Dock to boat shore power connector fried...theories as to why ?

Dune · Jul 1, 2019

Happened sometime during the week, one leg of 220 destroyed/melted at the boat connector (i.e. 110 house current works but 220 A/C units don't). Connection at boat was good...twisted and locked. No hints of trouble otherwise, looks perfect at dock pedestal end, no breakers tripped anywhere, A/C (and all else) units work fine via generator.

DavidM · Jul 1, 2019

Shore power connectors live a tough life, often at near maxumum amperage and with corrosion on the contacts due to living on the sea. So they don't last. Maretron and others have beefed up connections/cables to help prevent it.

David

psneeld · Jul 1, 2019

50A 125/250V connectors are not perfect but in my world they are pretty reliable as long as the whole system is kept "reasonably" clean, corrosion free and not severely overloaded.

While it is easy to blame connectors, like all accidents, finding the root cause is the best solution to resolving the problem.

Is it overloading, corrrosion, connection....etc...etc? Remember looks can be deceiving as well as security of the connection...doube check then start looking at leg overloading...

tiltrider1 · Jul 1, 2019

If you don’t know exactly how much current was going through that leg then there is a very good chance you were over loading that leg. Often the most likely cause is some one dropping the power cord in the water which caused corrosion issues that don’t show up till years later.

The other common issue is a loose connection on the back side of the boat socket. No one ever checks that end and after 10 to 20 years connections can loosen up.

Dock to boat shore power connector fried...theories as to why ?

Dune

Senior Member

DavidM

Valued Technical Contributor

psneeld

Guru

tiltrider1

Guru

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