15 amp to 50 amp power adapter

While staying at our Washington home base, we “moochdocked”, plugging our coach in to the house power.

15 amp power from a house isn’t enough to run air conditioners or multiple heavy-draw gadgets like the microwave, but is enough to keep our fridge going, power computers, and keep the batteries charged for the 12 volt lights and such.

To do this, I previously used a 15-to-30 amp adapter and a 30-to-50 amp adapter (“dogbone”). But this time I bought an adapter that goes straight from the 15 amps to 50 amps plugs, along with a surge protector:

15-to-50 amp adapter

I also bought a heavy-duty 30-foot, 50-amp extension cord to reach from inside the house to our coach (in addition to the cord on the reel built in to the coach):

Extension cord

I plugged the power cord from our coach into my Power Watchdog smart surge protector, as usual, then connected that to the extension cord, which went through a window into the house:

Cable through window

And into the adapter, which was plugged in to an outlet in the house:

Plugged in to house

(We did try plugging in to an outside outlet, but it popped the breaker, as that was on the same circuit as a freezer in the garage.)

We had to be careful not to use too much power at a time. The Power Watchdog was useful in monitoring this, since it has an app that connects via Bluetooth that shows the current power usage. But we managed.

Staying at campgrounds, we won’t need this adapter and extension cable, but useful to have when moochdocking.

Baseball: Ferry to Seattle, Mariners team store

We took the fast ferry from Bremerton to Seattle, Washington, to go to the Mariners team store, and walk a little around the city.

Fast ferry

Lumen Field for feetball:

Lumen Field

T-Mobile Park baseball field:

T-Mobile Park

Mariners Team Store:

Mariners Team Store

Pioneer Square and environs:

Pioneer Square

MOD Pizza for dinner:

MOD Pizza

Seattle

Skylight for underground area:

Skylight for underground

Seattle

Line for ferry:

Line for ferry

Glimpse of stadiums:

Glimpse of stadiums

Baseball: Seattle Mariners vs Chicago White Sox

We took Mom to a Seattle Mariners baseball game.

T-Mobile Park:

T-Mobile Park

Jenn with a picture of her hero, Cal Raleigh:

Jenn with a picture of her hero, Cal Raleigh

View from the club level:

View from the club level

Media booths:

Media booths

Pizza:

Pizza

Mariner Moose:

Moose

Play ball!

Salute to the Negro Leagues Day:

Salute to the Negro Leagues Day

Closed roof:

Closed roof

Home run!

Home run trident:

Home run trident

Baseball

Line for food (fairly fast moving):

Line for food

Stands

Fish and chips:

Fish and chips

Baseball

Retro sailboat race:

Sailboat race

Baseball

Selfie:

Selfie

Panorama:

Panorama

Baseball

Moose

Baseball

Our Washington home

We stayed at our official domicile, aka Mom’s house, in Shelton, Washington.

It was good to be home! An opportunity to catch up on dentists, doctors, optometrists, etc, and of course with family.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-06-11
Check out: 2023-06-25
14 nights

Weather:

Partly cloudy, a little drizzle
High temps ranging between 64-83°F, lows around 47-53°F
Wind gusts to 26 MPH in the area, though much less when sheltered amongst trees

Noise:

No road noise
No train noise
Occasional neighbor noise

Site:

Front in, gravel and concrete
Disconnected toad; parked next to coach
Fairly level

Utilities:

Only 15 amp power from the house
27 PSI water from the house (just used to top up tank)
No sewer

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 12-37 Mbps down, 8-23 Mbps up, 32-50 ms ping
House Wi-Fi: 12 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
AT&T: 13 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Verizon: 16-26 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 53-84 ms ping
T-Mobile: no service

Amenities:

House

Our coach parked in front of the house:

Coach parked in front of the house

A pile of packages waiting for us:

A pile of packages waiting for us

Video

Video: Ocean City to Shelton, Washington motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 80+ miles from Ocean City to Shelton, Washington.

Travel from Ocean City to Shelton, Washington

We drove our coach 80+ miles, about two hours of driving, from Ocean City, Washington to our home base in Shelton, Washington.

