Cubey
New Member
Hello all.
I am working on a vintage Shasta travel trailer and I am slightly concerned about the electrical situation with it. It uses a normal 15 amp electrical hookup vs the large 30 amp that RVs now use.
I suspect the last owner put in this standard circuit breaker as a replacement for some other original fuse box or something. In any case, they put in two breakers, a 20 amp and a 15 amp. That would total over 35 amps being allowed to go through the wires before it would kick off. That seems excessive and a fire hazard.
I don't need to consume much power at a time so replacing the breakers to total 15 amps would be fine. The RV fridge is 1.5 amps on AC power according to a tech doc I found online and the 5000k BTU window AC I installed says 5.0 amps (I guess it may have a higher starting requirement? Anyone know?). I only have a small propane heater for it right now so I'll need to run an electric one as well. I have a way to safely run in an extra extension cord into the trailer to run an electric heater on seperately from the trailer's circuit if need be. A 1500w heater would use about 13-14 amps. Wouldn't be able to have much else going at the same time if I run an 1500w heater on the trailer's breakers if I change it to total 15 amps.
Now my question is this: Which way is better to do the breakers? Put in two single pole 7.5 amp breakers or put in a 15 amp double pole breaker, assuming a double pole provides 7.5 to each pole (or does it provide 15 to each totaling 30?). I just don't think it could handle 30 amps without being a fire hazard for the extension cord, and the electrical hookup between the plug-in and the breaker box where it splits off to 2 circuits. Or would 2 15 amp breakers be safe running off of a normal heavy duty household extension cord assuming I get a heavy duty extension cord?
I'm thinking, however, that RV parks should only allow 15 amp service on those normal household plugs. If thats the case I can leave in the 20 and 15 amp breakers since the breaker switch where they plug in would never allow them to get beyond 15 amps. However I'm thinking I should probably redo the breakers anyway since you never know when someplace might have screwy electrical hookups allowing 30amp service to go through 15 amp cords, though I should hope that wouldn't happen.
Any advice will be most appreciated.
I am working on a vintage Shasta travel trailer and I am slightly concerned about the electrical situation with it. It uses a normal 15 amp electrical hookup vs the large 30 amp that RVs now use.
I suspect the last owner put in this standard circuit breaker as a replacement for some other original fuse box or something. In any case, they put in two breakers, a 20 amp and a 15 amp. That would total over 35 amps being allowed to go through the wires before it would kick off. That seems excessive and a fire hazard.
I don't need to consume much power at a time so replacing the breakers to total 15 amps would be fine. The RV fridge is 1.5 amps on AC power according to a tech doc I found online and the 5000k BTU window AC I installed says 5.0 amps (I guess it may have a higher starting requirement? Anyone know?). I only have a small propane heater for it right now so I'll need to run an electric one as well. I have a way to safely run in an extra extension cord into the trailer to run an electric heater on seperately from the trailer's circuit if need be. A 1500w heater would use about 13-14 amps. Wouldn't be able to have much else going at the same time if I run an 1500w heater on the trailer's breakers if I change it to total 15 amps.
Now my question is this: Which way is better to do the breakers? Put in two single pole 7.5 amp breakers or put in a 15 amp double pole breaker, assuming a double pole provides 7.5 to each pole (or does it provide 15 to each totaling 30?). I just don't think it could handle 30 amps without being a fire hazard for the extension cord, and the electrical hookup between the plug-in and the breaker box where it splits off to 2 circuits. Or would 2 15 amp breakers be safe running off of a normal heavy duty household extension cord assuming I get a heavy duty extension cord?
I'm thinking, however, that RV parks should only allow 15 amp service on those normal household plugs. If thats the case I can leave in the 20 and 15 amp breakers since the breaker switch where they plug in would never allow them to get beyond 15 amps. However I'm thinking I should probably redo the breakers anyway since you never know when someplace might have screwy electrical hookups allowing 30amp service to go through 15 amp cords, though I should hope that wouldn't happen.
Any advice will be most appreciated.
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