Handling the 50 AMP Power Cord

[Capt Kidd]

I have mine coiled up in a plastic bin but never use it when it is cold.

What I did was buy a 25 foot 30 amp to use. Much easier in cold weather and so far we have not needed more than 30 amps.

When we travel back to the mid west this summer we will probably want the 50 amp so that we can use both AC units.

[Waynem]

On our 3400RL it came with the laundry basket. When I traded in the 3400 the laundry basket did not go with it. When coiling it up, instead of pulling the entire cord across the ground, I would gather up the far end and walk it back to the basket. Then, I was only pulling half the cord across the ground. I just twisted the cord as I was putting it into the basket and it assumed its natural coil. The basket was easy to pick up and put into the basement.

Good luck.

[patbarton]

quote:Originally posted by GregN

The 50amp cord is a bit difficult to coil up when it is cold.

Now THERE'S an understatement! Most of the time I plug an adapter into the Monty and go to a 30-amp cable. The majority of places I've camped at so far haven't had 50-amp service anyway, and if I happen to need the juice and have 50-amp service available, I switch to the big fat cable...

[jackel1959]

Like Capt Kidd we have a 25' 30A Marinco cord and use that instead of the 50A beast. We currently only have one A/C and have not yet run into a situation where we found that we MUST use the 50.

r,
Jack

[Dave Nowlin]

I have an oval shaped laundry basket that contains a standard water hose, Apotable water hose on a reel, Tv cable and the power cord. When I arrive at my destination and get the fiver situated I remove the basket out and start hooking things up. Everything but the water filter and sewage hose is in that basket.

[bobsals]

Greetings, my 50 amp cord is in my garage attic! I went to my friendly electrical supply store and bought 25' of 10-3 flexible power cord (lightewight)and put new ends on it. It's just slightly heavier than our 30 amp cord but sooooo much easier to handle than that "boa" of a 50 amp cord.

[Sinterior]

I use a 30 amp cord with a 50 amp plug on the trailer end, Marinko I think.
When we use the 50 amp cord when it's cold (rarely, unless we are in the South for the winter) I put it uncoiled in Monty for 30-45 minutes with the furnace on 70 or so as I unhook everything else and hitch up, and Terry does the inside things, works like a charm to coil up.
As a side note, to make water hoses more flexible, I pour hot water through them.

[kramperD]

Some excellent ideas....thanks!

[sreigle]

We also carry a 25' 30A cord and adapters and use that when we can. But sometimes the 50A is necessary, like when we'll be running the washer and dryer and an air conditioner or electric heaters. Or we need both AC units running. Etc. But when we can we use the 30A cord.

[Hooker]

I put mine in that laundry basket that came with it for a couple of years, then decided to try it w/o the basket. Much easier, coil it up, as best you can, and put in in the front compartment. That way if it's dirty or wet or both, you have a painted metal floor with slots...all the crud and water will not hurt, and the water will drain off.

On edit...my new SOB MH has a 50 amp cord. However, it is very easy to roll and store, even on cold mornings. I think the rubber is different, and much softer...and probably cost more.

[farmboy]

Mine is in the truck bed while traveling and in use when I stop over nite. No Wal-Mart over nites for me.

[akf15e]

Lots of great ideas - I may try some of them. Or....I may be lazy and just keep tossing it into the bed of the truck like I do now!

[Rondo]

Butch-- That's a pretty fancy campsite you have there in the picture! I'm presuming it's a permanent site somewhere! OK, sorry for deviating from the subject!

[tim43]

That site where Butch's rig is parked looks like spot at the New Bern KOA.

[NCFischers]

It is the New Bern KOA.

[Rondo]

Still a nice site even for a KOA!

[akf15e]

Affirmative - shake down cruise in our (then) new Monty to New Bern, NC. Got to meet Jim (NCFischer) while we were there as well - and see his monster garage! Sorry for the continued thread hijack.

[clutch]

I had a 30 amp made up with the 50 amp head to plug it into the trailer. If we are just staying over night the 30 amp cord is used. Also on our river lot we have a 30 amp plug. On our trip from Az to Idaho this spring we didn't have the smaller cord and I just threw it in the back of the truck.

[CBTraveler]

I always described the 50 amp cable like this: It's so stiff that it takes a conduit bender to bend it. We travel a lot and are often setting up every other day, so the aggravation of the cable started to get me really frustrated. I finally gave up and bought a powered reel which included an easy to coil cord. I installed it in the storage compartment adjacent to the 3400RL's water connection bay. The connection to the power center was made through the transfer switch ( I had the generator compartment pre wired with a transfer switch) by substituting the new power cord in the position of the original oem wire bundle. The new cord plug end exits through a hole through the floor in the reel storage compartment.

The stiffness of the oem cord comes from two causes. The first ( and least important) is the rubber or plastic cover. Th biggest contribution is the number of strands and thickness of wire in each conductor. The flexible cord has about 50 to 70 strands of really fine wire in each conductor. The oem cable has less than a dozen strands of much thicker wire in each conductor. Sorry to be less specific, but I installed the system in January and did not take good notes.

Another comment regarding the conductor size. 50 amp service provides 50 amps on each of the two "phases". A proper 50 amp cable has 6 guage wire for each of the hot and neutral wires. The campground breakers can provide 50 amps for each hot, so if the cables are not sized properly there can be a dangerous condition if something goes wrong in the trailer wiring up to the power center. Check the power center and you will see two separate 50 amp breakers, one for each "phase".

If anyone is interested in the powered reel I can take some pictures in late May and provide additional details.

[HOOK]

X4 as Bingo says.