cgaskins
Well-known member
Just a public service announcement.... inspect your shore power cord - specifically the male connectors - periodically.
While we were on vacation, I encountered an issue with my 50 amp RV power cord. So all was well when we were in Angel Fire, NM. But when we arrived in Durango, CO and I went to plug in my power cord, I noticed that the ground pin was missing from the male end of my RV power cord (the end that plugs into the shore power pedestal). Lovely…. So it was about 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon when we arrived in Durango. I asked the RV Resort hosts if they had a spare – Nope. I called the only RV parts store / dealer in town and the parts department was already gone for the weekend. Crap. I then went to Home Depot (far side of town) looking for the male end 50 amp connector. Well they had the female end but not the male. Crap! At this point with no parts and no spares, I had to get creative. I purchased some heavy duty sealing wire nuts, some nice wire strippers, and a ton of electrical tape from Home Depot. Then I got to work cobbling together a solution to hold me temporarily. The RV Resort (Alpen Rose RV Resort) let us use their shop which had a nice work bench and large heavy duty vise. Luckily I had a 50 amp extension cord in the basement of my 5th wheel. So we cut off the male end of the extension cord and spliced it onto the RV power cord. It took about an hour to get it done but it worked well.
The moral to this story is you might want to carry a spare 50 amp male & female power connector with you or at least inspect your male connector ends more regularly than I did. I have a cord reel in my basement and I always insert the RV end of the cord into it so the male end is dragging on the ground when I roll it up. I suspect this had something to do with the failure of the ground pin.
When we returned home, I found a heavy duty replacement 50 amp male connector on Amazon and I ordered 2 of them. One of them to fix my RV power cord and the other to fix my 50 amp extension cord.
While we were on vacation, I encountered an issue with my 50 amp RV power cord. So all was well when we were in Angel Fire, NM. But when we arrived in Durango, CO and I went to plug in my power cord, I noticed that the ground pin was missing from the male end of my RV power cord (the end that plugs into the shore power pedestal). Lovely…. So it was about 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon when we arrived in Durango. I asked the RV Resort hosts if they had a spare – Nope. I called the only RV parts store / dealer in town and the parts department was already gone for the weekend. Crap. I then went to Home Depot (far side of town) looking for the male end 50 amp connector. Well they had the female end but not the male. Crap! At this point with no parts and no spares, I had to get creative. I purchased some heavy duty sealing wire nuts, some nice wire strippers, and a ton of electrical tape from Home Depot. Then I got to work cobbling together a solution to hold me temporarily. The RV Resort (Alpen Rose RV Resort) let us use their shop which had a nice work bench and large heavy duty vise. Luckily I had a 50 amp extension cord in the basement of my 5th wheel. So we cut off the male end of the extension cord and spliced it onto the RV power cord. It took about an hour to get it done but it worked well.
The moral to this story is you might want to carry a spare 50 amp male & female power connector with you or at least inspect your male connector ends more regularly than I did. I have a cord reel in my basement and I always insert the RV end of the cord into it so the male end is dragging on the ground when I roll it up. I suspect this had something to do with the failure of the ground pin.
When we returned home, I found a heavy duty replacement 50 amp male connector on Amazon and I ordered 2 of them. One of them to fix my RV power cord and the other to fix my 50 amp extension cord.
