Hi John,
Thank you for your comments.
My thinking was that any vehicle having a permanently-installed electrical system that's cord-connected to primary power should conform to some code or another. The 551 definition for "travel trailer" seemed to be a pretty good match except for the term "living quarters," which is what caused me to look at 551.4(A). If you're correct that 551 doesn't apply, then that makes things simpler.
The electrical was installed about ten years ago, pretty decently. There are two cords attached to the panelboard: a 10/4 with L14-30P for the portable (external) generator, and a 12/3 with a 5-15P for shore power. A 2-pole 30 A switch wired into the panel selects the source. I'm not happy with this arrangement, partly because seeing even a dead cord with a male plug on the end of it sticking out of a live panel gives me the screaming heebee-jeebies, but also because we can only safely utilize 15 amps on shore power.
What's got me looking more closely is that at the station the 12/3 shore power cord is being plugged into a 120-volt, 30-amp RV receptacle with an adaptor - not a safe situation! It's also unsafe because there are some multiwire circuits, and the neutrals aren't protected when that source is switched onto both phases at the panel.
The attached cords are definitely going to go. The trick will be how to fully utilize either the 120/240-volt, 30A generator power -or- the 120-volt, 30A RV power.
Thanks again,
John
