Hello everybody, in my continuing RV maintenance course on the 98' Beaver Patriot, I've come upon a new problem. All of a sudden I couldn't get any shore power. This happened after I moved the coach to another area on my property and had to run a 12ga. extention cord to it. I thought that I had a bad GFI outlet or something at the house. After fumbling around and a lot of head scratching, I moved it back to where I could hook back up to my 30amp RV outlet. Still nothing, I had power to the coach but nothing at the transfer switch. Ah ha! the only thing in between was the power cord reel. After moving the reel by hand, I could hear my inverter coming on, I had power. I moved it a little more, NO POWER!
I have a 50 amp Cable Caddy power cord reel made by H&H Braund Mfg. in Canada. I took it out and took it apart thinking it must have brushes inside. Well it does have brushes but the neutral brushes were pitted and melted into their bakalite housing. The brass ring (contact plate) for the neutral was also pitted and had melted into it's plastic housing so that the ring was offset up and down by 1/4" (kinda like a merry-go-round). The brushes press against the ring as it goes around and around while reeling in the cord in or out. It's a weak link in the incoming AC power in my opinion. Can you imagine running 2 AC's through that thing with a bad neutral connection? I'm glad it didn't catch fire.
Anyway, I'm in the market for a new power cord reel. Is any brand better the another. I don't think that I want to go back to anything with brushes and contact rings.
Thanks, Mike