Broken 30 amp power cord

[Tojo2go]

I just purchased a 99 Premier. The previous owner had done a repair to the power cord that he pointed out to me. It looked a little sloppy for my taste but I didn't look very closely and figured I could just shorten the cord a few feet or purchase a new one. I didn't realize it was cut at about the halfway point and it is hard wired, it looks like the connections would be under the galley sink. I probably would need help hard wiring a new cord since I am not familiar with taking everything apart to get at it and I'm not at all familiar with the electronic components themselves. I was thinking of shortening the cord so it ends inside the compartment putting a new 30 amp male plug on it and using an extension. I definitely don't want to do any damage to the system so my questions are: 1- Do I have to disconnect the house and coach batteries or turn off any breakers or transfer switches before making the repair if so what am I looking for and where would it be located? 2- I haven't taken anything apart so I am assuming that the cord is grounded through the connection under the galley and won't require any additional grounding am I correct?

[Blue~Go]

I wouldn't repair the cord. I'd replace it. Either with a new hard-wired cord, or here is another suggestion. It's something I'd like to do to my rig just because (and is more how boats are, which are my background). (I have a 1999 Concourse that came with the same hard-wired cord.)

That is to have a typical shore power input on the side of the rig. In other words, there is a male "outlet" on the outside of the RV (or boat, as the case may be) and you can then plug or unplug from either end. Handy if you want to leave your campsite and then come back to it.

So there are standard shorepower inlets. You'd want to get a 30 amp. Then you buy a shorepower cord in any length you want and you can still store it in the built in cubby (if you have one - I do). Another big plus is no flimsy plastic "mouse hole" where the cord goes in. (If you have the individual plastic doors like I do, you can buy one with no mouse hole and then just use that cubby for cord storage or whatever).

For ages folks have been using "Marinco style" inlets, and they are still the typical style. However there is a better design on the market now, called Smart Plug. It has much better contact area and some other good features. For quite a while they were only for boats, and so you had to change the shore end yourself for an RV type plug, but now they are making them that way (sold through Camping World last I checked).

Either way you go, the connections (at least on my 1999 Concourse) are made behind the "brown box" electrical power center. Both the shore and generator wires go to the automatic transfer switch (you have to pull box out from wall on my rig to access the rear/top where this is). The ground then goes back outside as a chassis ground, but you don't have to mess with that most likely. These are 10AWG wires. This is how the fixed cord terminates.

If you are going to add a shore power inlet, then the wires from the back of the inlet would go to that same spot (and then the shore cord would just plug in to the inlet). There are varying ideas of how long that inlet wire can be without being separately fused, but the US boat guideline length is ten feet. So in short, try to keep the wires from the shore power inlet to the brown box under ten feet long, and if they have to go over then you'd want an additional fuse (but they probably won't).

[Tojo2go]

Thanks for the reply that is probably the best and most correct repair. I realize I would be making somewhat of a temporary repair but the initial purchase and some required mechanical work right out of the box strained my budget. The cord is taped about halfway in. There is still around 12' of good condition cord remaining so I am not actually repairing the cord aside from putting a new end on it. I felt like 12' of cord is not adequate so I would only use enough of the original cord to run inside the cubby to the power center and connect a standard 25' cord to that. I would not be comfortable messing with the power center myself and felt that my temporary repair would be safer than a taped up cord.

[Blue~Go]

I would only use enough of the original cord to run inside the cubby to the power center and connect a standard 25' cord to that. I would not be comfortable messing with the power center myself and felt that my temporary repair would be safer than a taped up cord.

Okay, sounds like your Premier is set up a bit differently. Not too much of a surprise as things varied between Concourse and Premier plus evolved over the years.

The way mine worked as it came stock is that the cord lived in an MDF box that was built into the corner under the sink - next to shower wall and including the fuel filler "diagonal" in the box. You accessed the box from the outside through a white plastic standard RV cubby door with a mouse hole in it. Cord would be in there coiled up and you'd pull it out and over to shore power pedestal and then engage it in mouse hole and shut the cubby door.

The only place there was an end on the cord was where it attached to the brown box so there was no way of getting to that without removing brown box on my rig. It was "permanently" connected to the back of the brown box. But sounds like yours is different.

Pretty much anything would be better than a taped cord, for sure.

[Tojo2go]

[Tojo2go]

[Tojo2go]

[Tojo2go]

[Blue~Go]

Okay, so the white outer (mouse hole) door is the same on yours as mine. Also the brown box looks the same. What I can't tell is this: Is your shore cord coming in through the white door, then going down on the carpet (probably held down with black P-clamps) and through the square cut in the wooden partition, and on to the back of the brown box? If so, that's just like mine was.

Or, is that black "box" I can see to the left involved somehow? Guessing that is something else because the shore cord should have one white wire, one black wire, and one green wire inside the black outer insulation cover.

I'll see if I can dig up my photos showing the shore cord going into the brown box. Not to encourage you to do anything you are not comfortable with, but if you are NOT plugged in to shore power, don't have an inverter in use (rig would not have come with one but one could have been added), and don't have your generator running, there is no way I know of for that AC to be live.

[Blue~Go]

Okay, well I'm a bit miffed at myself, because I usually try to take better photos. But I guess since I was removing the brown box for good, I didn't photograph the back of it. That's where the shore power wires go in to the automatic transfer switch. What that switch does is "see" if you are using shore power or the generator as a 110-volt input and automatically switch to whichever it is. It's a silver box on the back of the brown box (main electrical brown box). On my rig, you couldn't get to the back of it from the back side, but rather had to remove the brown box into the kitchen area, and then access the back side where the transfer switch is. It involved a bit of cursing because they didn't leave much extra wire! Yours may very well be easier though, because on the Concourse there is a little "ell" in the kitchen and the brown box was there (so it's further in to the rig), whereas yours is on the main face of the kitchen, closer to the outer wall. So maybe you have more wire to work with.

So in other words, it's very likely that the way you'd get to where that broken cord's wires attach to your rig, is by pulling out that brown box into the galley and then on the back of it you'd see where the shorepower wires go into it. You can tell them because they are stranded wire whereas Chinook used solid wire (like Romex) for the other wires (boo, but most RV's do). Of course be sure there is NO 110 shore power, generator, or inverter on when/if you do this.