EV charger adapters that won't power your RV!
Don't connect your RV shore power cord to an EV charger adapter, or bad things may happen!
Even though many of the Electric Vehicle adaptors look like they should work to power your RV, don’t do it!
Just because you can buy it, doesn’t make it safe to use!
I just saw this EV Charger adapter in a newsletter from AC Works. While they do make a lot of quality adapters for a variety of applications, this one is dangerous for your RV. That’s because the 3-prong dryer outlet doesn’t have a separate neutral. It has a combined EGC/Neutral conductor that’s used to supply 120-volt control and motor power to an electric dryer, NOT the high current of the heating element.
You can’t use a ground conductor for neutral current!
If you do use the adapter shown at the top to power your 50-amp RV, you’ll be connecting your shore power ground and neutral conductor paths, which is a code violation since an open neutral can back-feed voltage into the chassis of your RV. And no, you can’t connect the Green ground wire on the adapter to a grounding rod. As I’ve written many times, a ground rod does not ground your RV.
Some 14-50 EV charger outlets won’t have a neutral conductor!
I’ve heard of EV charger installations that use a standard NEMA 14-50 receptacle exactly like your RV shore power plug. But because Level-2 EV chargers are 240-volts only, many electricians don’t bother to run a neutral conductor. If you plug your RV into one of the these EV Charger receptacles the split-phase 120/240-volt service will not “split” into 120/120-volts. Instead it can divide into crazy high voltages such as 180/60 Volts, with your expensive gadgets being on the 180-volt side.
A bunch of other adapters that won’t work for your RV
AC Works makes a bunch of other adapters that are probably safe for your Electric Vehicle Charger, but NOT for your campsite or RV. Take a look!
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Let’s play (and plug) safe out there… Mike