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10-30 extension

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I am looking to figure out the charging solution at my son's house. They will be renting for another year. When they buy a house I will ensure they have a conveniently located 14-50, but till then I must choose between an easily available 110v or a 10-30 dryer plug which will require a 50 ft extension to get to their front door which the Tesla mobile cable can also reach.

Try as I might I have not been able to find a 10-30 extension cord that will work for an outlet that looks like this:

Steven dryer outlet.jpg


What I can find is an adapter from this page http://www.evseadapters.com/adapters-for-tesla-model-s.php that will bridge from a 10-30 outlet to a 14-50 extension cord, which are readily available and which can hook up to the Tesla mobile cable.


Does anyone have any experience with this?

Disclosure: I am aware that the Tesla manual advises against using extension cords. I am also aware that according to the forums, it has been successfully done a number of times.
 
Amazon has a 50-ft one for $189: NU-CORD 94561E 50-Feet 50-Amp Rv Extension Cord - Amazon.com

and a 30-ft for $100: Amazon.com: Camco 55195 50 AMP 30 Extension Cord with PowerGrip Handle: Automotive

I asked my wife to get me the 30-ft for Christmas, so I have it but haven't seen it out of the box yet. :) I also had her get me the NEMA 10 Universal Adapter from the page you referenced.


This Camco cable is very bulky, over kill really, as you don't need the fourth wire. There's a whole thread or two about this, that's very informative...

How to build a lightweight 50A extension cord
 
How much range will you need when you are at your son's house? If not a lot, then just using a normal 120V plug might work. Running an extension cord out the front door isn't a great solution. It is a tripping hazard with the possibility of plugs coming partially unconnected, with attendant connection heating problems.

But if you want to do it, then yes, that EVSE adapter plus a 14-50 extension cord will work, or as the other poster suggested, making your own 10-30 extension cord isn't too hard. You will not find a ready to buy 10-30 extension cord.
 
I am looking to figure out the charging solution at my son's house. They will be renting for another year. When they buy a house I will ensure they have a conveniently located 14-50, but till then I must choose between an easily available 110v or a 10-30 dryer plug which will require a 50 ft extension to get to their front door which the Tesla mobile cable can also reach.

Try as I might I have not been able to find a 10-30 extension cord that will work for an outlet that looks like this:

View attachment 37788

What I can find is an adapter from this page http://www.evseadapters.com/adapters-for-tesla-model-s.php that will bridge from a 10-30 outlet to a 14-50 extension cord, which are readily available and which can hook up to the Tesla mobile cable.


Does anyone have any experience with this?

Disclosure: I am aware that the Tesla manual advises against using extension cords. I am also aware that according to the forums, it has been successfully done a number of times.
I used a very similar, if not quite as long, set up just last weekend at my parent's home. I had purchased an adapter from EVSE adapters, but I purchased the NEMA 10 Universal Adapter which allows you to use it on a NEMA 10-30 or a NEMA 10-50, so it's a little more versatile. I connected that to a very heavy gauge NEMA 14-50 extension cord I got from Amazon and then to the UMC to the car. Worked without a hitch. I think I just have a 25-30' extension, but I think a 50' would work fine. You might need to dial down the amps just a little if you start popping breakers.
photo (1).JPG
 
I used a very similar, if not quite as long, set up just last weekend at my parent's home. I had purchased an adapter from EVSE adapters, but I purchased the NEMA 10 Universal Adapter which allows you to use it on a NEMA 10-30 or a NEMA 10-50, so it's a little more versatile. I connected that to a very heavy gauge NEMA 14-50 extension cord I got from Amazon and then to the UMC to the car. Worked without a hitch. I think I just have a 25-30' extension, but I think a 50' would work fine. You might need to dial down the amps just a little if you start popping breakers.

Always dial the current back to 80% of the breaker rating. If its an old breaker, consider 75%. I have tried cheating and setting the current to 85% on an old breaker and it popped after an hour. That is another reason to use the App and check on your charging every once in a while. Good Luck! :wink:

BTW, look at the actual breaker. I have found a couple of 10-50 range outlets that are fed by 40 Amp breakers; they saved a wire size during construction. I even plugged into a 14-30 that was fed by a 20 Amp breaker. In these cases, I set the MS current to 32 Amps and 16 Amps respectively and all was good.
 
Sorry to jump in so late, but do consider making a three wire #6 extension using 14-50 ends. Cut off the neutral prong and fill the neutral slot with epoxy so that it can not be used by an RVer. After it is no longer needed at your son's place, keep it in the car, as it could come in handy at an RV park. And with the neutral prong gone, you can use it with a 14-30, 14-50, and 14-60 receptacle.

