Power to your van at home

G'day Bob. My van is stored in front of my shed and I have a 15 amp outlet on the power board in my shed and simply plug the van into it. Depending where you park your van, get a eleco to instal a 15 amp point close by, (Can be an external weather proof type). I have an adaptor, 10amp male/15amp female, which I keep for emergency situations only, but they are are illegal.
I always power up the van a few days before setting out, to get the fridge cold and the freezer stored and frozen.
Fred.

Most people simply wire a 15 amp female plug onto a normal 10 amp power lead. Given that your fridge only _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx .73 of an amp it is quite safe. To be 100% safe plug the lead into a power board with a 10 amp circuit breaker, then if by accident extras are turned on in the van which overload the lead, the circuit breaker will be triggered.

Some will say it is illegal, I've never seen the law on this, not even sure it exists.

Jim.

Bob
Very easy one this, run an extension cord to the van, unplug the fridge from it's socket and connect it to the extension cord.

There has been a lot of posts on the subject over the last couple years, you might find additional info in the archives

.

File down the earth pin or change it to a 10amp as suggested.

To the best of my knowledge on this topic, the only issue is that 10
?amp to 15 amp adaptor leads will be disconnected by proprietors of caravan parks and this is to save any possible litigation against them.

A 10 amp to 15 amp lead is quite safe providing the 240 volt power source is protected by a circuit breaker or fuse rated at 10 amps or less.

Using such an adaptor is no less safe than plugging in a 10 amp lead into a 15 amp socket, then overloading the circuit with high current draw appliances. There is nothing to stop someone plugging a 10 amp plug into a 15 amp socket (it will fit) and having a distribution board on the other end that has a toaster, bread machine, etc connected to it. It is possible to exceed the 10 amp rating of the lead but remain under the 15 amp rating of the caravan park outlet.

It is purely commonsense and in your own home an adaptor lead with a 10 amp plug on the supply end and a 15 amp socket to connect to the van is quite safe, providing the circuit is adequately protected from overload.

Bill

Have a look at archived threads 29011 and 45563 for previous discussions Bob. Pretty much the same info back then mate.
Fred.

you can buy a 10 anp 15 amp power cable from bunnings and home hardware.
shane.

Hi Bob V,

These devices (although seemingly a bit pricey) are apparently made to eliminate any problems. I haven't got one, nor tried one, just read about them recently.

http://www.coastlinetrading.com.au/ecommerce.php?ecompage=viewdetails&stockcode=AMP51-10&stk_group=Electrical%20-%20240%20Volt&stk_category=&keywords=&page=1

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Cheers

What a fabulous amount of replies, Thanks to everyone that has helped out ,surely this is what this whole forum is all about!!
BobV

Why not get a sparky in. Cost me $250 for a 15 amp socket at
power board with a circut breaker. Cheap compaired to the
cost of a new van

I made up the short - but very illegal - 10/15 adapter a while back and it works fine. But I was having some electrical work done at home the other week and chatted to the electrician about it. He quite rightly pointed out that my insurance company would scrap me if there was some sort of problem arising from it.

Cost me $100 bucks to get a 15 amp installed at the meter. I figure thats peanuts compared to losing a $300,000+ home - at my expense.

I always use one of those orange circuit thingos that have four outlets and a circuit breaker even on caravan parks as I don't trust some of their outlets and also when I use my genny which incidentally only has a 10 amp outlet. NOW, would using a genny that only has a 10 amp outlet be illegal? I also have been on caravan parks that only have 10 amp outlets.
On the other hand if you only want to cool your fridge down before going away, you can run it on gas for a while.

The only legal device I know of is this one:

http://www.amp-fibian.com/products.html

PeterD