50 Amp Male Plug Replacement

[Smitty77]

Upfront note: This is for a cord that has an electric winding storage area. The male plug, has to fit into the smaller compartment built into the side of the coach. So large, and with handle, plugs will not help me.
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I fat fingered dropped the 50 Amp shore power cords male plug yesterday, as luck would have it, the ground prong struck the top of a pointed rock, mushrooming the tip.

I used various pliers, and other instruments of metal reshaping, and some colorful commentary - to at least get the mushroomed shaped prong closer to the appropriate shape. It was a tight, with body language maneuvering, effort to get it to go in/out of my 50A Extension Cord females plug 5 to 6 times. (I did not want to take a chance of damaging the female plug on the parks power pole, and mess it up for the next person coming in after me.) I then reapplied a thin coating of dielectric grease (I do that periodically, and with all the man handling, it was due!).

After the successful 5 - 6 times of using my female receptacle, I tried it in the parks power pole. I'll call it a 'snug' fit, but I sincerely do not believe I hurt the female plug any.

OK - So now that we have power again, I'd like to get a replacement male 50A plug. And looking for tips from those that have found a robust replacement male plug.

-Again, must be able to fit inside of the small door cabinet of the coach, where the power cord rewinds into. So a big plug with say a handle to grip on it, will not fit.
-And would like as robust a locking collar onto the wire as possible.

I don't mind paying more for a good quality plug. I've been a fan of Leviton products over the years, but I believe Eaton makes one too. I did see Camco has one with a handle on it, for those that don't have space limitations, and supposed to have a 'mini male 50A plug' for those that have wind up cords. But just have no history on how robust they are. (I've had mixed result with Camco products. Some have been great. Others, especially items used frequently, were seemingly designed with plan replacement cycles in mind!).

What male 50A plugs have some of you found that are of good quality?

TIA, and best to all,
Smitty

[LJowdy]

The Home Depot near me has totally plain 50 amp male plugs. They're about as small as they get. If you go on line, they only show the larger plugs.

[Steve Ownby]

Originally Posted by Smitty77

Upfront note: This is for a cord that has an electric winding storage area. The male plug, has to fit into the smaller compartment built into the side of the coach. So large, and with handle, plugs will not help me.

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I fat fingered dropped the 50 Amp shore power cords male plug yesterday, as luck would have it, the ground prong struck the top of a pointed rock, mushrooming the tip.



I used various pliers, and other instruments of metal reshaping, and some colorful commentary - to at least get the mushroomed shaped prong closer to the appropriate shape. It was a tight, with body language maneuvering, effort to get it to go in/out of my 50A Extension Cord females plug 5 to 6 times. (I did not want to take a chance of damaging the female plug on the parks power pole, and mess it up for the next person coming in after me.) I then reapplied a thin coating of dielectric grease (I do that periodically, and with all the man handling, it was due!).



After the successful 5 - 6 times of using my female receptacle, I tried it in the parks power pole. I'll call it a 'snug' fit, but I sincerely do not believe I hurt the female plug any.



OK - So now that we have power again, I'd like to get a replacement male 50A plug. And looking for tips from those that have found a robust replacement male plug.



-Again, must be able to fit inside of the small door cabinet of the coach, where the power cord rewinds into. So a big plug with say a handle to grip on it, will not fit.

-And would like as robust a locking collar onto the wire as possible.



I don't mind paying more for a good quality plug. I've been a fan of Leviton products over the years, but I believe Eaton makes one too. I did see Camco has one with a handle on it, for those that don't have space limitations, and supposed to have a 'mini male 50A plug' for those that have wind up cords. But just have no history on how robust they are. (I've had mixed result with Camco products. Some have been great. Others, especially items used frequently, were seemingly designed with plan replacement cycles in mind!).



What male 50A plugs have some of you found that are of good quality?



TIA, and best to all,

Smitty

Smitty,
I just finished the job you are contemplating. You are correct the big Camco with a handle will not fit. I bought the one that Progressive sells. It's pricy but it's well made.

[Dark Sky]

I have a similar project in mind. My power cable is hard-wired into the coach. I want to shorten it and add a male plug to the coach cable so I can leave my surge protector in the storage compartment without having a huge pile of copper in there. I'll also have to splice the 'bobbed' cable into the male lead on my surge protector, or better yet add a female plug for future versatility.

[xrated]

Smitty77.......Stay away from the junk plugs that home Depot and Lowes sell, unless they can get a Leviton brand plug. I deal with a lot of Eaton products where I work and their quality has gone down the pooper a lot over the years. Stick with Leviton.

