Friday, March 18, 2011

8. Electrical System

I realized that by picking up my trailer on June 20th, It'll be pretty hot returning to San Diego, CA along Interstate 10.  So I looked at temporary ways to bring electricity into my trailer to run my fan and small fridge.  I'll be staying in RV parks so the issue will be how to get an electrical cord into my trailer so that I don't have to leave a door cracked open.  The quickest and easiest method used by a lot of cargo conversions is to simply punch a hole in the floor and pass the cord through.  But that got me thinking.  If I was going to drill a hole in the floor, maybe I should look at a simple but more permanent solution.  It would also allow me to use my 30amp 125v RV power cord.  The photo below shows my solution.

I bought the yellow "pig-tail" at Amazon.com.  It's 30 amp and about a foot long.  It will enter thru a small hole that I will cut in the floor with a 7/8" hole saw and will be reattached to this box I built with parts from Lowes.  The box will be screwed to the wall.  Pretty straight forward.  The black 30 amp RV cord will attach to the pigtail under the trailer and hook up to the park's power box.  The little yellow device in the upper right is a polarity tester.  I'll use it to test first the park's box, then 30 amp cord and finally the outlets in my box.  Clean and simple install.  Best of all, the whole setup costs less than $20.00, not counting the 25 ft. power cord.  I have the hole saw and a cordless drill ready and will complete the installation on day one of my trip.

** Disclaimer:  Please seek the advice of a qualified electrician before wiring your trailer or have them do it for you.  Electricity can kill you.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to your next post!

GStotts said...

Thanks, I'm picking it up on the 31st. Should have pics soon after.