Skinny Power Cord Update
Nobody is making lightweight 50-amp shore power cords...
Everyone,
Here’s a quick update to my post yesterday about the false belief that Tesla 50-amp charging cords use some special wire that RV manufacturers could be using to supply light-weight 50-amp shore power cords.
There ain’t no such thing as a skinny shore power cord...
I’ve already contacted Airstream and SmartPlug about this, and they both concurred with my suspicions that no such thing exists. The NEC has minimum requirements for conductor and insulation size due to safety considerations. SmartPlug confirmed they use heavy-duty SOOW 6-gauge cord for their 50-amp shore power cords. And Airstream confirmed that there was no “skinny” 50-amp shore power cords being shown or sold at to the latest rally.
What did they see?
It appears that someone at the AirStream Rally saw a 30-amp / 120-volt shore power cord and confused it with a 50-amp / 240-volt shore power cord. Of course the 30-amp cord is much smaller and lighter than a 50-amp cord, so this was probably just confusion by the attendees. But there’s no NEC complaint 50-amp shore power cord that’s 1/3 the size of existing cords.
What am I going to do?
I already have support from SmartPlug to help me write a definitive article about this confusion. And I’ll have my contacts at NEC fact-check this article to make sure it’s 100% accurate. This will take a few weeks to properly write and vet.
Please stand by…
I’ll publish this definitive article here first, but we’ll then distribute it to all the various RV forums, groups and news outlets. In the meantime, if you see a skinny shore power cord on Amazon or eBay, don’t buy it.
Let’s play safe out there… Mike
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Thanks for putting this issue to rest Mike. Great work as always!
Hi Mike: Reference the 50amp skinny cord at the Airstream International Rally. I re-read my comment and I did not SEE a skinny 50amp cord, but saw a picture shown to me by the in booth representative of Smart Plug and he stated that the new 50amp Skinny Cord would be introduced in the Spring of 2025 and that it could be coiled as easily as the 30amp he had in the booth and that it would also be available as a right angle hanging cord. So, either Smart Plug is telling you the part truth that they do not have one NOW, and might in the spring OR the representative was full of it. Everything they had in the booth when I was there was 30amp items. In either case it's what I was told and I had two other people with me who have since confirmed what we were told. It will be interesting to see in the spring. Thanks for your follow up.