Electric advice needed

one question.... you said at the beginning that the "right side / conductor" was black... but what is the right side? as you look at the plug with the pins facing you OR as you look at the receptacle with it plugged in... it makes quite a bit of different as you are either referring to the hot or neutral wire... IF its the hot, then possible you have high current at the time of plugging or unplugging. IF its the neutral, then you might be having a grounding issue somewhere that is drawing current (some) but not enough to cause the breaker to set.

budwich wrote:
one question.... you said at the beginning that the "right side / conductor" was black... but what is the right side? as you look at the plug with the pins facing you OR as you look at the receptacle with it plugged in... it makes quite a bit of different as you are either referring to the hot or neutral wire... IF its the hot, then possible you have high current at the time of plugging or unplugging. IF its the neutral, then you might be having a grounding issue somewhere that is drawing current (some) but not enough to cause the breaker to set.

It's the right pin as if I'm holding it towards me facing it.

Lemonhead78 wrote:


It's the right pin as if I'm holding it towards me facing it.

It does not matter one bit which one burned. The one with too much resistance will get hot.

Lemonhead78 wrote:
So.... if you guys were to take a guess. Is it my trailer causing this to happen ? I thought the breaker would just trip if too much draw. I do run everything on electric. Fridge , hot water , and air conditioner. I thought it's meant to be able to handle all that. In your guys opinion is it the camper or campground receptor.?

If you are running the A/C or a space heater near continuous I always recommend setting water and fridge to propane only so to avoid the headache of a burned cord end.

But generally I believe most crimped and moulded RV plugs are marginal at best. So if you run them at max rating at your own peril. I listed a premium replacement plug above.

I'd suggest to look at both the load center in your RV and the load center that is powering the receptacle you plug your shore cord into. Look at the circuit breakers and make sure they are rated at 30 amps. It is rare but there were single pole breakers made in higher amperage ratings. You don't want any higher than 30 amps.
If your new shore cord is failing, I'd suggest to replace the end with a quality after-market plug. Look for something that costs more than $10 at the big-box stores or at an electrical distributor. Look at your shore cord wires and make sure they are 10 AWG or 8 AWG.

The OP had a poor connection at the receptacle the cord was plugged into, plain and simple.

A poor connection causes resistance, and resistance causes heat and heat can lead to a meltdown. If the cord was new, the receptacle is def. the culprit. They get a lot of use & abuse. Plugging in live all the time causes pitting on the contact surfaces inside but you can't see inside them. Always check your plug blades periodically and ensure they're clean 'n shiny and use some emery cloth or sandpaper on them.

We were at a CG on the weekend and the receptacle was so loose the plug wouldn't stay in. The breaker wouldn't even work and turn on. They sent over their all-purpose handyman kid (in his 20s) and he put a new front on the pedestal box. Upon close inspection I noticed it was a used one that was in usable condition. The plug didn't fall out and breaker worked but when I went to unplug when breaking camp, I found the plug was rather hot. It never does that and the blades are in excellent condition so the replacement recept. was already in poor shape. Unfortunately, the NEC or local AHJ can't prevent a used replacement recept. or breaker from being installed.

We have a 30 to 30 amp 18" pigtail adapter for use when pedestal recepts. are in bad shape. That way, if it does overheat and melt only the adapter will get damaged.

valhalla360 wrote:


Funny thing is a 30 amp plug is only rated for 24 amp continuous load.

The breaker is also limited but it's variable exactly when it will pop if you are hovering right around the limit.

Nooooo... Sorry, but complete BS.

The plug on a 30 or 50 amp shore power cord (and the cord) is designed and UL listed to carry it's full rating indefinitely. Any molded case circuit breaker (like in a pedestal or panel at home) is also designed and UL listed to carry it's full rating indefinitely. A circuit breaker can even carry more than it's rating and the duration it can depends on for how long. Any electrical engineer can tell you this, it's electrical 101. This website has a standard time-current graph for breakers and explains tripping time for overloads and short circuits.

If a breaker cannot sustain it's rating, then it's simply time to replace it. Breakers in pedestals are often in climates where they are subjected to large swings in humidity and temp. season to season, plus they get a lot of wear from switching on and off all the time. However, it's not often anyone is going to be drawing near 30 amps for sustained periods of time. I installed an LED ammeter inside (along with voltmeter) and the current rarely gets much above about 20 amps.

Note that extension cords and adapters are not required to be UL listed and if buying new ones, avoid any that aren't UL listed as they could be made poorly made and lead to overheating.

If you have a detachable power cord, also ensure the blades at the twist lock power inlet are also kept clean 'n shiny. If it's an older shore power cord and it gets hot at the twist lock connector end (the female end), it may be time to replace the cord or connector.

Below are a couple of examples of damage from overheated shore power cords. Don't let this happen to you.

dup.

Two thing come to mind. 1. I melted a molded plastic adapter one time, so I switched to a hard plastic adapter. 2. I would check the breaker rating to see how much current caused the problem.

Chances are it is the receptacle heating up.

Also you can buy a plug to replace the one that melted at most Home Depot or Lowes stores.

Good Luck

If anyone is still reading this thread here's what I did. I called the campground that fried my last 2 chords. They were in complete denial. I explained I'm not asking for compensation I just wanted to let them know the last 2 sites we were on so they could check them. They weren't interested in the least. I do know they had a major fire last year that claimed 5 or 6 trailers. Again they couldn't be bothered by my phone call

Lemonhead78 wrote:
If anyone is still reading this thread here's what I did. I called the campground that fried my last 2 chords. They were in complete denial. I explained I'm not asking for compensation I just wanted to let them know the last 2 sites we were on so they could check them. They weren't interested in the least. I do know they had a major fire last year that claimed 5 or 6 trailers. Again they couldn't be bothered by my phone call

Standard procedure at most campgrounds, that is why you need to protect yourself as best you can. There were many suggestions in this thread, so re-read it.

If you are sure the receptacle is bad, get out a noisy generator, remove the muffler and use that till it is fixed. :W