Do I need to add a circuit breaker to the outdoor panel that powers my RV?

Question

I purchased wooded undeveloped property and there is a box mounted on a pole with 200 amp service. The person before me tapped in to the box for his RV with 10-2 wire with the hot going directly to the lug coming off the main breakers. The neutral is also wired to a lug and the ground goes to a bus bar. There hot wire is not going to a 30 amp circuit breaker (for the RV). I believe I need to add a 30 amp breaker. Also I would like to add an outdoor outlet (110 v) from the box and would therefore need to add another 15 amp breaker. Is that correct?

I purchased a small bus bar from Home Depot. If I remove the Neutral lug, does this just screw in?

It looks as though if I flip the breaker bar off, everything below the breakers should not have current.

I appreciate the assistance and help from this more knowledgeable community.

Answer 1

Yes, you'll want a 30A breaker just to protect the RV.

Breakers protect wires. In the case of an RV, the internal wiring system is built to withstand onboard loads demanding 30A. But if an onboard load has a problem, or if the wiring has a problem, and it suddenly starts pulling 100A, the RV depends on that external breaker to trip. Otherwise you could have an RV fire.

Even if the RV has a little subpanel on board, most likely the subpanel is "oversubscribed" and it'd be possible for all circuits to run at max, trip no RV breakers and pull considerably more through the internal wiring between the panel and the shore power connection.