T&T: Hot Shore Power Connections

[Ken Bloomfield]

My experience and observations have been that the 30 amp cords are much more 
prone to the overheat in the boat-end socket than the 50 amp cords are. 
Interestingly enough, while I have had two boat-end sockets trash themselves 
(one with nearly a fire) I have never had a problem at the dock pedestal 
end.  My boat has dual 30 amp service, and what I did was to change the male 
boat-end sockets to 50 amp rating and of course the female cord plug had to 
be change also to fit.  While I realize that now I have cables that are 
non-standard, I really don't care as I am the only one using them.  In 
essense, I wanted to take advantage of the extra current carrying capability 
of the 50 amp hardware at the boat-end and it seems to have worked very 
well.

I am personally convinced that the rating of the 30-amp hardware is marginal 
at best.  Look at the scrawny little contacts in that, and then compare with 
a dryer plug rated at 50 amps.  The contact area in the latter case is more 
than double the standard marine connector.  It is no wonder to me that a 
little corrosion can trigger off a runaway high resistance overheat event.

Ken Bloomfield
MTOA# 2062
AGLCA# 3529
M/V Tellico Lady, 50' Marine Trader-Walkaround
Maryville, TN