RV adapter plug

SJones · 07-04-2021, 12:26 PM

Does anyone know if there is an adapter plug that will have female plug on both ends. I have a cord coming from my garage electrical panel that has male plug on it, of course the cord that comes from my MH is also male. I need a way to connect these 2 cords for working power.
TIA
Susan

For those that recall I was having issues with jack control panel...its now working, YIPPEE

Gordiegaffer · 07-04-2021, 12:49 PM

the cord coming from your electrical panel should not have have power to it. If it does something is very wrong it could cause death. Have an electrican look at it please

SJones · 07-04-2021, 01:25 PM

From the home owner, it was installed by an electrician to connect his RV. Don't know how he did that but thought a double female adapter would work for me. Maybe it's not a safe power source.

jayelldouble · 07-04-2021, 01:25 PM

Don't connect those two cords - call an electrician or at least someone who is handy with a voltmeter. And don't touch the male plug coming from your garage panel - something is seriously non standard here - find out what -

It may be a connection to power the house from the RV's generator - but it may not - call an electrician -

Wyatt · 07-04-2021, 02:44 PM

I’d check to see if that make plug has power with a voltmeter. If I it does, YIKES! Find the breaker that controls it and shut it off. Let’s hope whomever installed that they connected it after a breaker on the panel.
It’d be very easy then to cut off the male end and add a female. How to wire it would depend on if the existing make plug is on a 30, 20, or 15 amp breaker. That would determine which type of female plug you could add.

tderonne · 07-04-2021, 03:57 PM

I have a similar cord in my garage.

Mine is not to power the motorhome from the house, it's to power the house from the motorhome. It's used in conjunction with a manual transfer switch that disconnects my house from the grid to the cord that I can plug into the motorhome (or stand alone generator).

I'd review exactly what you have in the garage...

Wayne M · 07-04-2021, 06:08 PM

Susan,
Please be safe and have someone who knows a lot about electricity check he garage plug, please.

Also, to help, put your information for year, Mfg, and model# in your signature line. Is you RV 30 am or 50 amp?

7997redtail · 07-11-2021, 06:20 PM

Be VERY careful. As an electrician my bells started ringing at your first post.

IF it is a transfer switch to run the house from the RV that would be great. But maybe label the end of the plug for anyone else that finds it in the future.

Four Seasons · 07-11-2021, 06:23 PM

Is the plug possibility intended to plug into a portable generator? There shouldn't be a male plug feeding power out of a panel.

Morich · 07-11-2021, 07:42 PM

If you are even somewhat familiar with looking at breaker boxes, you may be able to spot some added equipment that explains what you have.
There is often an item called an "interlock switch" added so that the main power switch that feeds power to the house from the lines has to be off before the breaker between the cord and plug and house can be on.

I might guess the use of a permanently connected cord would be odd as it leaves a dead useless cord in the way all the time. More common is adding an interlock switch to the breaker box to feed an outlet or connection where a temporary cord can be drug out of storage and plugged in to provide power when needed like during storms.

Depending on age and electrical layout, this breaker interlock may be in and outside breaker panel, or possibly in one inside.
Some things to check?
Do you have an outside breaker panel where the wires come into the house? If so look inside there for a label (if done right) and an odd looking item that physically requires the big 100 or 200 amp breaker that feeds the house to be off before a smaller, perhaps 30 to 50 amp can be turned on.

This can sound complex but is not and I just added one on my house after the Texas winter storm knocked us out for so long. Basic idea is that when we use a generator to power the house, we have to cut off the contact going outside the house where linemen might be working.

Like so many tube videos, this guy is a bit "off" but it does give an idea of what you might be looking for on your setup. They come in vertical and horizontal so don't look for details, just the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQpXo4np4k

dkoldman · 07-11-2021, 08:30 PM

It has been a week? Hopefully OP is ok, and got the issue figured out.

My guess is that the male leads were not hot, but OP needed someone with voltmeter to confirm.

I have a 30amp Transfer Switch like the below at my house but I use my portable genset to feed it NOT my RV generator which is 50 amp anyway.

https://www.google.com/search?q=conn...hrome&ie=UTF-8

This switch forces the feed from Main Panel to be OFF if you are getting power from Genset. OP can look to see it they have something like that in Garage.

Note: The input leads to the Transfer Switch are male plugs but they are in separate enclosure and have no way of being hot unless plugged into genny.

NeilV · 07-11-2021, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SJones

From the home owner, it was installed by an electrician to connect his RV. Don't know how he did that but thought a double female adapter would work for me. Maybe it's not a safe power source.

It sounds like he tried to power the house from the RV generator without setting up the correct transfer switch and generator power cord required to do it safely. What you have there sounds like a Widow Maker setup which needs to be removed and a correct RV power outlet installed.

Surprising that the home inspector, mortgage company and homeowners insurance inspector all missed flagging that. Its a serious enough issue that your insurance carrier could deny you coverage and cancel your policy if you have an incident.

Wyatt · 07-12-2021, 11:28 AM

I agree with Neil about the potentially very dangerous situation, and it should be remedied by en electrician immediately.

Mortgage lenders and insurance companies don’t know about these sorts of things, as they rarely if ever inspect a home, and I doubt they’d have any more idea what it is than this forum does, after all, we’re all just guessing absent testing it ourselves.
The homeowners insurance could cancel the insurance if they found out, and it wasn’t remedied, but they’d still have to pay out on a claim.
The property inspector absolutely should have caught it, assuming one was done, but we don’t know that he or she didn’t, and it’s in the report stuffed away in a drawer.

