UPDATE Splicing 30A plug to 50 amp cord

wolfe10 wrote:

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:
The plug on the 50 A cord is showing signs of extended heating--rubber pulled away slightly from the metal prongs on both hots and the neutral. The U ground is OK. The 50A cord is hot only for the foot or two nearest the plug.

The above in the very first post.

That is why the short term solution (in Mexico with few RV part available) is to splice the 30 amp male (adapter) to the good wire of the 50 amp shore power cord.

Yes, preference to do the splicing in a junction box, but could also "sleeve" the splice with shrink wrap as a second choice.

This is NOT rocket science. Many of us have made hundreds of electrical splices/connections and are still alive to tell about it.

Very likely the problem is the prong to wire connection(s)in the 50 amp male end.

And, when back in the states, can just install a new 50 amp male end.

OK, a few comment to update:

I did change to a different 50--30 dogbone yesterday and after cleaning the plug terminals didn't make much difference. Last evening I changed to a shiny new dognone that I had as a spare.

Today: Similar air temps. Lowest I saw the voltage was 108, running generally about 110 to 113, drawing 16 to 17 Amps. Ha! HP just switched off: live voltage up from 113 to 119

When it started this morning both compressors were running, drawing 25 Amps. For the rest of the day just one compressor is on. I haven't been able to catch the instantaneous voltage or current on compressor start up but once this afternoon I notice that the Xantrex Prosine 2.0 went into invert mode for a couple of seconds when the heatpump started. The Xantex is good for 3 kw for 20 or 30 seconds and provides 118V. (The inverter will cut off power and switch to invert if incoming is too high or too low)

Yesterday temps on the sided of the 50A plug using the IR temp gauge was 98 to 100 deg F. A few feet away the cord was at ambient (about 78 if I recall correctly.

Today, temps were 92 and 77 This using the new dogbone.

When the day cools down this evening I'll pull the plugs and take some photos.

IF I do need to cut off the 50A plug I'll do an inline splice, similar to a linesmans splice and solder, heatshrink and tape using the cut off male 30A end and cable from the old dogbone.

I'm hoping I can get a new 50A plug brought down in a couple of weeks


Time2roll: I'm unlikely to need the heatpump for heat down here--our overnight lows are all of 66 degrees. Inside the rig it may get down to 70. I just wear jeans and perhaps a long sleeve shirt until 9 o'clock or so. :B