Shore power cord failure.

[oscarvan]

Lost one side of the electric. Fuses good, pedestal good. Borrowed another cord and all was well. Soooo a near boat unit later (also got a Y adapter and a nice jacket for my bride) I have a new power cord. 25' Which is plenty 95% of the time and a lot easier to carry around than the 50'. Wonder if this was my issue vis a vis the fuses popping at a theoretical 35A load.....I'll get new plugs for the old cord, hide it under the bed and use it as a "once in a while too far from the darn pedestal" cord.

 

[Pascal]

I ve had two cords failure in the last few years, one 50 amps and one 100 amp$ both far away from the plugs.

On the 50amps I detected a hot spot about 20’ from the pedestal. Hot spot as real hot! After dissecting, the N conductor was heavily corroded and brittle. Non tinned cord

On the 100 amp, one day I got a burning smell in the crew. Opened the cabinet giving access to the cablemaster bucket and found a section of the cable was melting. Switched to gen right away (we were in Staniel Cay) and finished the trip on gen. Post Mortem revealed a 1” slice in the outer jacket but so thin it was almost invisible. That was enough to get moisture in one of the hot conductors and get corrosion going Talk about a close call.

Lesson learned I now routinely check my cables for hot spots including the tail end that s rarely used in the bucket.

 

[Boatsb]

Lost one side of the electric. Fuses good, pedestal good. Borrowed another cord and all was well. Soooo a near boat unit later (also got a Y adapter and a nice jacket for my bride) I have a new power cord. 25' Which is plenty 95% of the time and a lot easier to carry around than the 50'. Wonder if this was my issue vis a vis the fuses popping at a theoretical 35A load.....I'll get new plugs for the old cord, hide it under the bed and use it as a "once in a while too far from the darn pedestal" cord.

This is why I tell people to not worry about cleaning old stiff cords. They go bad over time and its better to replace them before they catch fire.

 

[SEVEN]

This is why I tell people to not worry about cleaning old stiff cords. They go bad over time and its better to replace them before they catch fire.

% agree.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Neutral is not an issue if you have isolation tranformers since its not used.

 

[Boatsb]

Neutral is not an issue if you have isolation tranformers since its not used.

But some will consider your post contrary to their assumed experiences. While the breakers and ELCI systems on transformer isolated systems do not use the neutral im sure someone will explain how its important. Popcorn anyone?