Temp. electricy to the coach

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by orangeminnie

3-wire dryer outlets have no ground pin (2 hots and a neutral). Unless this house has a very old dryer, it will be using a 4-pin outlet.

But what Morich was saying is you could rewire it at the breaker box to have a ground, neutral and one 120 volt hot line run to the outlet box. You'd then also have to probably put in a new outlet, or at least check which lines are connected to what in the existing outlet and then fabricate an adapter cable.

I was saying that if you did that it would no longer function as a dryer outlet, so you'd have to change it back to use the dryer and then repeat every time you wanted to connect an RV. Doesn't seem like many people would want to do that.

[Morich]

What I was saying is that the situation dictates what one needs to do! If we are speaking of a temporary one time use, it needs different thinking than if it is a situation where you want to use it often! Step one of that situation is knowing what you do and don't know!
If I go to one brother's house for a few days, we simply rewire the things he has and go with it, not going to run forty feet of wire and add breakers and plugs for a few days. at the other brother's house, we go far more often and have a permanent setup. When officially retired the first time, I got some offers "too good to pass up" and traveled, site to site, and needed power for a few days, so tying into any 220 outlet or feed was the logical way to go. We were all big boys there and getting the work done was the priority, not fussing over who paid the bill, etc. We made it work, used it, restored it and moved on!
If you can't look in a box and tell what wire goes where----close the lid!

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

What I was saying is that the situation dictates what one needs to do! If we are speaking of a temporary one time use, it needs different thinking than if it is a situation where you want to use it often!

But even one time use will involve changing the wires twice, the second time to put it back. Then there's the outlet and adapter plugs to deal with. Seems like a lot of work for one time use.

[al1florida]

Originally Posted by orangeminnie

3-wire dryer outlets have no ground pin (2 hots and a neutral). Unless this house has a very old dryer, it will be using a 4-pin outlet.

No, a 3 wire dryer outlet is 2 hot wires and a ground. The ground wire does not carry any of the 30amp 240V load so it is not required to be large enough to carry 30amps of 120V that a RV can use at max load. The ground wire MAY be the same size as the 2 hot wires, but does have to be.

It is true that modern day dryers do have 120V circuits for sensors and computers, and that they do use the ground wire as a neutral when plugged into 3 wire dryer outlets. However the 120V circuits only use a few amps of 120V AC so the possible smaller wire can safely carry the load. I believe the newer dryers having 120V circuits that should have a neutral AND a ground are the reason new home electrical code calls for 4 wire receptacles that have 2 hot, a ground and a neutral. This way the ground and neutral are not the same wire.

Unless this house has a very old dryer, it will be using a 4-pin outlet

No, you can install new dryers in old homes with 3 wire dryer outlets. New dryers don't come with an electric cord, you have to buy one to match your 3 wire or 4 wire outlet. There is no requirement to upgrade the wiring to 4 wire outlets in old homes for the new dryers. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of homes that work this way.

[Morich]

It used to be the four wire were called mobile home outlets and the code on them was different than the stick built. Gradually it is moving toward putting four wire in both but it is not required to change out and pull in new wires where I have worked. codes are a political thing and they change at different speeds in different locations. One reason for the cord not coming on new driers is that they don't know which you will need.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by al1florida

No, a 3 wire dryer outlet is 2 hot wires and a ground.
. . .
New dryers don't come with an electric cord, you have to buy one to match your 3 wire or 4 wire outlet. There is no requirement to upgrade the wiring to 4 wire outlets in old homes for the new dryers. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of homes that work this way.

Both these points are correct, but the reason to not use a 3 wire dryer is it doesn't have both a ground and a neutral. It's not so much what you call the existing wire as not having a second one.

And yes, they design dryers to work with either, although it's probably better in theory to have a four wire connection.

[orangeminnie]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Lots of YouTube videos are out there. This is called "moochdocking" and lots of folks do it.

Here's just one video that does cover electrical connections:

Great video, but long 120V 15A extension chords (more than 25ft) should use #10 wire, to avoid excessive voltage drop. These look like they use #12 or #14 wire. I our case, we just made our own.