Here’s the map route, heading north (exact destination omitted for privacy):

Route

Interactive map (to Shelton instead of our actual destination):

We had no sewer at the campground, and hadn’t been particularly careful, so our grey and black tanks were both very full, as indicated on the main control panel:

Control panel with full grey and black tanks

We dumped the tanks on the way out (I didn’t get any photos of that, as there was a line).

But before that, here’s our coach preparing to leave; if you look closely, you’ll see the step partway closed; I had just closed the door, as water was dripping from the slide topper:

Our coach preparijng to leave

A closer view of the dripping water; that always happens after it has rained:

Dripping water from slide topper

On our way, with a curvy road (kinda looks like the Sinclair Trails logo!):

Curvy road

Chehalis River delta:

Chehalis River delta

Paladin watching my iPad:

Paladin watching iPad

Hoquiam:

Hoquiam

A rather narrow bridge; we drove down the center of the two lanes:

Narrow bridge

Artwork:

Artwork

International Mermaid Museum:

International Mermaid Museum

Mural:

Mural

More bridges:

Bridge

A fiver pulled over after a tire blowout:

Fiver with a tire blowout

The Elma rest area, with four lanes of dump stations:

Rest area with dump stations

A very spacious rest area:

Spacious rest area

Bear artwork:

Bear artwork

Entering Mason County, our home county:

Entering Mason County

Exit to Shelton:

Exit to Shelton

Shelton

We’re not a fan of this narrow bridge, but it’s doable:

Narrow bridge

Rail bridge work:

Rail bridge work

Bay:

Bay

Flagpole for Starlink dish

The Starlink service is a great option when we don’t have cellular service (or when we only have a network with limited data). But not so great when there are trees or other obstacles that block the signal.

RVs with a ladder will often use a FlagPole Buddy kit, that enables mounting a flagpole on the ladder. But our coach doesn’t have a ladder, so I needed a different solution.

Inspired by a post by Rick in my Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners community on Facebook, I purchased a 20 foot telescoping flagpole and accessories to mount it on our coach, so we can raise the dish above our coach, giving it a better chance of a clear signal.

Another nice benefit of this system is that I can position the pole and dish anywhere around the coach, to have the most clear view of the satellites.

I bought the items Rick suggested:

20 foot telescoping flagpole from Harbor Freight
TEYOUYI adapter bushing for Starlink from Amazon
FCHO glass suction cups from Amazon
Wrap-It heavy duty velcro straps from Amazon

Flag pole, adapter, velcro, suction cups

Dish

To attach the adapter to the flagpole, I removed the two screws that hold the top of the flagpole on, then the adapter simply slips in. I used the same screws to attach the adapter, only screwing one of them in partway, to avoid intruding into the tube space:

Bushing adapter

The Starlink dish simply slides into the adapter and clicks in place on the pole:

Dish on the pole

On this occasion, I put the Starlink modem in the wet bay, running the cord through the hose space:

Modem in wet bay

The cable and the flagpole sitting on the ground:

Cable

Suction cups and velcro straps holding the flagpole:

Suction cups and velcro straps holding flag pole

The dish has a nice clear view of the sky:

Dish

The dish on the flagpole:

Pole and dish

Later, the flagpole with the Starlink dish and a Mariners flag, mounted at the front of the coach:

Flagpole with Starlink dish and Mariners flag

With a US flag:

Flagpole with Starlink dish and US flag

At another campground, mounted lower without a flag (more stable that way):

Starlink on flagpole

Second anniversary of buying our motorhome

Today marks the two year anniversary of purchasing our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome!

Check out the one year anniversary post for a tour of what the coach was like when we bought it. One day I’ll get around to doing an updated tour; much has changed.

Here are some previously unpublished pictures of the exterior of our coach from when we first saw it and paid a downpayment, contingent on an inspection:

Our coach

And at our first campground with the coach, on the day we paid the remainder, and took possession — two years ago today:

Our coach

We’ve certainly put lots of miles on the coach since then! We’ve explored a lot, and changed a lot of things on the coach. What will the next two years bring? Follow along on our travels!

Olympic National Park beaches and rainforests

Last year we visited some eastern parts of Olympic National Park in Washington state. This year, we visited several western parts of the park, including beaches and rainforests.

Quinault River Ranger Station:

Quinault River Ranger Station