Shore power with only 30 and 15 amp in pole?

[virginiacamper]

Hi, we have a new (to us) XL with a magnum inverter/converter and 6 house batteries. All works great when plugged into 50 amp or running the generator, but given we are traveling in areas with only 30 and 15 in the pole we were hoping to use one of the cable systems where it allows us to plug the 50 cable into a 30 and 15. When we tried it our coach power protector (progressive) shows both legs at correct voltage and all ok, but the magnum will not charge or pass the power into the rig.

I am guessing the turn on voltage drops at first which shuts the magnum down. I do see many class As plugged into 30 and would have thought I could as long as the draw stays low (running a fridge and a few lights). Am I missing anything or is this just the way it works in the world of 50amp inverter/converters?

PS - because of the above we have been running our generator once or twice a day and people have complained since we are in a powered space. We use the 15 amp to run an extension cord for a fan, but keep the batteries for just the fridge and sone lights. I also have the magnum remote and have checked all of the settings. The only one that I thought could impact this is maxshoreamps which I turned down with no apparent effect. Appreciate any help as I can't be the first running into this for sure.


Thanks!

[garyde]

Hi Mike. The one thing I can think of is the inverter is not on that power leg of your 30 amp plug. do you have a manual? Who is the Converter?
On my coach, the manual says to turn off one of my two inverters when plugged into a 30 amp plug.

[Gary Carmichael]

Gary does it make any difference which one you turn off? This may fall into the category of a dumb question Gary C

[phorner]

Gary,

In our Liberty, the manual states to turn off "the Number 2" inverter when using 30 amp power. I think it's mainly to shut off the charger associated with that inverter, as most of the other inverter powered "stuff" appears to be on the leg for the other one.

Usually, if I don't have clean, solid 50 amp service I opt for the generator....

[virginiacamper]

Gary,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, it is a used entertainer conversion that we acquired and it did not come with conversion manuals so we are flying blind. Maybe I'll reach out to the inverter guys to see what they can tell me.

[garyde]

Its not necessarily a inverter question. Its how your coach was hard wired. If you can idntify the entertainer converter, call them.

[Gil_J]

When you use a 50A to 30A or even 15/20A the converter cord takes the single power input (30A, 20A or 15A) and connects it to BOTH 50A feeds into the coach. As you probably know, a 50A circuit in the case of our coaches is actually two 50A circuits whereas 30A and below are only one. You may well have to change the maximum power input selection on your inverter/chargers. I would also recommend turning one of them off if you have a single battery bank, which is likely. Don't turn off the breaker feeding that inverter/charger ONLY turn off the charger. This is necessary so that the 110VAC input to the charger/inverter still flows through the inverter bypass relay to power whatever is attached to the leg of power in your coach.

The one thing that may not work is the cooktop. Our cooktop is 220VAC so it can't be powered with a single power feed.