Progressive Industries 30 Cheater Box

[lseiger]

My wife and I are at an RV park for the summer and the shore power box does not have a 50a receptacle. The box does have a 30A & 20A (GFI) receptacles. We would like to run both A/C's this summer.

I know that there are Cheater boxes available that provide 30A & 20A plugs terminated in a 50A receptacle. I've also seen Cheater boxes with two 30A plugs.

I've heard that the 20A GFI receptacle will pop if I use one of these cheater boxes.

Has anyone out there had experience with these Cheater boxes?

[billr]

Can't use it with a GFI outlet. It will trip.

Even if it did work, you end up with 30 amps on one leg and 20 amps on the other. If you try and run the second AC it likely will stall on the 20 since they are usually split on each leg.

The cheaters are really meant for two 30amp feeds. Even though you can adapt them down.

Also depending how the pedestal panel is wired from the parks main feed, you can overload the pedestal running on both feeds at the same time. They are set up to run only one at a time on each site. OK if the second is from another site with a separate feed.

Bill

[Motor31]

I have one of them. I can only use it when there is no GFI breaker on the 15 amp side of the power box. If there is a GFI on the box it always trips because of the GFI circuit in the rig. You can't have two GFI circuits hooked together. We only use it when volunteering at a State Park in Washington and we have to be careful about overloading the breaker.

You might get by with it if it is an old style non GFI circuit but make sure the fridge and water heater are on gas before trying both AC units on the power pedestal.

[lseiger]

Thanks Bill and Mike for your timely responses.

After reading your responses I have decided to forego the cheater box.

Thanks much,

Larry Seiger