Heavy duty electrical extension cord -

[Karalyn]

I was camping a couple of weeks ago and this guy at the next campsite had a thick black extension cord added to his electrical cord. It looked the same as what comes out of my Casita. I have always used just an orange outside electrical extension cord with no problems, and wonder if this $50.00 cord is something I should invest in for safety reasons. ( I had never seen one of these before, but it sure is thick and looks just like what comes out of my camper)
Opinions please.
Thanks

Hmmm, I came back to edit this post.
I was just over on the Casita site, and someone there posted about not using more than 50' of cord. The last 3 years I have used between 75 to 125' of cord with no problem. Last year I had an air conditioner in my Scamp, and it worked great with that long cord. This year I borrowed the cord from the guy above, and on Saturday it worked fine, but on Sunday the electric went out after turning on the air conditioner.
Is it possible that I could use 125 ft of cord in the Scamp but not 75 ft in the Casita?
Am I better off using the old trusty orange outside extension rather than the thick RV balck cord??

[Susan Tiller]

I was camping a couple of weeks ago and this guy at the next campsite had a thick black extension cord added to his electrical cord. It looked the same as what comes out of my Casita. I have always used just an orange outside electrical extension cord with no problems, and wonder if this $50.00 cord is something I should invest in for safety reasons. ( I had never seen one of these before, but it sure is thick and looks just like what comes out of my camper)
Opinions please.
Thanks

Hmmm, I came back to edit this post.
I was just over on the Casita site, and someone there posted about not using more than 50' of cord. The last 3 years I have used between 75 to 125' of cord with no problem. Last year I had an air conditioner in my Scamp, and it worked great with that long cord. This year I borrowed the cord from the guy above, and on Saturday it worked fine, but on Sunday the electric went out after turning on the air conditioner.
Is it possible that I could use 125 ft of cord in the Scamp but not 75 ft in the Casita?
Am I better off using the old trusty orange outside extension rather than the thick RV balck cord??

Karalyn, I used the small 75ft, 100ft ext. cords in the past. I burned up power tools and when I burned up the window AC in my egg, I finally got the message. In girl terms, you do not get enough power when they are long and thin to what you are trying to run. They may run it for a while before tearing something up, but they do damage the AC, tools, fan or whatever to a point they will not last as long as they normally would. Just sharing to try and save someone else the "headaches" I made.

[Frederick L. Simson]

We have camped on a property that was not set up for trailers with a group of others, all "tapped" into multiple extension cords, up to 150' long. We were warned that this set-up was very risky at the time, and admonished to refrain from using electric heaters or air conditioners, which would over tax the "system." I have one of the thicker, higher amp rated cords, that is 25' long. I also have a 50' yellow cord, that while thinner than the black one just mentioned, it is thicker than most orange household extension cords.

Lately, I am just "Boondocking" off the battery power & propane tanks when in situations where 30 amp electric outlets are not within 25 feet of the trailer's location.

[Roger H]

Karalyn... the necessary length and thickness of the cord will be determined by the load you need to put on it. The higher the amperage you need the shorter the cord and thicker it should be. It is entirely possible that one a/c unit could run on a long, thin cord and another not be happy with that at all. It depends on the age, make, and model and the what the startup amperage requirements are.

Determine what your load will be... whether you'll just be using a couple of lights or you need your A/C or an electric heater and whether or not you intend to deploy your Electrolux Death Ray.

Ok... sorry... couldn't help m'self... I'm going to my room now!

Rog

[Gina D.]

My Death Rays all run wireless now.

[John Mc]

I'm just taking note of this and beefing up my cord as well. I just got a used 25-foot grounded cord, used, thick as my pinky finder. It's twice the gauge of my old 100' yellow cord, which now will stay at home, following the electric hedge trimmer around a one-acre yard. The extra length was a nuisance anyhow. Whenever I've camped with hookups, the outlet was never more than 10 feet beyond the range of the Scamp's built-in cord. This will be easier to store and handle.

[Allan Bornestig]

Hello all.
Not all shoreline cord is created equal.Use only types of the heavy-duty RV persuasion, made specifically for the rigors of outdoor use.Be sure to match any additional cords amperage with that of the original ( for example, 30-amp with 30-amp).Choose cords with bright colours to avoid tripping over them when walking around the campsite at night.
I learned the hard way, my automatic fridge blew a circuitboard and after I got that fixed the heating element went also.
So it is a good idea to have an extra cord of 25 feet, that will give you a total of 50 feet of heavy duty powercord.
Everything is working good now, and I have piece of mind.
Take care and Happy Camping.
Allan.

[Gina D.]

I rarely have a need for an extention cord. Like Fred, if it's over 25 feet, I just run off my reserves.

I don't use AC, but I do have a cube heater, and the fridge. I HAVE run off a short cord with no issues.

I also wrap the junctions to be water proof, tho there are special covers to do just this.

[Suz]

As Allan said, all outdoor cords are not created equally. I'd like to add: All ORANGE cords are not created equally. Read what's embossed into the cord. Just because it's a 15 amp or "heavy duty" doesn't mean it's sufficient. I have a 10/3 15 amp. That's 10 guage wire. Other's have said that 12 will do, but I have never regretted going with this one. It's only 50 ft and my fridge runs on propane, so it works very well to do what I need it to do (like run the A/C and charge the battery). IF I had more electrical items or I had a bigger rig, I would go with the 30 amp extension, but I really don't need that much on MY trailer.

