100 amp to two 50 amp dockside plug in adapter

[rsmith]

No breakers needed. The shorepower inlets on your boat are fused and each has a main breaker that would trip if overloaded.

NoNoNo over current protection only protects the wiring and equiptment down stream of the breaker of fuse. The 50 amp cords plugs and inlets would be protected at 100 amps twice the capacity of the wiring. A bad plug or short could torch the cables before the 100a breaker trips. Same goes for those 50to 30 splitters.

 

[northshoreone]

If I am following the connection thought process correctly, one of the two hot leads from the 100 amp plug at the dock needs to go to one of the 50 amp plugs going to the boat. The neutral and ground are used in concert to each of the 50 amp plugs. With that being said no more than 50 amps is being passed through each one of the wires thus enabling the normal size 50 amp marine cable to be used. I am not at the boat but as I recall hatteras doesn't use one of the four wires in the cable either the ground or the neutral....going to shore power. That would allow a piece of the four wire shore cable to be used going from the 100 amp plug to the two 50 amp plugs using the free wire to carry one of the two hot leads from the 100 amp plug to connect to one of the 50 amp plugs....yes??

In KPTIMs reply with a clean way to accomplish this....unless I'm mistake, with attempting to use that adapter there is no way to separate the two hot leads going to the two 50 amp plugs....unless I'm missing something....

 

[Pascal]

Well we spend quite a bit of times in bahamas (Exumas) I have never tried 100amps connections so I don't know if they are any better.

Usually when you encounter power issues, the problem is not the marina wiring but the island supply so 100 or 50 amp hook up won't make a difference. i think any story about the 100 amp being better than the 50 will be annectodal. One such place may be Exuma Yc in Gtown where the wiring has been half done for years. I have seen a couple of boats hooked up on the 100 shore power. By my guess it s just one or two marina

One reason the 100amp maybe more reliable is that the breakers will not be popping easily whereas when using 50 amp connections weaker, older breaker may trip.

We use twin 50 amps on the boat I run and I often have to manage loads in some places to prevent the pedestal breaker(s) from popping. Woudlnt happen if hooked up to a 100amp pedestal but then as noted above you get less protection. That said, it s not just in the bahamas but stateside too

 

[KPTIM]

YES, YES, YES, RSMITH is technically correct calling me out to the letter of what I said about the down stream protection for the feeder circuits relating to the fuses on the boat. He is also correct in his statement about the various versions of 50 amp to 30 amp splitters commercially available. Given that spirt pretty much all of the commercially available adapters, splitters and "Y's" violate one form or another of a UL, NEC, NFPA as well as ABYC codes. Certainly anyone fabricating, modifying or implementing any of these device should practice some common sense during use.

 

[Avenger]

Many days in the middle of a conversationusing the phrase I will interrupt and turn to one of my technicians and say "...and what do we know about common sense?" and they will reply "It's an oxymoron."

Slowly I turn.... believe me, I get where you're coming from. But the attorneys will not. B.O.A.T. and invest in a smart plug if one is available for that application. And if anyone is not familiar with the acronym, a number of times I've had to remind a customer: "...and what does B.O.A.T. stand for?"

 

[SKYCHENEY]

If I am following the connection thought process correctly, one of the two hot leads from the 100 amp plug at the dock needs to go to one of the 50 amp plugs going to the boat. The neutral and ground are used in concert to each of the 50 amp plugs. With that being said no more than 50 amps is being passed through each one of the wires thus enabling the normal size 50 amp marine cable to be used. I am not at the boat but as I recall hatteras doesn't use one of the four wires in the cable either the ground or the neutral....going to shore power. That would allow a piece of the four wire shore cable to be used going from the 100 amp plug to the two 50 amp plugs using the free wire to carry one of the two hot leads from the 100 amp plug to connect to one of the 50 amp plugs....yes??

In KPTIMs reply with a clean way to accomplish this....unless I'm mistake, with attempting to use that adapter there is no way to separate the two hot leads going to the two 50 amp plugs....unless I'm missing something....

No. You need two hots and a ground to each 50a plug. The neutral is not used if you have isolation transformers, but I would hook that up as well. You don't want someone else using the Y at some point who may need that neutral.

 

[Boatsb]

Maybe you can chalk it up to the cost of owning a large boat. Jack doesn't complain about burning 50 or more gph. It's the nature of the boat.