Prevost Community Forums

Find answers, ask questions, and connect with our
Prevost Community around the world.

  • Bella Terra Resort

    Posted by Joe on September 29, 2014 at 9:14 am

    Those attending the Prevost Prouds rally this week.

    Be aware: the electrical service here is not the usual 50 amps per leg. It is 55 amps total, as told to me by ‘maintence’ after popping the circuit breaker. Set your grid amps at 27 to avoid a trip to the pedestal to reset the breaker.

    Peter replied 12 years, 1 month ago 7 Members · 14 Replies
  • 14 Replies
  • Larry & Diane

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 10:31 am

    Then they are having problems as its always been 50 amps per leg when we have been there…

    Thats NOT good in this heat !!

    cant they fix it?

  • Joe

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 11:38 am

    I would bet he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

    55 amps total both legs means they would have to have a double pole breaker that is 22 1/2 amps per leg and it just ain’t so.

    Every RV park in America has at least 30 amp service which means each leg is 30 amps.

    Now the continuous duty rating of a breaker may not be the total rated capacity, say at 80 percent duty rating means in actualality a continuous duty of 24 amps.

    Jon or someone knows what these ratings are.

    But the guy is wrong.

  • Archived

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    The breaker is a 55 amp (in this site). I’ll go look at a few others.

    We found in Canada a few years ago that 50 amp service in RV parks there meant 25 on each leg.

    with the grid amps set at 50 on my inverters, the breaker blows. Set at 27 they don’t .

  • Dick

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm

    You should set incoming power to 47 amps not 50 that way when chargers or A/Cs come on you have some leeway… I actually set mine at 45 amp & never trip a breaker.

  • Jim/Chris

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 2:01 pm

    Okay! Straighten me out.

    The breaker is a single 55 amp breaker. if that meant 55 amps on each leg, it shouldn’t blow with a grid setting of 50.

    Normally, the 50 amp service uses a double pole breaker with both sides stating 50 amps. This one only has one 55 amp marking,

  • Joe

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    Then, its 55 amp 110v

    30 amp in US campground are 30 amp 110, not 220

    50 amp in Canada is 110 amp not 220 v

    Princess 110 cooktops work off of 110 single leg, 30, 50 or whatever amps

    Single leg amps will not power a Gaggenau cooktop, or more than one cruise air which is 220

  • Jim

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    okay! That’s what maintenance explained and I understood. 55 amps @ 110 volts split between two legs. Ie: 55 amps total. Sounds like 27.5 amps on each to me.

  • Archived

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 7:12 pm

    They do make some brakers with one switch sticking out labeled with the amperage.

    If I am correct it is a double pole single throw meaning it only has one lever to togle off and on but if you removed it from the panel you would see that it has two contacts that latch onto the bus bars and gives you 50 amp on two seperate legs. If one leg trips the other one will trip with it.

  • Archived

    Member
    September 29, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    Something is horribly wrong if they were allowed to use a 50 amp receptacle and limit the wiring or breaker to 27 amps.

    Have you looked at the breaker? It will have its rating visible. If it says 50 amp it will easily deliver 40 amps per leg all day long. If not replace the electrician, and then have the new electrician replace the breaker that has likely gotten a little lazy.

  • Archived

    Member
    September 30, 2014 at 9:50 am

    i sent a photo of the breaker to my electrician friend. He said it’s 55 amps on each leg.

    So the maintence guy here was wrong. However, it should not have popped with my grid setting of 50 amps.

    With that information I have to believe the breaker is weak.

  • Archived

    Member
    October 1, 2014 at 8:19 am

    Since my former company manufactured the power outlets we used in campgrounds we learned that the type of circuit breakers used were never intended to be on-off switches. So right off the bat they are being misused.

    Typically however that type of breaker can be expected to provide 80% of their rated amperage reliably. As a general rule I try to limit the load on each leg to 40 amps and I have been OK with only a few exceptions. If the 40 amp load cannot be carried it is usually a breaker problem, or the connections to the breaker are loose and have been for a while creating some resistance.

  • Larry & Diane

    Member
    October 4, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    “circuit breakers used were never intended to be on-off switches”

    I just bought an RV outlet from a company called Jamestown in New York that will be put on the side of garage and the Prevost plugged into.

    Are there circuit breakers that can be used for on/off switches? How can I tell if this box has that kind of a switch?

    Seems like a nice box. Very heavy.

  • Peter

    Member
    October 4, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    Have used a 50 amp circut breaker for years as a on off switch on a Ingersol Rand upright big horse air compressor and in my new bus barn for Prevost. Don’t want to plug or unplug it hot. Not supposed to but heck it’s working. They say the springs will get weak a flipping.

  • Archived

    Member
    October 5, 2014 at 7:22 am

    According to the manufacturers of circuit breakers such as the type used in the power outlet boxes, their primary purpose is to open the circuit in the event of an overload.

    However we all know from our use of them in RV parks they work quite reliably for our application. Switches usually are designed to go hundreds of thousands of on-off cycles between failures. I doubt if the circuit breakers used in RV power outlets will go that far, but they will work sufficiently well for a long time.

    From our experience the most common problem we see relates to the connection of the wire coming loose over time, resistance increasing and the breaker tripping under heavy loads. Sometimes the loose terminal gets hot enough to burn the terminal from arcing.

    Keep the wire terminal screws tight and you will rarely have a failure.

    Thanks for buying the Jamestown power outlet. FWIW I don’t know which breakers were used but over the years the outlets produced by Jamestown Advanced used breakers manufactured by Square D, Siemens, and several others. They are all the interchangeable style, all certified to the same UL standard, and were quite reliable. They are readily available at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and any electrical supply house.

Log in to reply.