Carver Owners Forum

Hi
My 2003 36 SS Gas is burning the shore power ends actually caught fire twice
Any suggestions on cause and how to fix. Ends were replaced twice

I would check the portion you are plugging into (shore pedestal) as that may be the culprit, not the cord end. You may also want to invest in a complete new cord, not just the end piece as your situation is quite serious to say the least.

I'm with Hans. Check the shore power pedestal outlet. If there's a poor connection there from being worn or corroded, it will be an ongoing problem that can result in a fire. Corrosion there is pretty common in salt water areas. As recommended, everything is suspect now including your cord and the inlet at the boat. This is of course assuming all systems on board are operating within spec and that there are no on-board electrical issues.

You should also take voltage reading from the pedestal. Even with good connections, low supply voltage (common in marinas) will cause an increase in current resulting in heat. Eventually this heat will cause connection and cord failures not to mention sensitive electronics associated with most on-board systems such as fridges, air conditioners, chargers, etc.

Don't rule out the connections on the back side of the boat inlet connections and at the panel. Loose connections any where will show up at the weakest point, which is the connector spades.

Must be arching, that could very well be the reason. What Viper and Hans said are words of wisdom.

As mentioned, check all connections and replace the entire cord, not just the ends.
Also, whenever you connect/disconnect your power cords, make sure there is no load going thru the cords. Kill your breakers either on the boat or pedestal before disconnecting your cords. This prevents any arching which over time, causes problems.

To further compound the problem, if your 360SS is like mine, the power cords are made fast from the plugs to the electrical panel, that is there is no break from the pedestal plug to the electrical panel. Replacing the entire cable run will turn into a large job. There is another thread here about splicing in a plug set to use a more conventional power cord setup. I'm hot and cold on that design, generally I would prefer less junctions in a circuit, but in this case, it seems to cause more annoyance than solutions. My cable that has the 2 ac units on it (again, my thoughts would have to put one on each line) runs warmer than the one with little to no load. (2 AC on one cord, everything else on the other.) I've had to cut my cables, and replace the ends also. That seemed to solve my problem, we'll see how long it lasts.