Fused Electrical Connector Pins

[bevedfelker]

This past September we were camped at the US Naval Academy FAMCAMP. The electrical pedestal was only 30 amp and were quite old. There were no sewer connections so periodically I had to unhook and empty my tanks at the FAMCAMP's central dump station.

When we first arrived and I connected to the power pedestal the connection just did not feel right -- kind of mushy when I plugged the power cable in and the connection seems a bid loose. I was using a portable surge protector and all indications were there were no problems with the electrical connection.

After about 3 days I went out to disconnect power to go to the dump station. As I rounded the front of the Vegas I noticed that the power cable connected to the side of the Vegas was at about a 45 degree down angle at the side of the RV. There didn't appear to be any power problems because the A/C on the RV was running at the time. I opened the 30 amp circuit breaker at the pedestal, and when I went to disconnect the cable from the RV it would not disconnect.

After much pulling and tugging eventually the cable came off the RV. I then noticed a huge hole in the female connector (first photo) on the side of the RV where the one power pin had been. When I looked at the end of the power cable connector there was obviously heat damage and I could see that the power pin from the female connector on the side of the RV had fused (welded itself) to the corresponding pin in the cable (second photo). There was also heat damage at the end of the power cable that was connected to the power pedestal (third picture).

Long story short -- the military civil engineering folks came out and said the 30 amp connector in the power pedestal was bad. It had a low voltage short within the connector and that was what caused the damage to the RV connector & power cable. They replaced the connector & circuit breaker on the pedestal. I called an RV mobile repair and they replaced the connector on the side of the RV and brought me a new 20' power cable.

Funny thing though -- my portable surge protector never detected a problem and shut down the power. We were damn lucky we didn't have a fire.

[carlgorski]

I would file a claim against the Park.