| 50 Amp cable problems are simple [message #305087] |
Sun, 07 August 2016 18:20  |
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Matt Colie
Messages: 8547
Registered: March 2007
Location: S.E. Michigan
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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As someone that spent a long time pulling cables, hoses, hawsers, and wire rope for one thing or another, I don't think our 50 amp cables are all that tough to handle.
Read carefully:
On a warm day, pull the cable out as far as you can.
Lay it out straight in the sun if it is available.
Wait a while.
When the cable is warm, carefully lay it back into the cable box going in a clockwise direction. This gets called flaking a cable (or whatever) the direction is important because of the way the conductor inside are wrapped during the cable's construction.
If it doesn't lay flat in the box, pull it out and try again, but this time grab the cable wind it as you flake it onto the tray. It will go in there and lie as a nice tall coil. When you get it all in there, give it that last little twist so it plugs into the generator plug.
When it is cool and you pull it out, it will behave like the self coiling cord on an appliance - just bigger. When you go to put it away, let the cable have its way and with just a little help, it will go back onto the shelf and it will wait to be plugged in. Mine took a day to train, but it has been more obedient than many people's kids ever since.
Our cables are nice, well behaved and small. The are only #8AWG X 4 and have a nice neoprene jacket and only about coach long.
The extension cable I use at home and sometimes carry to events is #6AWG X 3 and #8AWG in a vinyl jacket. It can only be coiled to about a 2-1/2 foot diameter, and if it gets left outside in the cold, I have to bring it into the barn to warm up before I roll it up. Even rolled up, I can't carry it inside a 23 without giving up the space for something else.
Matt
Matt & Mary Colie - Chaumière -'73 Glacier 23 - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
Electronically Controlled Quiet Engine Cooling Fan with OE Rear Drum Brakes with Applied Control Arms
SE Michigan - Near DTW - Twixt A2 and Detroit
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