melting plug

Yep, the problem is in the cg's receptacle. If the contacts in the receptacle are not making good contact on both sides of each of the male prongs it is generating heat and will cause the problem. Sometimes folks will tell you to bend the male prongs out so it will fit tighter in the receptacle. That is totaling incorrect and will just compound the problem.

MNRon wrote:
Question for those wiser than me: If plug is melting (I assume he means one of the electrodes in the plug) that is evidence of too much heat at that point. That heat is caused by current and resistance, right?

IF the electrode has a solid connection into the socket why would a loose connection downstream cause that contact point to overheat? A short downstream would trip a breaker before current got crazy. A loose connection could cause lots of current spikes, potentially too short to trip a breaker, but I would expect the arcing (and associated heating/melting) to be at the point of the loose connection. If the plug electrode were solidly connected to the receptacle I wouldn’t think it would be a point of excessive heating.

With all that said, a plug connection will have some resistance but I would expect that to be much smaller than the resistance of the downstream intermittent connection. So again that is where I would expect arcing and melting.

Long way to say I think that if he’s having melting of his plug electrode, I would be looking for reasons it wasn’t making a solid connection and result in arcing there, not be looking first for downstream issues.

What am I missing?

Thank you. This is so obvious I was wondering if it was worth stating and you beat me to it. Some of the previous suggestions were so far out I am amazed! And yes, I agree the problem is at the plug and CG receptacle, not in the OP breaker panel, etc. Hopefully the OP can discern the wheat from the chaff.

Flute Man wrote:
Sounds like the park needs to replace or repair the socket in their pedestal. Poor connections cause heat.

This is the correct answer and it was the very first reply.

Question for those wiser than me: If plug is melting (I assume he means one of the electrodes in the plug) that is evidence of too much heat at that point. That heat is caused by current and resistance, right?

IF the electrode has a solid connection into the socket why would a loose connection downstream cause that contact point to overheat? A short downstream would trip a breaker before current got crazy. A loose connection could cause lots of current spikes, potentially too short to trip a breaker, but I would expect the arcing (and associated heating/melting) to be at the point of the loose connection. If the plug electrode were solidly connected to the receptacle I wouldn’t think it would be a point of excessive heating.

With all that said, a plug connection will have some resistance but I would expect that to be much smaller than the resistance of the downstream intermittent connection. So again that is where I would expect arcing and melting.

Long way to say I think that if he’s having melting of his plug electrode, I would be looking for reasons it wasn’t making a solid connection and result in arcing there, not be looking first for downstream issues.

What am I missing?

Not only cut back wire, but apply good coating of de-oxidation compound on wire connection points.

Also - when you replace the plug are you making sure you cut back the wire so that you eliminate any of the damaged/brittle wire?

WOW......three times melted plug

Problem is NOT at the power pedestal it is in your power cord OR Main Power Panel

Need to go thru the wire connections in Main Panel and TIGHTEN them UP
Might even find 'evidence' of overheating at connections

Hot wire to Main CB (Black)
Ground wire to terminal strip (Green)
NEUTRAL wire connedction (which is most likely loose) (White)

Dustin, are you referring to the same RV park plug or is this happening at more than one park?

I had my plug melt once. Turned out that the cord connection at the other end, IN my motorhome was loose. There were 2 loose screws causing the wires to not make solid connections. Causes a lot of heat. I noticed my whole cord was quite warm too.

As posters asked:

Always at same park (and pedestal)?

Happening at many different campgrounds? - (etc.)

Help out to determine if it's your problem - or theirs!

The 30amp pedestal connection is the most frequently used at parks, and often is not regularly replaced. The slots get "sloppy" and loose from usage over time. (often *years* of use!)

An easy solution is to use the 50amp pedestal outlet (assuming the pedestal has one) with a 50 to 30 amp adapter for a better connection.

.