Plugging in to shore power

[jstephens3]

I’ve always followed the ‘Golden Rule’ of turning the 50 amp breaker off before plugging in or removing my shore power cable at RV parks. Yesterday, I had an electrician at my home to repair a bad household 20 amp circuit – it was a mechanical fault in the circuit breaker. While replacing the faulty 20 amp breaker, he questioned why I had the 50 amp breaker I use when I bring my RV home to load/unload turned off. He reasoned that all other circuits were on when we plugged various devices in and out of the household outlets; and constant use of the on/off switch would cause early failure of the circuit breaker, like the 20 amp one he just replaced. My only answer was that we’ve always done it that way in RV parks. Now I wonder why we do that. I do have an installed surge protector that takes about 30 seconds to self-test the line before activating the power to the RV. My questions are: do we need to keep turning power on and off at the breaker in RV parks and should I continue to do this at home? If so, why?

[jleamont]

J- I never turn off the power at a campground or my 50 AMP box at home for the RV.

My Portable EMS has a time delay, prior to disconnecting the RV I shut everything off in the coach and just unplug it, I can see the load on the display and at that time its usually less than 2 amps. I remove the portable EMS from my home tower and when its reconnected it starts the 30 second delay which gives me ample time to reconnect the RV. I do the same at an RV park, sometimes I find the breakers on and sometimes they are off. 

Countless times I have had worn out breakers from them being utilized as a switch. 

I also NEVER plug into Shore power or start the generator with a load on (AC, ETC). I always start the generator and let it run for 5 minutes prior to loading it and when we arrive at home I shut the AC off and allow for the generator to idle (cool down) for 15 minutes before plugging into shore power, shut it down then plug in and switch the AC back on.

Edited August 12, 2020 by jleamont

[hermanmullins]

I do just the opposite . I always turn off the breaker before plugging and unplugging, I do this to eliminate the  blades from arching. I would rather replace a C/B than a cable end. I have had blades burnt from arching where I would loose contact. We each have our own way of doing thing and are not wrong just a personal preference.

Herman

Edited August 12, 2020 by hermanmullins
Spelling Correction.

[manholt]

I do as Herman!   All you need is some water, that you don't see at the camp ground shore power, with CB on...you'll light up like a Xmas tree on arching!  DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE !

[richard5933]

Big difference in plugging in an RV at the pedestal and all the household devices your electrician was talking about. Usually, the household devices are turned off and not going to cause a problem.

If (big 'if' for some, small 'if' for others) you have all the major power-using devices turned off in the coach when you plug, there shouldn't be a problem. The problem that comes from plugging in with the breaker turned on is damage done to the outlet/plug from the arcing. If you plug in with the breaker off there is no chance of arcing at the plug/outlet which is why many turn off the breaker first.

All that said, I am not that familiar with newer hi-tech systems that automatically control things in the coach and switch power as soon as it's detected. For example, some people will pull into a campground with the generator powering the a/c units. When they plug into the pedestal and switch on the breaker the automatic transfer switch will automatically switch the loads to the shore power. I can see where in those cases it could potentially do some damage.

My advice is to switch off the loads in the coach before plugging into the pedestal. Having the breaker turned off is extra insurance against damaging the plug on the shore power cord. When possible, I have things off at both ends before plugging in.

[five]

On 8/12/2020 at 1:39 PM, manholt said:

I do as Herman!   All you need is some water, that you don't see at the camp ground shore power, with CB on...you'll light up like a Xmas tree on arching!  DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE !

Same here, power off to plug in and unplug.

[rayin]

14 hours ago, richard5933 said:

Big difference in plugging in an RV at the pedestal and all the household devices your electrician was talking about. Usually, the household devices are turned off and not going to cause a problem.

If (big 'if' for some, small 'if' for others) you have all the major power-using devices turned off in the coach when you plug, there shouldn't be a problem. The problem that comes from plugging in with the breaker turned on is damage done to the outlet/plug from the arcing. If you plug in with the breaker off there is no chance of arcing at the plug/outlet which is why many turn off the breaker first.

All that said, I am not that familiar with newer hi-tech systems that automatically control things in the coach and switch power as soon as it's detected. For example, some people will pull into a campground with the generator powering the a/c units. When they plug into the pedestal and switch on the breaker the automatic transfer switch will automatically switch the loads to the shore power. I can see where in those cases it could potentially do some damage.

My advice is to switch off the loads in the coach before plugging into the pedestal. Having the breaker turned off is extra insurance against damaging the plug on the shore power cord. When possible, I have things off at both ends before plugging in.

Yep, I use the same reasoning for both shore power cord and switching from shore power to genset, or visa versa; to prevent arcing and destroying contacts.

Edited August 14, 2020 by RayIN

[wayne77590]

Well, my coach does everything automatically if I have the thermostat program set properly.  In manual mode the generator has priority. When I plug in my surge protector this is about a 2 and 1/2 or more minute delay before it kicks in. I thump on the coach and DW turns AC's off - waits a full minute or more, then turns the generator off.  At this time nothing is power up except maybe by inverter.  Pedestal power kicks in, I thump on the coach and DW turns AC's back on.

Now, I have my thermostat programmed for loss of power and battery level less than 12.2 volts. In either of those two cases the Auto Generator Start will kick in. The auto load function on the generator will keep things from running until it cycles up then the AC's will kick back on. However, if power at the pedestal is restored the generator will turn off and the pedestal power takes over and there is no loss of AC power or cycling.

It has to be magic.