RV Dog Bones And Adapters

Many times as you travel around the country you will find that you are in need of some sort of thingy that changes what you have into something you need.  This happens most often on the electrical side of your Rig.  If you have a 50 amp rig you may find that the campground you have only has 30 amp plug-ins.  Or you may want to plug in your power pedestal power analyzer into the 30 amp or 50 amp plug-in to be sure that it is safe you plug into your rig.






Let's see what these things look like and what they are used for.  First the RV Dog Bone.
The typical RV Dog Bone is an electrical adapter that changes a 50 amp RV plug so that it can plug into the 30 amp socket of a power pedestal. The 30 Amp Male to 50 Amp Female Dog Bone  looks like this;

30 Amp Male to 50 Amp Female Dog Bone  

Of course, there may be a time when you need to plug your 30 amp Rig power cable into a 50 amp power pedestal socket  The 50 amp Male to 30 amp Female Dog Bone looks like this;

 50 amp Male to 30 amp Female Dog Bone 

Plugging in you 30 amp RV into this adapter will not harm your Rig and will give you no more power than what you should have. The reason to do this is often the power socket on the power pedestal is worn or broken and the only good one is the one your power cord will not plug into.  These RV Power Dog Bones let you mix and match to get some power.
So you have stopped by Grandma's house to spend a few days and you need a way to plug your RV into her outside power socket so you can get some lights and keep the fridge going.  What do you need well you need a 15 Amp Male plug to 30 amp Female plug . This little gadget is shown below.

                                                15 Amp Male plug to 30 amp Female plug

While these may not be all the ones you will ever need this group will get you started and cover most of the situations that you will find.  One last bit of information the industry does make Y connector so that you can get 15 amp sockets from both 50 amp and 30 amp outlets from the power pedestal.  I have shown one type below.  I do not use these myself because where I camp has always had 15 amp sockets to plug into if I need to have 15 amps at the power pedestal.  If you have a blow-up boat or kayak you might need this type of Y Adapter with 50 Amp Male Plug To RV 30 Amp and 15/20 Amp Female Connector  Shown below is what it looks like;

Y Adapter with 50 Amp Male Plug To RV 30 Amp and 15/20 Amp Female Connector

I would like to cover the pedestal power combiner.  These devices combine the power outlets of the power pedestal to give you more amps.  For example, if you combine the power output of the 30 amp socket with the power output of the 15 amp socket on the power pedestal you would get 45 amps of power to work with.  Or at least that is the theory.  Again I do not use this type of device as my Open Range 5th Wheel is 50 amps.  But to be fair I am showing you the device. The 45 amp Power Maximizer  The unit is shown below;

The 45 amp Power Maximizer  

Here is a power dog bone that I use all the time.  It is a 50 Amp right angle power adapter that takes the stress off of the power plug mounted to the trailer

.50 Amp Right Angle Power Adapter

Here is the 30 Amp version as well.

30 Amp Right Angle Power Plug

Click on the name of the item to learn more. 


Until next time,

Please remember that this blog is an Amazon affiliate. When you order something through any of the Amazon links, it doesn’t add anything to your cost, but I do earn a small commission on everything you buy. Just click on an Amazon link, then shop as usual.

Water Out Of The Campground Faucet, YUCK!!

Well,  I suppose that most of you enjoy Artesian spring water with just a touch of Evian for good taste at your campground.  I know I do. NOT!!  While most city water is ok (well some is less than ok but just barely drinkable). Most campground water is not even ok but is drinkable.  With just a little bit of  DIY skills, you can improve your drinking, cooking, and shower water to be something to be proud of.  Enter the RV water filtration system.






Let's look at the simplest of these non-RV filtration systems and see what makes it filter.  The carbon/charcoal filter is the simplest of the non-RV water filters.  The filter holder can look like this

Culligan HF-150A Filter Holder

So how do you hook this blue thingy up to your RV?  You will need a few more simple parts.  The input and out put of the holder is 3/4" so any big box DIY store will have the needed plumbing parts.

You will need 3/4" Garden Hose to 3/4" Brass Coupler/Adapter  it looks like this

3/4" Garden Hose to 3/4" Brass Coupler/Adapter

This screws into the filter holder and allows the drinking water hose to hookup to it. (this attaches to the output of the filter holder)

For the input of the filter you will need a Female hose to Male pipe  It will look like the following.

Female hose to Male pipe 

You can mount the filter holder to the rig or you can just set it on the ground.  If you want to mount it you will need a Filter Mounting Bracket The filter mounting bracket will look like this.

Filter Mounting Bracket

You can use the bracket if you wish or just sit the filter canister on the ground.  Next, comes the Drinking Water Filter with Carbon  The filter comes in a two pack and looks like below.

 Drinking Water Filter with Carbon

So you are saying to yourself  why do I want to DIY this type of project when I can just go and buy one of these,

RV Water Filter

The answer is, that once the big blue filter is put together, you can get two of the filter replacement cartridges for big blue for less than one of the above filters.  Also, there is the chance of bacterial build up because, unless you are a full timer you are not using the filter enough.  With the replacement cartridges, you can just take it out and throw it away and use a new one next time you go out and you will still be saving money.

But wait there is more.

What if we add a second big blue filter?  Would we gain anything?  You bet.  So let's do it.

The two stage filter

For a two stage filter, you will need everything we listed for the one stage filter plus a 3/4" Brass Nipple that looks like this,

3/4" Brass Nipple - Length you must determine

You will need to measure the length that the nipple must be and buy one from one of the Big Box DIY stores. This nipple will be used between the blue filter cans and the other fittings will be the input and the output of the filters just as before.  You now have a chance to increase the filtering of your drinking water.  Now you will start to use Sediment Replacement Filter which looks like this,

Sediment Replacement Filter

A sediment filter gets rid of: sand, silt, dirt, rust particles and scale particles The park water should come into this filter first, then go through the Drinking Water Filter with Carbon and finally into your rig.  So now we are done, right?  Not so fast RVer slow down and keep reading.

The Triple RV Filter

With this type of filter system, you have the best possible filter system for still not a lot of money.  So what do you need?  Everything listed above plus an additional 3/4" Brass Nipple of the correct length to go between two more blue filter canisters.  Plus one more special type sediment filter the Special RV Filter which looks like this,

Special RV Filter

This special filter goes just before the Drinking Water Filter.  I know this looks like a lot of work but it really is not.  It is just a lot of hooking up of pipes to plastic.  You will need some Plumbers White Tape which looks like this,

Plumbers White Tape 

I would suggest getting several rolls as the tape tends to tangle and get wasted.  You will want to check for leaks after assembly by hooking up your filter system and be sure to let the water from the filter system to run on the ground for five minutes or until the water is running clear.  Some black pieces of carbon may come out onto the ground and this is normal.

Mounting the filters

You can use a 2"X 4" (2x4) of the length you need and mount the filter holders to that as a way of keeping them corralled together or you could mount them in one of the service bays on the rig. It is up to you.
The water you will get from the triple filter has to be drunk to be believed.  This system will not take pond water or salt water and make it drinkable.  This will, however, make city treated or treated well water taste just great.  And the wife's ice tea will be out of this world.






Until next time


And finally, please remember that this blog is an Amazon affiliate. When you order something through any of the Amazon links, it doesn’t add anything to your cost, but I do earn a small commission on everything you buy. Just click on an Amazon link, then shop as usual.