Those 50 Amp RV cords are heavy and very inflexible.
 
Sorry to jump in so late, but do consider making a three wire #6 extension using 14-50 ends. Cut off the neutral prong and fill the neutral slot with epoxy so that it can not be used by an RVer. After it is no longer needed at your son's place, keep it in the car, as it could come in handy at an RV park. And with the neutral prong gone, you can use it with a 14-30, 14-50, and 14-60 receptacle.

Those 50 Amp RV cords are heavy and very inflexible.

I will second Bill on this -- I had the 30' Camco RV cable and it's a beast! I sold it, bought 50' of 6/3 SO and made my own extension cord. It's quite simple and very cost effective (and MUCH lighter weight). I did end up using 6-50 ends, but I've got pigtails made to get me from 6-50 to 14-50/14-30 and 10-50/10-30.
 
Sorry to jump in so late, but do consider making a three wire #6 extension using 14-50 ends. Cut off the neutral prong and fill the neutral slot with epoxy so that it can not be used by an RVer. After it is no longer needed at your son's place, keep it in the car, as it could come in handy at an RV park. And with the neutral prong gone, you can use it with a 14-30, 14-50, and 14-60 receptacle.

Those 50 Amp RV cords are heavy and very inflexible.

Interesting thought Bill, but the plug alignment between a 14-30 and a 14-50 is slightly off. I'm not sure a 14-50 plug would fit a 14-30 outlet. Have you tried this?
 
If you remove the neutral pin (which the Model S UMC doesn't use) they are the same plug.

In fact, you can buy plug kits that contain both 30 and 50 Amp neutral pins and you decide which to put in.

In my bag of Tesla Charging tricks, I have a 14-x plug that will go into a 30 or 50 Amp outlet. It had a lot of red warnings on it, "For Tesla Charging Only," and I don't let anyone else use it.
 
I have gone all the way and removed the neutral pin from the Tesla 14-50 UMC adapter.

NOTE: If you use any of the mentioned jury rigs with the Tesla 14-50 adapter, the car will still see a 40 Amp pilot, so you must dial down the charge rate as appropriate. e.g. 24 Amps for a 14-30 on a 30 Amp breaker.
 
I have gone all the way and removed the neutral pin from the Tesla 14-50 UMC adapter.

NOTE: If you use any of the mentioned jury rigs with the Tesla 14-50 adapter, the car will still see a 40 Amp pilot, so you must dial down the charge rate as appropriate. e.g. 24 Amps for a 14-30 on a 30 Amp breaker.

And does that pin just pop out? Not connected to anything inside the moulding? That's actually a pretty good idea.
 
Interesting thought Bill, but the plug alignment between a 14-30 and a 14-50 is slightly off. I'm not sure a 14-50 plug would fit a 14-30 outlet. Have you tried this?

I chose a different path to get a 3 wire solution. I just bought a 6-50 extension cord as it only has 3 conductors. Finding a 14-50P to 6-50R pigtail adapter is easy. Now you have a 3 wire fat cable without having to hack anything. The pigtail allows you to plug into a RV outlet without passing on the Neutral through the extension cord. Some of the ambiguity is removed this way and getting a 6-50 UMC connector is just as easy as getting a 14-50 connector. 6-50 is used for many ranges and for arc welders, etc.
 
And does that pin just pop out? Not connected to anything inside the moulding? That's actually a pretty good idea.
I used a Dremel tool to cut the neutral pin. Connected to anything in the adapter? Gee, I hope not.:scared:

I'm quite sure it is OK, as I use the modified adapter with a true 14-50 (all 4 wires) and it is just the same as before. The reason I cut the neutral pin, is so I can use it with my 3 wire 14-50 extension cord. It has the neutral slot stuffed with epoxy so it can not be used as an RV cord.
 
I think I would just use a 6/3 SOOW cable and put the NEMA 10-30 plug and receptacle on the ends.

Then, it will just plug in and send the proper 24 amp continuous signal to the UMC. You'll need the "old style dryer" plug for the UMC, too. By using 6/3 conductors, the same cable can be used in the future for 40 amps continuous.

I would not count on remembering to dial down to 24 amps every time I plugged in with a 10-50 or 14-50 plug.
 
I was able to buy some nice 10 gauge flexible wire to make an extension cord. In my case I first replaced my 10-30 outlet with a NEMA 14-30 which is the current standard since a ground wire was available. The ACE hardware store also had a nice female plug so I basically made a 20 foot 30A extension cord. Despite a lot of searching I could not find any NEMA 14-30 extension cords. I used that for about six months until I finally got my HPWC installed.