Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Missed A Day But A Little Excitement

Monday was a busy Day! Bill and Dee have ATV's so Bill asked me if I wanted to go for a run in the desert with him, using Dee's ATV. Well, I have never driven one but what is the worst that could happen? After a one minute driving lesson from Bill and a five minute lecture from Norma to be careful and not go fast, off we went. Bill headed for a series of trails with me following and we explored for an hour or two, driving for a bit and walking for a bit. It was a ton of fun! I have to get one of these!

We eventually found our way back to the RV's and opened a beer. Norma and Dee went off to our rig to cut up some Pacific Sockeye Salmon and Halibut for dinner while Bill and I solved most of the world's problems and decided who we were going to make the next US President, all over another beer (maybe two).

Suddenly we heard a commotion like fireworks and looked over to our rig only to see the park's electrical pedestal that I was plugged into explode in a cloud of black smoke, sparks and flames! I jumped up and went running towards it, yelling to Norma that there was a fire. My intention was to flip the breaker but about half way there I realized the foolhardiness of this move. Sticking my hand into an electrical fire and grabbing metal was not the sort of thing my mother taught me to do.

Bill came running up behind me with a wooden walking stick, flipped the door of the pedestal open and pried what was left of my 30 Amp connector out. I then started to think about moving the motorhome away from the hazard but the fire had burned out.

I had a 30 Amp extension cord which I cut the end off and spliced it to the end of the RV power cable for a temporary repair. Bill had another extension cable that we used to reach an unused pedestal behind us. I went in and watched everything while Bill flipped the breaker. The clock came back on in the microwave and everything worked! No damage! The computers, TV's and Starchoice are all plugged into the inverter and do not use the park power so they were never in any danger. Crisis averted, at at least minimized!

I don't know what went wrong. Dee remembers smelling a similar odor as the fire produced when the previous people were parked there but they never had a problem. I am thinking there was a loose connection from before that was arcing a bit and weakened the internal parts of the connector. When I plugged in the connection became worse, leading to sparking and burning.

The manager came over to inspect the damage and told me to buy whatever I needed to repair my damage and to send him the bill, he would reimburse me. Really all I need are a couple of 30 amp male connectors to replace the burned one and the one I had to cut off the extension to make a temporary repair. I may or may not send the bill to him, depending on the cost.

Us on the left, Bill and Dee on the right:

You lead Bill, I'll follow. This is the best photo you will see of Bill. See below:

Uneasy Rider:

 Dissident In The Desert (Check out the Free Leonard Peltier Shirt)

Smoke, Spark, Bang!

"Well, here's yer problem"!


I would have liked to include a shot of Bill but like my friend Kim from Boston, he does not like his photo posted. Darn! Bill is a great guy and almost like a 'Brother From A Different Mother' to me. After the first day we were finishing each other's sentences! It was almost uncanny. We share opinions on so many subjects, but primarily politics.

His wife Dee we knew very little about but what a lot of fun she is! We really enjoyed our time with this couple and it was over far too soon. We will be seeing them again.

15 comments:

  1. We had a hot time last night - literally!

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  2. First off, that picture of you -- wow, you look great! At least 10 years younger than you are! Glad the winter has treated you well.

    Second, the fire, wow! I'm glad you had the smarts not to touch it. Reminds me of the close call with my power pole last summer. Sure make a case for having houses with wheels and motors!

    Third, I'm glad you enjoyed the ATV ride. First/last time I rode one of those, I wound up in a ditch with it.

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    1. It was a great day! Today I am in recovery mode and feel ten years older! I need an ATV!

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  3. Wow, you dodged a bullet, so to speak! Before you buy an ATV you might want to buy one of these:

    http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Industries-PT30C-Electrical-Management/dp/B003AL23TC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426044658&sr=8-1&keywords=progressive+industries+EMS

    It's a lot cheaper than an ATV and can save you A LOT of money and grief! (We won't camp without ours.)

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    1. They have their uses but it would not have helped in this case as there was no spike in voltage, it was just a sparking situation from a loose connection. In Mexico where slightly low voltage situations are normal they trip continuously.

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  4. Nice that you got to meet Bill, we met them for a short while in Benson AZ, nice couple.

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  5. Emailed comment from Al:

    We haven't had a fire to the extent that you have had, but I've had to replace 30 amp plugs a couple of times due to overheating of the "hot" prong of the plug. We have a 50 amp RV but in some sites with only 30 amp service we use a 30 amp cord and surge guard. Not sure exactly why (perhaps due to more usage of the 30 amp pedestal plug) but our 50 amp cord is in pristine condition compared to the beating that the 30 amp plug takes. We watch the power usage when we are on 30 amp service (just like you or we did when in Mexico) so we aren't overloading the circuit.

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    1. It was the neutral prong that took the most damage but same thing. I am glad to hear someone else make the same deduction about overuse of the 30 amp socket.

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  6. Lucky you were there at the time. Glad is wasn't any worse.

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    1. I think that from now on where there is both 30 and 50 amps available, I will use my "dogbone" adapter in the 50 amp service. I do not want a repeat of this.

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  7. You guys sure know how to have fun! I'm lusting after an ATV too but it just hasn't risen to the top of the list.

    Never thought of using the 50 amp circuit with our 30 amp trailer but it might be an idea. We cart the 'dogbone' along with us, why not use it? Thanks!

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    1. You are in a perfect location for an ATV. They got a really good deal on Dee's machine.

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  8. I loved riding my ATV but the one I've got might be a little too powerful nowadays.

    Those models you were riding are great for tooling around the desert.

    Glad you didn't have more of a problem with that plug.

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    1. Much more power and it would start to get scary. I think the fastest we went was 20 and that was on the access road before the trails.

      Yes we were very lucky. That is how rigs go up in flames!

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    2. I ride mine at the dunes. It's a 650cc with about 55 HP. It's been souped up with race parts.

      It's a Bombardier DS650. Don't think they make them anymore but it's great for the dunes. It's also 2 wheel drive vs the 4WD of the ones you and Bill were on.

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