Almost Had A Fire

[scottz]

My son is living in an RV while he builds a house. It is an older unit with 30A service. It was hot and they ran the AC all day today, probably some other loads too. Late afternoon his off-grid system tripped off line. They found the connector to his trailer melted. It might have been installed improperly years ago; I don't think this older unit came with a detachable cord. Anyway, pretty scary sight.

[phillyg]

A loose wire in the plug or receptacle can cause that. He's fortunate.

[BB_TX]

Been a number of those connector discussions posted on here about the same overheating issue. Even newer rigs. Caused by loose or poor wire connections causing resistance. And resistance, especially with high current, causes enough heating to burn them just as your picture. That is about the worst one I have seen posted. Definitely close to starting a fire. Being an older unit, I would guess that the connections either became loose over time or corrosion started on the wiring, both of which would cause resistance. Glad the result was not any worse than that burned connector.

Not a bad idea for everyone to check the connections on that connector as well as all the connections in the breaker and fuse distribution panel. I found a number of barely tightened screws in my breaker and fuse panel.

[Foldbak]

Good catch! That would have been bad