Bumper just broke going down the freeway!

[Bill]

A lot of folks have a detachable power cord, and they apparently like it. I don't. I dislike it almost as much as I hated the mousehole in my previous TMs.

Why? Imagine that you arrive at your camp site in the dark. To connect electric service, the first thing you need is a flashlight. That leaves you one hand to unload the cord from wherever you store it. Then find the connector at the trailer end of the cable, align the connector pins to the orientation that matches the socket. Then insert it fully into the socket, turn it (it is a twist-lock connector). Then get the threads of the locking ring started without cross-threading it, and screw it down. All with one hand. In the dark. Frustrating.

Now imagine you arrive at your campground in the rain. You can hold an umbrella, but once again, that leaves you only one (wet) hand for those moves. Or you can use two hands and get wet.

Now imagine you arrive at your campsite in the dark, and it's raining. Flashlight and umbrella? You need a third hand.

Another frustration with a detachable cord? Since you need to work with the connectors on both ends of the detachable cord, you have to haul out the entire coil, all 25 or 30 feet, and pick through the coils to grab the connectors - even if you need only 5 or 10 feet. The extra cord always gets tangled, as in AmiJab's photos above.

My suggested alternative?
o If your cord comes out through the mousehole, pull it back into the rear storage compartment. Never use the mousehole again.
o If it is not already done, hard-connect the inner end of the cord to the TM's incoming power cable ends. TM used to connect it this way, but changed in the past few years.
o When the TM is closed down, the cord is carried in the driver's-side rear bumper compartment, coiled neatly, with the campground connector on the top of the coil.

Wait! What about coiling the cord into the compartment? Isn't that a pain? No, it's not. Before you leave home for the first time ever, pull out the entire cord and lay it out straight. Then, starting at the inner end of the cord, pull the cord slowly toward you hand-over-hand, making a loop with each pull. As you make each loop, place it into the compartment on top of the earlier ones. When you finish, the cord is neatly coiled in the compartment and the campground end is on top.

Setting up in the campground? Reach into the compartment, grab the campground end, pull out only the amount you need, and plug it in. Breaking camp? Same thing in reverse. Unplug the campground end, drop it on the ground, then starting at the inner end of the cord, pull the cord in and drop it, coil by coil, onto the existing coil in the compartment. The campground end is again on top of the coil, ready for the next use. Easy-peasy.

For me this is far preferable to the fussiness and inconvenience of the detachable cord.

Bill