Bobn1957 · 07-12-2021, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SJones

From the homeowner, it was installed by an electrician to connect his RV. Don't know how he did that but thought a double female adapter would work for me. Maybe it's not a safe power source.

It sounds to me like the previous homeowner was using the RV Genset as a backup generator for the house, there must be a transfer switch in the house that disconnects the utility and connects the generator. This is a must to protect the utility workers in the event of service disruption! If you do not have a transfer switch installed the installation is illegal! To power your RV you will need a separate circuit from the house that is a female connection. There should never be power on the bare male connector for your safety!

Shedboy · 07-14-2021, 08:45 AM

The situation you describe should NEVER occur, violates every electrical code/regulation that I know of (including international). Negates the reason for having a male and female plug/receptacle and can be deadly, particularly in wet conditions when you have one foot on the steel RV step and the other foot on the ground. The situation also has the potential to negate the function of a GFI, if one exists. Most modern RV parks have a ground rod at the RV junction box, that ground rod is missing in this configuration. Get a licensed electrician to look it over and fix it! There is a reason that female to female adapters don't exist or are home made.

imnprsd · 07-14-2021, 11:18 AM

If the OP were to post a picture of this Male-Male extension cord, I would be obvious that one of the male ends is "man made." Why? ...Is the million dollar question.

My guess is that the previous owner ran a small generator and then then back fed his RV power grid by plugging one end into the generator and the other male end into a RV wall outlet.

So if you have an separate extension cord coiled up in your storage bay, that goes to nothing, you just need to go buy a new Female and cut of the man-made Male end; and now you have a new cord; if this extension cord is worth saving?

The Female end will cost ~$5 and a new 14 gauge-50' cord is <$20.

Note: The longer your extension cord the thicker it should be (12 gauge is thicker than 14 gauge) if you are trying to run your RV air conditioner off your house wall socket. I.e., thicker is always better on 50-100' runs. Consequently, a small gauge, 50+ foot extension cord can pop some house circuit breakers, where a thicker 12 gauge extension cord may not.

Shedboy · 07-15-2021, 07:36 AM

Agree w imnprsd.

Check-out outdoor auxiliary generator connection boxes at Home Depot, they have a recessed male plug pointed downward on the bottom of the utility box with a spring loaded connector cover, Near impossible to contact a human body part, and difficult to get wet. The boxes also feature an earth ground connector.

If the intent of your configuration was to power the RV from a generator, this would be the configuration to clone. It should be impossible to have any male plug with power applied. A shocking situation may exist if a person was standing on wet ground and grabbed any electrically conductive part of the RV, like an entry door grab bar. The person could become the GFI earth ground wire, normally found in the house breaker panel.

Best solution is to change the plug configuration. An alternative way to do this is to purchase a 12 gauge (under 50 ft) or 10 gauge (over 50ft) RV extension cord and cut off the male end, connect the pig tail to the house/generator utility box. Not a 100% solution, a 4th wire earth ground is still missing, small shock potential still exists if a person is contacting a metal part of the house (Aluminium Siding, Water Faucet?) and a metal part of the RV. To avoid this possibility, no 2 prong plugs should exist on anything plugged into the RV.

Shedboy · 07-17-2021, 10:21 AM

The shorter the better!

The longer the cord and/or the smaller the gauge, (higher gauge numbers are smaller wire diameter) the more voltage is lost (dissipated as heat energy) in the cord itself. If breakers are tripping in the supply panel it is not because of the power cord. In most circumstances, an undersized power cord would cause LESS current to be drawn through the breaker, not more.

The result of long skinny power cord could be 1. The power cord would get warm, possible fire hazard. 2, Low voltage being supplied to the RV, possibly damaging things like the A/C, microwave oven, inverter, generator, TR switch, etc from low voltage supply.

Morich · 07-17-2021, 10:56 AM

I'm guessing there is way too much talk about the hazards without looking at what is actually done on what the OP has found.
If there is a proper interlock for the cord, it has no hazard as it can't be connected to power without the interlock being in the correct positions to make it safe!
I would consider it awkward to have a cord connected full time instead of an outlet on the wall and the cord stored but for whatever reason the former owner of the property had some other reason in mind.
Whether a dead cord connected and laying in the floor would meet code depends on the local codes ---if there is a code in that area.
Too many are assuming there is some willingness to have a code but then if you look at places like Texas, you get a different spin on folks being told what is best for them! We've got folks within twenty miles of Austin that don't have clean running water piped to the house!
What do you think the odds of their house being wired by any code?

Mtn Charlie · 07-17-2021, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morich

I'm guessing there is way too much talk about the hazards without looking at what is actually done on what the OP has found.
If there is a proper interlock for the cord, it has no hazard as it can't be connected to power without the interlock being in the correct positions to make it safe!
I would consider it awkward to have a cord connected full time instead of an outlet on the wall and the cord stored but for whatever reason the former owner of the property had some other reason in mind.
Whether a dead cord connected and laying in the floor would meet code depends on the local codes ---if there is a code in that area.
Too many are assuming there is some willingness to have a code but then if you look at places like Texas, you get a different spin on folks being told what is best for them! We've got folks within twenty miles of Austin that don't have clean running water piped to the house!
What do you think the odds of their house being wired by any code?

A double male cord is a HAZARD at any time that either end is connected to a circuit or plug and the other end is exposed. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD IT BE CONSIDERED/ASSUMED SAFE. Assume=make an ASS of U or ME. Even if the cord is tagged, it is unknown what has occured at the other end, without updating/removing the tag.