ETA says Mar3 but who knows if that changes, and I don't want to pick up my trailer until I know the truck is safe and broken in.

 

[Mrtosh]

Oh for sure you should be fine. Is yours plumbed for a 2nd A/C? Usually a 50A will be.

Hope you don't mind waiting! My ETA says Mar3 but who knows if that changes, and I don't want to pick up my trailer until I know the truck is safe and broken in.

Thanks daemonic3! I've got money down on one and they're holding it for me to see if there's better incentives next month. My lease will be paid off by then on my current truck anyways. It's an odd setup. There's no other roof vent excpet for the bathroom, so it would take some major fabrication to set a 2nd AC in the bedroom or bunkhouse. I'm assuming they had different models of my camper that were either wired for a 2nd unit and they kept the 50 amp setup for mine. At any rate there's nothing in my camper that would require a 50 amp connection.

What would be the best way of dog boning the 50amp to the 240 setup if you don't mind me asking?

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