Electrical question

JohnnyWalker · Apr 7, 2015

I have an empty slot in my power panel and I was thinking about running a circuit out to the garage door for 30 AMP service there. I plan on hooking up the camper when the grand kids come.

My questions:
What gauge wire should I use. The distance from the box to the garage door is 45 feet.

Does the 30 AMP camper outlet wire up any differently than a standard 10-15 AMP outlet?

Should I use a 30 AMP ground fault breaker switch in the power panel?

I'm not an electrician but I have added house hold circuits to the power panels in the past but they were all the standard 110V, 15 AMP variety.

Milkman · Apr 7, 2015

JohnnyWalker said:
I have an empty slot in my power panel and I was thinking about running a circuit out to the garage door for 30 AMP service there. I plan on hooking up the camper when the grand kids come.

My questions:
What gauge wire should I use. The distance from the box to the garage door is 45 feet.

Does the 30 AMP camper outlet wire up any differently than a standard 10-15 AMP outlet?

Should I use a 30 AMP ground fault breaker switch in the power panel?

I'm not an electrician but I have added house hold circuits to the power panels in the past but they were all the standard 110V, 15 AMP variety.

Use a 10/3 cable. The receptacle will be very similar to a standard duplex. It should have a bronze, silver, and green screw for the respective wires. Bronze black, silver white, green for green.

The GF breaker would be a plus for safety IMO.

Utube has some videos for different variations of doing an RV outlet as well.

Oldstick · Apr 7, 2015

+ 1 on the above. You might want to make the 30 amp female receptacle at the door be the same type as the 30 amp male plug you have coming out of the camper. That way you won't need any extra extension cords.

If you're running the new wires around the exposed wall areas of the garage, just put it inside PVC conduit all the way to the outlet and it will be perfectly safe.

Bob Shaw · Apr 7, 2015

I did that, and then, bought a camper that took 50 amp service. If you have room in your box (if only one slot open, you don't), I'd go ahead an put in 50 amp. JMHO

shakey gizzard · Apr 7, 2015

Bob Shaw said:
I did that, and then, bought a camper that took 50 amp service. If you have room in your box (if only one slot open, you don't), I'd go ahead an put in 50 amp. JMHO

X2! Bigger is better!

notnksnemor · Apr 8, 2015

Here's a little trick I use if you bury the cable (even in PVC).
When back filling the trench, lay green, yellow and red plastic tape (like surveyors tape) at different depths in the trench. Green at highest point, red at lowest point to the cable. In the future, if you have to trench over where the cable is buried, you can tell how close you are to the cable by the color tape being dug up.

Local Boy · Apr 8, 2015

Milkman said:
Use a 10/3 cable. The receptacle will be very similar to a standard duplex. It should have a bronze, silver, and green screw for the respective wires. Bronze black, silver white, green for green.

10/3 or 10/2 with ground?

Town2Small · Apr 8, 2015

Local Boy said:
10/3 or 10/2 with ground?

It's the same thing. 10/3 just means it's 10 gauge wire with a ground. 3 means there are three conductors inside the sheath

Slingblade · Apr 8, 2015

Town2Small said:
Quote: Originally Posted by Local Boy 10/3 or 10/2 with ground? It's the same thing. 10/3 just means it's 10 gauge wire with a ground. 3 means there are three conductors inside the sheath

10/2 w/ground will have a black and white insulated wire with a bare ground wire; where 10/3 w/ground will have a black, red and white insulated wire with a bare ground. 10/3 w/ground is used for 220 volt, with the red and black wires coming off the two screws on the breaker with the white and bare wires coming off the neutral and ground bus.Posted from Gon.com App for Android

660griz · Apr 8, 2015

JohnnyWalker said:
My questions:
What gauge wire should I use. The distance from the box to the garage door is 45 feet.

10 gauge copper, 8 gauge aluminum.

Does the 30 AMP camper outlet wire up any differently than a standard 10-15 AMP outlet?

Not really.

Should I use a 30 AMP ground fault breaker switch in the power panel?

You could but not mandatory by code. I put a 50 amp 220v breaker in the box, (just in case I want to run a hot tub later

) ran 4 gauge wire to a junction box with a GFCI breaker, then wired the RV box to that using just 1 leg of the 220.

JohnnyWalker · Apr 8, 2015

Thanks guys.
I do like the idea of a 30 amp rv type receptacle and I will be using a ground fault breaker switch.

Nugefan · Apr 9, 2015

660griz said:
ran 4 gauge wire to a junction box with a GFCI breaker, then wired the RV box to that using just 1 leg of the 220.

what did you do for a neutral ???

660griz · Apr 9, 2015

Nugefan said:
what did you do for a neutral ???

Neutral from GFCI breaker attached to neutral bus in breaker box. Then attach neutral from RV outlet to proper terminal on GFCI.
Something like this:

Electrical question

JohnnyWalker

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Milkman

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Oldstick

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Bob Shaw

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notnksnemor

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Town2Small

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