Melting Marinco plug in a Honda EB3000 generator.

[mestrezat]

I ran my Honda EB3000 generator this morning to charge my bank of batteries on my boat. Over the last day or so, I have had a problem where my Freedom 20 suddenly shuts off but restarts in a few seconds. When this happened, I went outside and checked the connection of the cord on the generator. All appeared to be fine and the problem stopped.
Today, I ran the generator again with no problems. When I was preparing to put it away, I pulled out the plug and found one of the contacts had started to melt on the plug on the cord.
A few years ago when I first bought our boat, I had a similar problem where the plug plugged into the boat. I replaced both fittings(cord and receptacle) and the problem was solved.
Any suggestions on what to do. Is the plug on the Honda side defective and if so, how can I check to see if it is? I have a spare cord(tough to get out here in Fiji) but am a bit hesitant to use it for fear of melting it too(last one I have) if the plug is indeed bad. It ran just fine today but tomorrow is another matter.

[JusDreaming]

this is generally caused by heat build up. Which is caused by an arc on the contact either on the male or female end, by either plugging or unplugging while power is flowing, or a cord being loose in recptacle. Pretty common problem if plugging in or unplugging with breakers on.
This is probably why Marinco sells the guts for boat receptacles, and cord ends.

[Florida Mike]

I have found that the plug on the cord is usually a problem. It is where the most flex happens and breaks some strands in a wire causing heat buildup. Considering where you are you might consider opening up the generator and cutting off the male end of the plug. Hard wire the cord to the generator until you can get new plugs. If you think about it the plug goes in and a wired tries to make a 90° bend, then the generator continuously shakes the wire. Do not forget to put some kind of chasing protection where you bring the wire out of the generator. Just my two cents, Mike.