30amp to 15amp - Dogbone or Adapter?

[simonj]

When I first bought my 184BH, I purchased a Camco adapter for at home to charge the battery.

However, I see many use the dogbone instead. The adapter is only 5 bucks, while the dog bones are 2-3 times the price. What am I missing?

This is the one I have:

[campingva]

Those have a tendency to get hot. The dogbone also has a little flexibility and will last longer than the adapter. Yes more expensive but for a reason.

[norty1]

If you feed from a generator, the Adapter has a tendency to vibrate loose. I carry both plus an array of just about every kind of adapter and dog bone so there are no surprises left when hooking up power.

[mcfarmall]

The adapter will work just fine as long as you keep your current draw on the low side...running your converter to charge the battery will be fine but I wouldn't try to run the A/C with it.

[RoyBraddy]

This is what you may be missing....


I have the small round adapters here as well but only use them as a PLAN B and just for short quick fix efforts. I never had any luck using them in an permanent situation. They always started getting hot for me... I sure did not want to mess up my 2KW Honda 120VAC receptacles. No telling what those would cost to be replaced.

I won't take those chances here...

The RV30A-15A long "dogbone" adapter is readily available from WALMART and they run very cool in my two trailer 15A/20A garage and long 10-gauge 50-foot extension cord home shore power setup.



Roy Ken

[mcfarmall]

I'd like to cut one of those small adapters open and find out why they are prone to overheating. In my mind, if I were going to manufacture something like that I would make the conductor portions out of solid brass and then mold the plastic around all three. Perhaps the close proximity of the conductors to one another doesn't allow for heat dissipation under load.

[go wild]

Originally Posted by simonj

When I first bought my 184BH, I purchased a Camco adapter for at home to charge the battery.

However, I see many use the dogbone instead. The adapter is only 5 bucks, while the dog bones are 2-3 times the price. What am I missing?

I have the same one for at-home use (basically just running the frige in prep for a trip). Have had no problems. When camping, I hook up to shore power using a Surge Guard.

[simonj]

Thanks for all your input. So far, I have only used this adapter to "trickle charge" the battery in my driveway, as well as pre-cool the fridge before heading out on a trip. Whenever I've connected to shore power at the site, I just used the 30A cord direct from the trailer.

But now I've just bought a Honda 2K gen and would like to try some boondocking. Sounds like a dog bone would be better suited from both a safety and functionality standpoint.