My Airbnb charging kit

[krockett]

I essentially have this kit as well, but with the Teslatap Mini.

My wife drives a Tesla, so we already have their mobile charger. So, in hindsight, I wish I got the Tesla NEMA adapter bundle and NACS extender - https://a.co/d/hIlN5Is. It is pricier overall but offers far more flexibility for all the plugs/outlets, and increased charge rate when available. Better built in safety as well with the Tesla charger regulating draw. One negative is max length extension is 20 ft or so.

The extra cost to get closer to 100% vs 80% makes it worth it IMO. That said, I’m already invested in my setup and the need for changing things up lessens more once we can Supercharger it up on our travels.

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[wertuio]

Thank you, @jeeden! Just bought the whole kit.
This community is fantastic.

 

[feifan]

I bought the 14-50R adapter (30am to 50amp) thinking that it would be straightforward to adapt a 30amp outlet to the 50amp plug that the Rivian charger ships with … and found out the hard way that it doesn't work — the Rivian charger doesn't light up with this setup. Maybe something to do with the lack of a ground pin.

@jeeden have you tested whether you can go from a 14-30 outlet → 14-30R adapter you listed → 14-30P to 14-50R adapter you listed → mobile charger (i.e. chaining the adapters, without using the extension cord you listed)?

 

[jeeden]

I bought the 14-50R adapter (30am to 50amp) thinking that it would be straightforward to adapt a 30amp outlet to the 50amp plug that the Rivian charger ships with … and found out the hard way that it doesn't work — the Rivian charger doesn't light up with this setup. Maybe something to do with the lack of a ground pin.

@jeeden have you tested whether you can go from a 14-30 outlet → 14-30R adapter you listed → 14-30P to 14-50R adapter you listed → mobile charger (i.e. chaining the adapters, without using the extension cord you listed)?

So I have used the 14-30P to 14-50R adapter and I tried it with and without the extension cord when I first got them successfully. Remember I bought these adapters to be able to tap dryer outlets in houses. That's important for when I'm about to say below.

Something that caught my eye is the first link you have above that you say you bought that is 30 amp to 50 amp. Is that the exact link of what you bought? Because that link goes to the 30 amp that is actually a TT-30p plug. I don't know much about those, some others here could comment that know about trailers but it's my understanding that that tt-30 is a 30 amp outlet for a 120 volt circuit not a 240 volt circuit (even though the 14-50 side would be able to handle 240). I believe the only place that these types of outlets are used are in RV parks. From what I've seen people post on the forums, these were the original way for RVs and trailers to tap power at these parks. Basically it's the same as a regular home outlet but is 30 amp instead of 15 amp. As time has gone on those giant RVs need a lot more power and they all have 240 volt 14-50 outlets. I guess some of the RV parks still have the old style as well but from what I've seen they are usually underpowered and not on very robust wiring made for continuous use.

Are you trying to use this adapter and an RV park?

If I'm correct about it being a 120 volt plug I would imagine you're confusing the Rivian by plugging a 30 amp 120 volt plug into the 240 14-50 plug on the mobile charger. I guess that RVs aren't bothered by this or they wouldn't make such an adapter? The Rivian is expecting 240 volt because the charger has the 14-50 connector snapped into it and it's only getting 120v

I'm way out of my lane here now but if that is the case then I think you could still make THAT work (I know some here have used a tt-30 adapter at RV parks that don't have 14-50.. I don't know anything about RVs though) but you need to snap the 110 plug on the Rivian charger and connect to that. I think you would need to get a TT-30 to 120 volt adapter. I can't imagine they make a 14-50 to 120 volt adapter that allows you to adapter this adapter because that would allow somebody the ability to adapt from 240 volt power to 120 volt power which would do really bad things. (And make it a mess if adapters) I can see adopting lower voltage to higher voltage but not the other way around for safety.

I don't know if I explained this well... I see the beginnings of a quick reference guide with pictures forming in my head

 

[jeeden]

No TT-30P -> NEMA 14-50R EV in case the AirBnB has an outside TT-30R RV socket?

Do you know if that would work with the Rivian charger with the 14-50 plug on the charger re the question above? I though you might know since.you send it on the first page.

 

[feifan]

Ah ha, that definitely sounds plausible. The first link I posted is the thing I got. I didn't notice it at the time I bought it/I didn't know TT-30 was a separate thing from NEMA 14-30, but I see now in the listing that it does specify 125 volts. And yeah, I was trying to use this at an RV park.

In my case, the mobile charger didn't even light up — no white or red light.

 

[Cycliste]

Do you know if that would work with the Rivian charger with the 14-50 plug on the charger re the question above? I though you might know since.you send it on the first page.

Adapters for EV Chargers with NEMA 14-50 Plug

https://www.evseadapters.com/collections/adapters-for-tesla/

https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30p-to-nema-14-50r-ev-adapter/

I also search for AirBnB properties that list EV charging availability if I’ll be driving my truck there. I especially like it if the owner shows a photo of the charging setup. If I have questions, I message the owner.

 

[jeeden]

Ah ha, that definitely sounds plausible. The first link I posted is the thing I got. I didn't notice it at the time I bought it/I didn't know TT-30 was a separate thing from NEMA 14-30, but I see now in the listing that it does specify 125 volts. And yeah, I was trying to use this at an RV park.