[bdiscount]

I was camping a couple of weeks ago and this guy at the next campsite had a thick black extension cord added to his electrical cord. It looked the same as what comes out of my Casita. I have always used just an orange outside electrical extension cord with no problems, and wonder if this $50.00 cord is something I should invest in for safety reasons. ( I had never seen one of these before, but it sure is thick and looks just like what comes out of my camper)
Opinions please.
Thanks

Hmmm, I came back to edit this post.
I was just over on the Casita site, and someone there posted about not using more than 50' of cord. The last 3 years I have used between 75 to 125' of cord with no problem. Last year I had an air conditioner in my Scamp, and it worked great with that long cord. This year I borrowed the cord from the guy above, and on Saturday it worked fine, but on Sunday the electric went out after turning on the air conditioner.
Is it possible that I could use 125 ft of cord in the Scamp but not 75 ft in the Casita?
Am I better off using the old trusty orange outside extension rather than the thick RV balck cord??

There is no detriment using the heavy cord except cost, how much is the value of safty.

[Steve L.]

I also wrap the junctions to be water proof, tho there are special covers to do just this.

In the FWIW category:

At the boatyard, there is saying that goes something along the lines of "The only reason to wrap an electrical connection is be sure to trap the water inside the connection." A somewhat wry observation that Murphy was an electrician, too, and that water seems to penetrate no matter how water proof we think we've made the connection. And once inside, it seems like it won't ever leave.

If I need to drag enough cord out of the trailer that it exposes where my one 25' extension connects I lay the connection over a branch or an extra jacking pad. This is so that short of a biblical flood, the junction won't sit in a puddle and that when (not if ) it gets wet it dries quickly.

[Gina D.]

Murphy never lived in Oregon where water comes from all sides no matter where one puts the junction.

This practice comes from running lines on/to a stage, you just can't plop the AC lines across signal lines because it causes all kinds of dirty bad nasty noises (Not like half the bands I've done don't on thier own ) Hanging it on an audience member is frowned apon as well.

You try not to use extensions at all, but the world is less than ideal, and you end up having to anyway.

I always wrap and never zap. But the best practice is to not use extra lines at all.

[Roger H]

I have been fairly successful using a two liter soda bottle or other liter-plus sized drink bottles with a split on one side and with the holes in the ends cut out to accomodate the cord. Join the ends of the cord, and then snap the bottle over the connection. It's water-proof enough that it keeps all but flooding out of your connection.

Roger

[Victor Benz]

I always use a grounded cord, as short as I need it. I purchased an industrial 10 gauge 3 wire outdoor cord, 100 yards in length. I also purchased 4 high quality, outdoor, male/female cord end combinations. I the cut the cord in three lengths, 15, 30, and 45 yards, attached the ends (paying attention to polarity). I then put the all three cords on a single frame. I use whatever coard length I need.

Incidentally, the multipliers for voltage drop by wire gauge is as follows.
<blockquote>14 gauge 20.4
12 gauge 31.8
10 gauge 50
8 gauge 81.8
6 gauge 127.3</blockquote>
What this means, is a 50 foot 10 gauge cord has equivalent voltage drop to either a 20 foot 14 gauge cord or a 127 foot 6 gauge cord.

Recognize thickness of the cord is not necessarily an indicator of wire gauge. Read the stenciling on the cord.

Also, all cords of the same wire gauge are not create equal. In this case, you do get what you pay for.

Victor

[potteralice]

not technical but funny, my new casita came with the fat extension cord and it was stored inside the marvelous little hatch door (i used to have a 13' with cord under the sink). one night on the way home i plugged into the campground post and had no electricity for the toaster oven which told me i had no power except 12 volt. so i checked and found that i had plugged the extension cord in and not the power cord! once i got home i spray painted stripes on the extension cord so i could tell which one i was pulling out of the hatch.

[Bill MacDermod]

How bout storing them in 2 different places

[Thane]

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I play one at work and I think the following is accurate.

For a 15 amp current, the extension cord voltage drop per linear foot and the total drop across a 50 and 100 foot extension cord is as follows:

10 Gauge 0.01550 Volts/ft 0.775 Volts for 50 ft 1.55 Volts for 100 ft
12 Gauge 0.02468 Volts/ft 1.234 Volts for 50 ft 2.468 Volts for 100 ft

For a 30 amp current, the same data is as follows:

10 Gauge 0.03100 Volts/ft 1.55 Volts for 50 ft 3.10 Volts for 100 ft
12 Gauge 0.04936 Volts/ft 2.468 Volts for 50 ft 4.936 Volts for 100 ft

So if you use a 12 gauge, 100 foot long extension cord connencted to a typical home 15 amp line, the voltage drop is approximately 2.5 volts between the wall and the trailer.

If we assume that the trailer has a built in 25 foot 10 gauge line, an additonal voltage drop of 0.3875 volts will occur. This is a total voltage drop of almost 3 volts or approximately 2.7 percent of the nominal 110 volts available. Additional voltage drops due to internal trailer wiring and bad luck will drop the voltage by 3% or more. Plus we should assume there is a measurable voltage drop between the power pole outside the house and the electric plug on the side of the house.

What all this means is beyond me. If your device stives to maintain a constant power output then the current will increase by 3% to compensate for the 3% voltage drop. This adds to the current draw which results in a higher voltage drop and the cycle continues until a thermal or current limit or a stability point is reached. In other words, the lower voltage means your pumps and fans work harder which will force them to work even harder to maintain the necessary power level.

This voltage drop and current increase is part of the reason extension cords shouldn't be hooked together. This is also why my extension cords get so darn hot at Christmas.