Shore Power Connections 1 & 2 ?

Hi,

Are both these connections close together?

Does one seem to do light load things and the other do heavy load things?

Do they both use the same size and gauge plugs?

Chances are you have 2-30amp shore cords. Well you could run part of the boat on 1 shore power cord, if you were running a light load such as no air conditioning. However if you were running air conditioning and water heater and such, you have to run 2 cords to have enough power to handle everything.

Yes.

On your electric panel, there may be a selector switch that will allow the entire system to power up on only one cord. Running on one, you will have limited use of AC powered systems. Use of both cords is recommended.

And ideally plugged into 2 separate circuits on shore if possible. Not into the same duplex outlet.

If you will be visiting various marinas it may behoove you to pick up a "Y" which will plug into 50 amp service at the dock and allow you to plug your (2) 30 amp cords into it. They are a bit expensive though.

Normally, 1 power cord is dedicated to the A/C units and the other to all other normal power. You should have a "Y" adapter so that you can plug into a 50 amp source. Your power panel should indicate somehow what is on one cord and what is on the other. Attempting to run everything on one cord could be a disaster. You could easily overheat a cord or recepticle before a breaker snaps, if it does at all. In addition it is a good idea to detach both power cords on the boat side and unscrew the recepticles and check them for corrosion on the back side. Believe me corrosion can cause a melt down, been there done that.

I have a little older Chris Craft and on my panel there is a selector switch. There is three positions - outlet 1, both outlets or genset. I also have amp guages that indicate the amp use.

I agree that excessive over drawing a circuit can/does lead to a melt down which requied a lot of replacement and rewiring of breakers in the control pannel.

I have played with the different high draw units (AC, electric burners, microwave, toaster, etc) to see the max draw on one circuit as they are turned on. That helps if we are away and only have the one cord 50amp available when visiting away. We have two 50amps feeds when at home. That is more than enough with everything running. Use both cords if needed based on your draw.

TBAZ

I realize this is very old, but our 380 has 2 banks of switches for Port and Starboard. One 30 amp connection for each.

Any 380 other 380 Continental owners out there? I've had what would seem to be a few stupid questions like where is the hot water heater!