12v socket melting plugs/blowing fuses

I've been having an irritating and confusing problem with my truck's power sockets. A single 12v 10 amp socket had two devices plugged into it; both devices together shouldn't pull more than, or even equal to 10 amps, and on top of that were both plugged in and on for the greater part of 3 hours last night with no problems.

Tonight, the plug on the duel socket adapter melted, within a period of 10 mins. It seems that after some reading it could have had something to do with the socket not having sufficient contact with the leads, as a google search and a thread that I found in this very forum pointed out. That was likely the cause as the duel socket adapter was somewhat of a POS and did not want to stay plugged in (the light kept going out and I shoved it back in)

That may have been the case this time, but here's something I can't understand at all and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this; I have a 12v DC power adapter for my laptop and it is rated at 4.62 amps output. The plug on this adapter melted and I had to purchase another at a pilot. Several times, I had caught the plug getting hot, but saved it from actually melting, and each time this happened, the truck was off. The end result seems that if the truck is not running, the plug will melt if the laptop is on, but if the truck is running, it will be fine for hours on end. Does this make any sense? What's the significance here? I had a similar instance happen before with a power inverter, only instead of the plug melting the fuse was blowing. Every time I had this power inverter plugged in and my laptop connected (this was before I had the DC adapter and was using the AC adapter with the inverter) the fuse would blow if the truck was off and the plug would be very hot, however, if the truck was running, everything was fine. This beats the ever living hell out of me, I'm at a complete loss as to what could have been going on. Any ideas?

Thanks much!

 

soo....McGyver then still? lol

I'll do that with my next splitter, and all plugs from now on, but I'm still puzzled about my previous situation. It was consistent that the fuse would blow when the truck was not running, and it would be fine when the truck was running. I replaced the fuse in that inverter 4 times and each time it blew it was shortly after I powered off the truck and powered up my laptop. *shrugs* :\

 

ah ha, I see. Well that is...very annoying, but it makes sense! Thank you much for sheding light on this for me!

 

let's see, It is a coleman mini fridge, and a LED back lit lcd tv. I do not have the power consumption right off hand for the fridge, but I believe the display is 30 watts peak, or something a long those lines. The socket says 10 amps, so it had to simply be the case that the loose connection caused a higher draw of power. I bought a 10 amp fused splitter (a different design) and shoved some wendy's fork prongs down in there in all the sockets (original and the split sockets). So far, so good, but they've only been running for about 5 mins or so.

When the plug melted, it blew the fuse for the socket, btw. I had that replaced at the Gary OC earlier today. I hate these stupid little 12v sockets, they're so much trouble.