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[Tim McCulloch]

Interesting.  My small distro came with a 50' feeder on it.  I went down to my friendly industrial electrical supply house and picked up a pre-made 50' 6/4 CA extension cord for when I need to reach further.  It was a bit better price than buying connectors and cable.  I assume the only reason for this things existence on their shelf would be to extend runs from sources to spider boxes/distros.  I have had fire marshalls look at it and not say anything about the intermediate connection.  Now I'm worried that some stickler will call me on it and I'm up a creek.

NEC Article 520.53(J)

(J) Number of Supply Interconnections. Where connectors
are used in a supply conductor, there shall be a maximum
number of three interconnections (mated connector
pairs) where the total length from supply to switchboard
does not exceed 30 m (100 ft). In cases where the total
length from supply to switchboard exceeds 30 m (100 ft),
one additional interconnection shall be permitted for each
additional 30 m (100 ft) of supply conductor.

Tail to feeder:  1 interconnection; feeder to extension feeder:  1 interconnection; feeder to distro:  1 interconnection.  You should be good.

[Scott Wagner]

Interesting.  My small distro came with a 50' feeder on it.  I went down to my friendly industrial electrical supply house and picked up a pre-made 50' 6/4 CA extension cord for when I need to reach further.  It was a bit better price than buying connectors and cable.  I assume the only reason for this things existence on their shelf would be to extend runs from sources to spider boxes/distros.  I have had fire marshalls look at it and not say anything about the intermediate connection.  Now I'm worried that some stickler will call me on it and I'm up a creek.

I often use short "adaptor cables" to change the plug end on my feeder without actually having to change the plug. I've never had an inspector say anything about it. YMMV.

[Stephen Kirby]

Thanks for quoting the whole thing Tim.  Most places I use the distro have an installed CA outlet so I really only have the one extra connection.  Even with the short adapter cable it still meets this.  There is one place I did this summer where they have a feeder cable coming out of somewhere (it's hanging under the eave of the building) with a CA socket on it and something like 150' of extension cord they run out to their outdoor stage, which I plugged the flying lead of my distro into.  So from my side of things, it sounds like I'm okay.  Not sure how that pigtail outlet is connected in their building, but that's their problem.  It meters good and GFCIs don't trip so I'm not worried about next summer.

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