30 AMP to 50 AMP - 2005 voyage 33v

[meade1906]

I have a 2005 voyage 33v. It has a 30 amp service,and i would like to change it over to 50 amp. Has anyone had dealing with this before. Any ideas take all the help i can get thanks

[Goodspike]

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

There's a big difference between 30 and 50, because 30 is 30 (120 volt) and 50 is 50 + 50 (2 120 volt circuits equaling 240 volts between them, but in an RV typically only 2 120 circuits). Depending on what you want to do, you might be able to get buy with just one 50 amp 110 volt circuit.

I'm not at all familar with your vehicle, or it's breaker system, but in theory you could install a heavier duty cord running all the way to the breaker box and then change out the main breaker to 50 amp---assuming the breaker box has that high of a rating. Again I know nothing about your system. That would allow you to then maybe install a subpanel with additional circuits (I'm assuming your breaker box has no open spaces). That would leave you with 50 amps of power at 120 volts.

Alternatively you could run the new cord to a new panel that has a 50 amp main, and maybe two 30 amp breakers, one running to your existing breaker box and one running to another breaker box. That again would leave you with 50 amps of power at 120 volts.

Of course you'd have to have room somewhere in your RV for these additional breaker boxes.

Assuming you really want two 50 amp circuits, it would probably be easiest to run the new heavier duty cord (4 conduit rather than 3 conduit) and run one of the lines into your existing breaker box, leaving it a 30 amp setup, and then create a new breaker box with a 50 amp main. That wouldn't give you two 50 amp circuits, but instead a 50 at 120 and a 30 at 120, but it would give you much more power than what you have now.

Does that make sense?

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
Does that make sense?

Not to me. I’m wondering like you did, what are you trying to accomplish?

Why do you need a 50 amp service?

[be happy]

First off I am far from an electrician! To me the only reason to move up to 50amp would be for a second air conditioner. If thats not in the plan oh well.

Remember RV 30amp is 120 total of 3 wires 1hot 2 cold (neg.). Where 50 amp is 240 total of 4 wires 2 hot 2 cold. With that said, a 50 amp RV breaker box separates the rv in half. One AC on one 50amp leg and the other one on the other 50amp leg. It then takes the remaining electric components and divides them up as equally volt wise as possible. So once you remove the old 30amp box you would have to figure out how to separate you coach to spread the power.

With that said, I know nothing about how the invertor or convertor works into this plan. Let alone how its wired into the system, that may be another nightmare worth looking into also.

[DavidM]

If you want to add a second A/C and you have a spare breaker on your AC panel, this is how you can do it:

Buy or make an adapter from 240/120/50A shore power to a single leg 120/50A and upgrade the shore power cord to 8 gauge. Then upgrade the coach's internal supply wiring to 8 gauge all the way to the main AC panel. Then upgrade the main AC breaker to 50A. Then install a 20A breaker in the spare slot to power your new A/C.

It is a bit of a kludge but perfectly safe and legal.

The better way of course is to upgrade the shore power cord to 240/120/50A, upgrade the internal wiring to 8 gauge 3 conductor plus ground, connect one leg to the existing main panel breaker and upgrade it to 50A, connect the other leg to a new panel with a 50A main breaker and a 20A breaker feeding the new A/C unit.

You could effectively do almost the same thing by getting a 240/120/50A to two 120/30A outlet adapter and install a new 30A shore power cord and a new AC panel to supply the new A/C unit. Boats do this all of the time, but the better way described above is the more common way of getting more power to a boat or RV.

David

[Goodspike]

The problem is we don't know what they want to do. If it's just that they want to run the A/C, water heater and hair dryer at the same time that may be a different answer than if they want a second A/C. Hopefully the OP will come back and tell us what they were thinking.

[Morich]

Or do they have a 50 amp outlet and want to plug a 30 amp cord in, so that they only need on e of these?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/AC-WORKS...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

Or do they have a 50 amp outlet and want to plug a 30 amp cord in, so that they only need on e of these?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/AC-WORKS...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

There's a thread here on how that is not safe, because you have 30 amp lines protected by a 50 amp circuit. At least Home Depot isn't falsely claiming that device is Underwriter Labs approved, as they were falsely claiming with a similar device.

Connecting up with the comment about the other thread, if that other user's main breaker was defective and they were running the A/C, water heater and hair dryer at the same time, they could end up with a fire in the line running to the breaker box if connected to a 50 amp breaker.

[Morich]

Forum opinions are often not based on real life, therefore ignored!

[Goodspike]

The OP indicated to me in a PM that they were told the breaker box was 50 amp rated. I responded by PM, but just so they see it, and I'll even say a bit more.