In my case, the mobile charger didn't even light up — no white or red light.

Adapters for EV Chargers with NEMA 14-50 Plug

https://www.evseadapters.com/collections/adapters-for-tesla/

https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30p-to-nema-14-50r-ev-adapter/

I also search for AirBnB properties that list EV charging availability if I’ll be driving my truck there. I especially like it if the owner shows a photo of the charging setup. If I have questions, I message the owner.

Based on the adapters he listed here it seems like people use the adapter type successfully. feifan, are you sure that the socket you trying to plug into had the power turned on? Maybe the RV park keeps them turned off to make sure that people pay extra or something? Maybe you tripped the breaker right away for it If you didn't drop the amps on the Rivian or the breaker was already tripped because they often get rained on, old equipment, etc?

If the mobile charger didn't light up at all and didn't even give an error light I feel like the outlet you plugged into maybe didn't have power

 

[Cycliste]

Caution: Other similar adapters available elsewhere are made for RV use and will not work for EV charging as they are wired differently. Our adapters are specially designed for electric vehicle charging, and should work with most EV charging systems.

TT-30P to 14-50R adapters can be wired for RV use, or wired for EV charging use. You have to get the correct one. Most campgrounds now have 14-50 outlets that you just plug the mobile charger into using the 14-50 plug from Rivian.

As usual, electricity is magic and you have to use the right incantation. Or you get turned into a newt. I am not a magician.

 

[feifan]

are you sure that the socket you trying to plug into had the power turned on? Maybe the RV park keeps them turned off to make sure that people pay extra or something? Maybe you tripped the breaker right away for it If you didn't drop the amps on the Rivian or the breaker was already tripped because they often get rained on, old equipment, etc?

I thought about that — I had the manager check the outlet with a tester, which lit up. I also tried preemptively dropping the amps in the car to 20 amps before plugging in, which didn't help either.

The adapter Cycliste listed says "Other similar adapters available elsewhere are made for RV use and will not work for EV charging as they are wired differently. Our adapters are specially designed for electric vehicle charging" — not sure whether that's a real technical difference, but it plausibly could be?

 

[feifan]

Ah, found a possible explanation:

they are not wired the right way,
and the car will just see 0 volts.

Here's what those camping adapters are doing:
- The devices in the mobile homes are not really using the 240V voltage difference
across the Hot1 and Hot2 of a 14-50 outlet.
They just have a lot of 120V devices, but they don't want to overdraw that from one single wire,
so they have access to basically two different 120V circuits in that outlet to spread the load.

The TT-30 is a single 120V connection with just one hot and a neutral for the voltage.
So they're providing the gimped low power version by providing that
one hot wire onto both "hot" sides of a 14-50 outlet for the mobile home to connect to.

So the mobile home will be fine drawing from that, going from either side to the neutral for 120V,
but will need to use less total current. Teslas, however, are trying to get a voltage difference
across the Hot1 and Hot2 pins, so when they see the same thing on both sides,
it's just 0V, and it can't do anything.

So all these adapters made for EVs are taking the Hot and neutral from the TT-30
and putting those where they don't exactly belong, on the Hot1 and Hot2 pins of the 14-50,
so the EV can see a voltage to use.

 

[jeeden]

Ah, found a possible explanation:

Ah! There you go! That must have been it.

 

[feifan]

I'll get a new TT-30P to 14-50R adapter and report back the next time I find a TT-30 outlet.

 

[VSG]

Ah ha, that definitely sounds plausible. The first link I posted is the thing I got. I didn't notice it at the time I bought it/I didn't know TT-30 was a separate thing from NEMA 14-30, but I see now in the listing that it does specify 125 volts. And yeah, I was trying to use this at an RV park.

In my case, the mobile charger didn't even light up — no white or red light.

You got the wrong adapter. Return it. That is for RVs. You want one for EVs. They are wired differently.

I use this adapter for charging from a TT-30 outlet at RV parks using my Rivian Portable Charger: https://www.amazon.com/Parkworld-885378A-Adapter-TT-30P-14-50R/dp/B07G2MT4T6
I have successfully used it several times.


*IMPORTANT*
You absolutely need to turn down the current from the charging screen on your Rivian. When you use an adapter like this, you are essentially fooling the Rivian Portable Charger - the Rivian Charger thinks it is plugged into a 14-50 so it will default to 32 amps. THAT IS TOO MUCH for a TT-30 outlet! When using a TT-30 adapter like this you cannot draw more than 24 amps (= 30 * 0.8). You need to set your Rivian to draw no more than 24 amps.

 

[Ohm Boy]

Based on the original post, I purchased a GearIt Tesla Destination to J1772 adaptor. I just used it for the first time this past weekend and it was fabulous. The quality is really good - it does not seem at all cheap. Given that it is just under $70, as compared to at least $170 for a TeslaTap, it is an extremely good value. It doesn’t have the amp oomph of some/all of the TeslaTap adapters, but I pretty much only use destination chargers in overnight charging situations.

So thank you for the recommendation!!

Ohm Boy

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