Electrical options for outdoor appliances...

[madkatz1]

Do you use an electrical power strip/extension cord for your outside appliances?
 
Scenerio @ night:
Inside PU: AC on med to low.
Outside PU: Tacky lights, 2 small fans and music all on. Now, I start the blender... will there be fireworks? (I guess that's appropriate for July 4th approaching!) Or will the appliance just shut off due to an overload?
 
There is an outlet outside on the pu that has 2 plug-ins. I bought a grounded 3 plug adapter (rated for 15 amps/1875 wts) so now I have a 4 plug-in capacity. I know the blender takes a lot of power with the surge whereas the fans, lights and music are a steady current.
 
Should I turn everything else off and blend up the margaritas using flashlights? lol
Any Electricians out there with an opinion?

[mike4947]

The worst that will happen is you'll trip out a breaker. Either one on the trailer or the one on the shore power. If you do keep tripping the breaker, and BTW adding outlets does not increase capacity, it's still 15 amps for everything but the air conditioner.
Just run the extension cord to the shore power and plug it into the 15/20 amp outlet. Then you have 30 amps for the trailer (20 amp breaker for the AC, and the 15 amp breaker for the rest of the trailer, and the 15/20 amp seperate from the trailer through the extension cord. So you'll have 40+ amps total, and an extra 15 amps for toys.
Common usage when it gets cold and you need extra amps for a second heater or some other high power appliance.

[wavery]

Be careful when using extension cords.

Extension cords build up resistance of and by themselves before you even start figuring in what you are going to plug in. The longer the extension cord, the more the resistance. The more resistance, the more heat that builds up in the extension cord, especially at the ends.

I always recommend using a (Minimum) 12 gage wire extension cord while camping (10 gage is better). The larger wire reduces the amount of resistance and heat build up. Most common extension cords (even the orange ones marked HD) are 16 gage wire. These are ok for running low wattage appliances and simple hand tools. I would not recommend using them for plugging in mutiple items or in camping at all.

Most power strips have the wattage rating right on them. Just ad up the wattage of the items that you are plugging into it. The power strip has a built-in circuit breaker that will trip if you exceed that. Just keep in mind, power strips are not designed to be used in extension cords for the reason listed above. Just because the breaker on the power strip doesn't trip, doesn't mean that everything is OK. The extension cord could still melt without tripping either the power strip or the CG breaker if it isn't of sufficient size.

[oldmoose]

I used a power strip for my awning lights and an electric flag. The electric Igloo gets plugged in direct. This way I can turn off the lights and the Igloo stays on. I don't bring anything with me that would create a large amp draw.Moose

[tjy355]

They have electricity at the campgrounds you folks go to ??
  :confused: