It happened again!!!!

[Trailer Trash 2]

Well the last time out with our Monty that 30 amp plug got toasted again,






My new yellow plug
It got so hot, it melted the soder on the the white lead, I sodered it with the bend so it would not frey and come loose.
I'm getting tired of fixing these plugs so I went to the RV office and complained, and stated it was unsafe, they sent an electrican to my spot like right now, this is what he found wrong with my power box 30 amp. reciptal.



Note the big wires that were shorting out he said it was a good thing I didnt use the 50 to 30 pigtail it could have done some damage, the black and white leads were going to cooking party.

I posted this for those Like me, that don't know to much about the inners of a power boxes so if you plug starts to look like mine you will know what to do.

[Longwell]

Wow! Thanks for the posting and the pictures. I'm glad you didn't get any more damage than that.
I'm not an electrician, so it's good to know what you found when that happened.
Thanks for the "heads up."
Larry

[TheCoachPotatoes]

Wow, that's a real eye opener! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad nothing more serious happened. You sure have been having some bad luck lately. Hope things start turning around for you.

[ols1932]

Another thing you want to watch out for when you go into campgrounds is the receptacle in the CG power pedestal. If it is the slightest bit charred, don't plug in. Many campers never turn off the breaker when they are unplugging or plugging in. This often causes arcing (which you may or may not see). Also, I caution everyone who plugs in to any source of power to make sure the terminals on their cables are clean (I keep mine clean with emery cloth, sharp knife, or steel wool) and the connections are maintained tight. If there is looseness in the connection, heat builds up. That's why it is recommended that you use as few connections (cables, adapters, autoformers, surge guards, etc.) as necessary. Every connection is subject to heating.

Additionally, as a precaution, I periodically check all my neutral connections in my converter box. If a neutral becomes loose, heat will be created. Working with the Escapees RV Club, we have run into just about every electrical problem you can think of. We had one circuit breaker panel that had a loose neutral connection that burned up all the neutral connections in the panel.

I had a Surge Guard that had to have both the male and female plugs replaced because of some bad connections. Just my experiences.

Orv

[simonsrf]

Wow, never thought of those problems. Replaced my pigtail recently because it was blackened. I thought it was because maybe I hadn't turned the power off before plugging it in/out. This was noticed after I had no power at 11:00 pm when the temperature was near 100. Of course, at that time of night there was no one to help, so I plugged my burnt pigtail and cord into the pedestal next door. Worked just fine, and got the air conditioner back on.

The next morning I talked with maintenance about the problem with the pedestal on my site. This (idiot) looked at the pigtail and told me the burnt spot was the problem. So, when I asked him why it worked in the other pedestal, he looked at me and said that the burnt pigtail was the problem..(?)

I bought a new pigtail, but the rest of the entire stay, I refused to plug it into any other pedestal....where do these stupid, illogical, maintenance people come from?

TT2, thanks for the heads up, but does this mean I need to take the receptacle plug apart to be able to see if it is properly functioning? Shouldn't the park replace your pigtail because of the faulty wiring?

[Bill DeMeulle]

Thanks for sharing Don,was this at a local park? I need to get a surge protector, so that won't happen to me.

Bill

[Trailer Trash 2]

quote:Originally posted by Bill DeMeulle

Thanks for sharing Don,was this at a local park? I need to get a surge protector, so that won't happen to me.

Bill

Bill I dont know if a surge protector would prevent this from happining, if you look at the third picture you can see where the problem was in the supply tower, those two wires melted together. But we'll soon find out from another that will know weather it will stop this from happining, me I say NO.