Electrical connection

[rvwanderer11]

The person I bought the RV from warned me, always turn off the electric at the park plug before connecting.
Then make the connection and turn on the electric.    I ve seen very few shut offs at the park plug.
Non of this sounded right to me.
I plug in my surge protector, look for the green light  Then plug in my cord.
which is exactly how I did it on my sailboat.

Is that the right way to protect myself, or should I be turning off the plug ( if it has a shutoff)

 

[Rene T]

If you have a breaker shut off at the RV campground pedestal, shut it off first then plug in your cord along with the surge protector then turn it back on. If it doesn't have a shut off, turn your main circuit breaker inside the RV entrance panel, (30 or 50 Amp) then plug in to the campground  outlet, then turn on your RV breaker.

 

[Seilerbird]

If you have a breaker shut off at the RV campground pedestal, shut it off first then plug in your cord along with the surge protector then turn it back on. If it doesn't have a shut off, turn your main circuit breaker inside the RV entrance panel, (30 or 50 Amp) then plug in to the campground  outlet, then turn on your RV breaker.

) ) ) This is the safest way to do it. Plugging in anything that is turned on puts a load on the connection resulting in a spark. For a 110 volt small appliance it would not be a big deal. If your A/C were both turned on and you plugged in the spark would be significant. It would not pose an immediate safety hazard plugging it in however what it would do is cause a pit in your plug and the receptacle. Get enough of those pits and you will end up with power cord failure. It doesn't happen often but if it does you will need to buy a new cord before you RV will get power from the shore again.

 

[HappyWanderer1]

I once responded to an electrical fire in a nursing home. There was a wall-mounted air conditioner that was too high for most of the staff to reach, so they were in the habit of plugging/unplugging the power cord to turn it on and off. Doing this repeatedly caused the type of damage Tom mentioned, resulting in a fire.

Personally, I turn off the main inside the motorhome. That way, I won't accidently start or stop the generator under load either.

 

[lynnmor]

Since many abuse the outlets by plugged In hot, I think that you will find that most outlets have some degree of damage.  In order to have a better chance of making a good connection, I plug in and out a number of times to wipe the contacts.  I also started using a sacrificial dogbone to take the damage.

 

[Seilerbird]

It would be prudent for anyone with an RV to look at the plug that they plug into shore power. If the blades are not nice looking then polishing them up with some steel wool or light sandpaper is a good idea.

 

[John From Detroit]

When you plug in "HOT" (breaker on) there is an arc that eventually damages both the outlet and the plug you are plugging in .. The plug is your problem.. THe outlet, and breaker (which suffers damage but not as much) is the park's problem. So turn off before plugging in or unplugging.

You mentioned a Surge Guard.. Is this one that monitors voltage and such or is it just an el-cheapo spike supressor (The portabled take nearly 3 minutes before they connect power (Green light)

IF you have the good kind (Like I just described) plug in to it before you plug it into park. IF there is a problem it will not give you the CLUNK of the connection nor will it give you a green light.  It WILL tell you why it did not.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

This is a case of "best practice" vs necessity. Every time you plug or unplug with some electrical load active, a spark jumps as the blades near the receptacle and there is some wer & tear on the connection. Whether it's a big spark or a tiny one depends on the amount of load (amps). Anything you can do to minimize the sparking is a Good Thing.


Your RV has some stuff that is always on unless a breaker is tripped, e.g. the 12v converter/charger, so there is going to be some small load. Avoid, however, leaving on larger loads like water heater electric element, air conditioner, etc.  Turning off the main breaker at either the power post or in the RV's load center minimizes the plug wear (the breaker contacts get worn instead).  In practice, you could make/break the plug connections hundreds or even thousands of times without much concern as long as the amp loads are very small. One big OOPS! could alter that in a heartbeat, though.  It's best to develop the practice of minimizing the amps at the time of plug in/out. It's a good habit, but not an overwhelming necessity.

 

[Joezeppy]

This is one of many good reasons to carry a 50 amp to 30 amp dog bone as lynnmore mentioned. Labor Day weekend 2017 I arrived after dark and my 30 amp plug was giving me some trouble plugging in. When I got some light on it I noticed that the socket had been burned and one of the slots was partially blocked. Luckily the post also had 50 amp so I just used the adapter.