What Makes a Portable Generator RV-Ready?
It’s a good life outdoors, isn’t it? Away from all the pollution and noise of the city. But like most people, you can’t permanently shift to the parks. So to enjoy the wilderness, you bring in an RV with all the amenities you will need for a comfortable stay of a few days.
These RVs will have electrical outlets, microwaves, fridges, and many other electrical appliances to give you the feel of a house but what you will need is electricity. The electricity to the RV is fed through a cable that has a rating of 120V and 30A.
If you are at a campground, then there will be many power outlets through which you can power your camping gadgets. But if you are someone like me, the boondocking camping fan, you will need a generator to power your RV, and here the generator will become a necessity. If you can connect the power cord of your RV directly to the generator without any kind of adapters, you can call that generator an RV ready generator.
The TT-30R Outlet
For a generator to be RV ready, it has to have a TT-30R plug on its control panel.; Where a TT stands for a travel trailer and R is for a receptacle. The important thing is a 30, which means the outlet will supply the 30 A of current. These are standard outlets for RVs, and the dimensions of the connectors are decided by the NEMA, which means National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
Adapter – An Alternative
Now, the question arises what to do if the generator isn’t RV ready? Well, there are adapters available in the market that act as a medium to form a connection between the generator and the RV. But the thing is, these connectors will carry a high amperage current, so the adapters should be of the best quality.
You can either choose a dogbone adapter or a puck style adapter. We suggest that you go with the dogbone adapters because the dogbone adapters will exert less stress on the generator outlet. There will be stress, but less compared to the puck adapters. This is due to the heaviness of the RV cable, so what you can do is bind the dogbone connector with the generator handle to reduce the stress.
The adapter you choose should be based on the current of the outlet where you are going to plug it in because you can adapt from high current to low current, but vice versa is not possible. This means you can adapt from a 50A outlet to a 30A outlet, but it won’t be possible to adapt from 20A to 30A. Considering this, the most suitable adapters are L5-30R and L14-30R to TT-30R.
That’s it, Happy Camping!!