My response was even assuming the box is rated at 50 amps, that doesn't mean the lines running to it are. I would guess the lines are not rated for 50 amp if the main breaker is a 30 amp breaker. But if the box is rated 50 amp, and has an open space for an additional breaker, presumably you could upgrade the line and change out the main breaker to 50 amps and add a new circuit if that is the goal. That might be fairly easy, although that would depend on the location of the power inlet to the RV relative to the breaker box. Mine would not be easy.

[meade1906]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

The problem is we don't know what they want to do. If it's just that they want to run the A/C, water heater and hair dryer at the same time that may be a different answer than if they want a second A/C. Hopefully the OP will come back and tell us what they were thinking.

i have a 30 amp service. the breaker box and switch box are the same for 30 as 50.i would like 50 amp service in my motor homei have 2 A/C while they are both on i can run nothing else.i would like the second line of the 50 amp service to run 2an A/C and water heater. that what iam trying to do,wanted to see if anyone has done so

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by meade1906

i have a 30 amp service. the breaker box and switch box are the same for 30 as 50.i would like 50 amp service in my motor homei have 2 A/C while they are both on i can run nothing else.i would like the second line of the 50 amp service to run 2an A/C and water heater. that what iam trying to do,wanted to see if anyone has done so

I don't know if anyone has done that, but assuming your box is rated for 50 amps you could technically run a new four conduit line of sufficient gauge to carry 50 amps, run one of the hots to the original box, one hot to a new box, share the ground and neutral. Then change out the main breaker in the old box to 50 amp and put the same in the new box. The neutral can be the same size as the other wires since the two 120 volt circuits cancel each other out.

If the original really isn't 50 amp, it would be one of the scenarios I first posted.

Where to put the second box would be the issue, and getting the new cable run inside the RV.

[BobC]

Here are several threads I've bookmarked on this topic:

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...ml#post3842611

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...on-351881.html

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...on-351367.html

I'm sure there are more but these will get you started. Assuming your panel is up to the task, the most difficult part seems to be "pulling" the heavier gauge wiring.

[DavidM]

Originally Posted by meade1906

i have a 30 amp service. the breaker box and switch box are the same for 30 as 50.i would like 50 amp service in my motor homei have 2 A/C while they are both on i can run nothing else.i would like the second line of the 50 amp service to run 2an A/C and water heater. that what iam trying to do,wanted to see if anyone has done so

:

OK, expanding on what I said earlier:

Install a 50A 3 conductor plus ground shore power cord with a 240/120/50A plug. Run 8 gauge 3 conductor plus ground from the shore power cord to the electrical panel. Hook up one leg plus the neutral and ground to the existing panel. Replace the main breaker with a 50A or you can just leave it as 30A.

Install a new panel box with a main and at least two additional breaker positions- one for the A/C and the other for the water heater. Move the breakers and the wires for one of the A/Cs and the water heater from the existing panel to the new one and tie them into the breakers. Wire the second leg from the 8 gauge cable plus neutral plus ground to the second panel's main breaker which can be 30A or 50A like the original panel.

David

[Jim_HiTek]

What I did with my 30 amp rig was wire a 'transfer switch', 120 volt, 20 amp, DPDT, inside the bedroom AC. Then I had an extension cord I'd hang from the bedroom ceiling, route it out the window, and down to the shore power tower. I'd plug that into the empty 120 outlet most all parks have, and in that way I'd have both ACs. They make adapters just for that these days.

It was pretty handy way to do it as I didn't need to increase any wire size or add breakers to the breaker box as the shore power tower did that for me. The best part was if I was going to use the MW during a hot part of the day when many other campers had their AC running, I could shut down the LR AC for a few minutes and the bedroom AC kept things cool.

[HotMech]

I have done a complete 30 to 50 conversion on two of my coaches so far, both work flawless. and both were quite easy. the hardest part is running the new wiring. If your transfer switch is good for 30 or 50 then good, if its only 30, that will need to be replaced. you also probably have a powerline management system. you will need to change one connection for that as well. you will then need to run 6ga stranded copper, 1 red, 1 black, and one white. you will also need 8ga stranded copper in green. for the ground. it will need to replace your wiring from the transfer switch to the power panel or breaker box. you will need to add two new breakers to the box for the new mains input. If the breaker box is close to the transfer switch, its fairly easy to make the run, if it is farther away it gets more difficult. I would need to know exactly how your system is set up, and what type of power center/breaker box you have, as the connections are different with different type boxes. You will also need to change the line 2 breaker in your generator. from 20a to 30a PM me and I can go into more detail for you. Kerry