Here is a link for the Leviton from Amazon. With the Leviton that is pictured, you can turn the face of the plug (where the blades are) in any direction in 90 degree increments when you assemble it so that your cord comes out of the plug body down, left, right, or even at the top. Very versatile and top notch quality.

[Easyrider]

I've repaired power cords with both the male and female plugs from Progressive and I am very happy with both. But I can't help thinking we're just talking about plugs, a pretty simple device and as long as it fits through your door most will work well. Just make sure when removing or separating cords that you grip the plugs to pull and not the cord, that's how you pull the cord out of the plug.

[4Fingers]

Would it be possible to fix the pug with a file or rasp to remove the burr on the end of the ground prong.

Happy Motoring
Don & Susan

[Smitty77]

Originally Posted by 4Fingers

Would it be possible to fix the pug with a file or rasp to remove the burr on the end of the ground prong.

Happy Motoring
Don & Susan

I'll take another look at it when the small storm blowing thru the Southwest is gone. It's not a solid prong, the ground prong on this plug is copper/brass that flat stock that was formed into rolled prong, with the end snipped and tucked over to form a curved rounded edge that slides into the female receptacle.

When it hit the rock, it both mushroomed/smushed that tip, and the snipped piece was bent down inside between the rolled hollow metal.

(Yeah, I know what I wast trying to say - and I'm positive these words did not paint that picture!).

I'm limited with the tools I have on hands, and admit that with the rain starting up my goal was to 'expedite' the mushroom smushed tip back into the shape needed to get the dang thing to plug in again!

Should be dry here on Monday, and I'll take another look at it and spend a bit more time. (Many people here at Lost Dutchman State Park, so I'm pretty sure I could scrounge around and borrow some more tools too.)

If I still don't like what I've done, or possibly make ti so that I can no longer safely get the plug back into power. I'll remove the male plug from my 50A 20' extension cord, and use it for a temporary repair until I can either get the Progressive and or Levinton. (Will visit the local Home Depot and Lowes to see what they have in stock. See no reason why I can't go to the special order desk, and have one ordered to be delivered for me to pick up at the next Home Depot in the town we're heading to next.

I was surprised at what was seemed to be low quality parts at the local places I visited. Thus wondering what others had found/used.

Best to all, and thanks for the input,
Smitty

[Arch Hoagland]

The hole for my power cord was small too and shortly after I bought my coach I got tired of wrestling with it and cut the hole to about twice it's original size.

It is on the bottom of my power cord storage area so you can't see it. I don't cover the hole and haven't had a problem with it for the past 12 years.

You have to wonder if the people who design these things ever use them.

[Smitty77]

Wanted to close the loop back on this!

Jury rigged the found prong while on our trip so that I could at least 'finesse' it into the receptacle. (We used 30Amp most of the rest of the trip so that the 50A Male plug was going into my 30Amp Female adapter. Twice I had house 50Amp along the way, to help during below 30 forecasts. Was very concerned I could mess up the shore power 50A receptacle, which would not be fair to the campground or the next person with a reservation behind us... While hard to get unplugged, with some leverage via piece if stout plastic I have needed to get it about 1/4" undone from one of the campgrounds. I'm pleased that I did not damage any shore power stations as we finished off the trip!)

Went over to work on it today while we're at our vacation home, that has a bit more tools for me to choose from. I had ordered the Progressive plug that Steve shared, and have it. Had planned to just swap it out with the damaged plug. But looking at the unit Country Coach installed OEM, it was a pretty dang good plug. So I grabbed some different instruments of persuasion, and got most of the wiggles out of the prong, and better shaped it too. Then used my Dremel to grind down a few pumps up at the tip of the prong, and smoothed out the any other little ripples down the rest of the prong. Dialectic Greased, which I do on a period basis, and all is now working without anymore effort then it taken before.

So I now have a spare male Plug, if I ever damage it again.

And during the work, I unwound the cord from the drum all of the way. I have a few signs of cord kinking, and areas where the skin of the cord is becoming a bit distressed. I've never removed the top of the electrical wind up box inside of the coaches closet, but suspect after 13 years of usage I should work this into my schedule. Cleaning, inspect the gears for wear, and I believe these can be adjusted too. (About 10-15% of the time, I have to do what my DW calls the 'Dance with the snake!' - to get it to wind all the way in!. Hoping a cleaning and adjustment of tension, will get this back working well. I usually extend the cord out and use the lettering still visible on the cords skin, to untwist as needed, at least three to four times a year. This also seems to help.)

Suppose when the time comes to do major overhauling of the motor/gear mechanisms, I'll go ahead and swap out the cord at that time.

For now, will head off on this years longer trip at the end of April - as is!
Best to all,
Smitty