I just double checked mine again a couple of hours ago.....I must've got a dud.
Yes, you got a bad one. I would return it for credit, if you still can.
As a follow up,
this is the adapter I purchased. After reading the description a little more closely, I think I may have got
just what I bought. I've got a trouble ticket submitted to the website to make sure.
I don't think so. I think whoever wrote that bit of copy was not an electrical genius by any stretch. For example this:
If RV is wired normally it prevents the use of the 20 amp side of RV panel.
Is either meaningless, or just plain wrong. A "normally" wired 50-amp rig does not have a "20 amp side" of a panel. It has two 50-amp sides. I am guessing they meant that it prevents use of 240-volt loads, but who knows. Whatever they meant, it makes no sense as written.
I would not let them use this to weasel out of refunding your money or replacing the cord. Moreover, this:
They are Heavy-duty 10/3 ST power cords with 3-wires plus ground.
is also just plain wrong. This type of adapter uses 10/3 cord, which is three wires
including ground, not "plus ground" (which would actually make it 10/4, good buddy).
BTW, I just replaced my 30-to-50 dogbone, which gave up the ghost after over 20 years of service (
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/07/relaxing-on-clinch.html). A perfectly good 10/3 model cost me only $15 at Camping World, so perhaps the $5 saved by buying from this outfit is a false economy.
... Your 50 Amp draw will overload the neutral of the 30 Amp service. Some parks will have a sample of a melted 30-Amp receptacle as an example of some of the damage which can be caused by using the adapter.
This is also not correct. On a 30-to-50 dogbone there is no way to "overload the neutral" without first overloading the hot, which should trip the breaker.
Perhaps you are thinking of the "two-fer" adapters that allow you to connect your 50-amp rig to
two 30-amp receptacles. This is a box with a 50-amp outlet in it and two short cords with 30-amp plugs.
These boxes, in untrained hands, are dangerous for several reasons. One of those reasons happens to be that connecting the two 30-amp plugs to receptacles that are on the same leg of power, rather than opposite legs, can, indeed, overload the neutral, putting a full 60 amps on it. That said, 60 amps on a cord rated for 50 is unlikely to melt it, and you'd have to try really hard to get 60 amps onto it in the first place.
Campgrounds have a very different reason for discouraging the use of these "two-fers", namely that they don't want you using twice as much power as you've paid for. So it would be no surprise that they would resort to scare tactics like melted adapters at the front desk. FWIW.
-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com
