Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Probably beating a dead horse here, but............

What is wrong with just having a power strip that has a breaker and plug that into the short line 110v AC and then plug your "stuff" into this?
This would be much easier than to wire your TD like a house? Then again, about all I know about this topic is "plug in, switch on".

If this is not a good idea, would appreciate an example with SIMPLE and DETAILED explanation of set up. What guage wire, what was hooked up to how big a breaker, etc.

Thanks


Eagle

I plan on doing something similar. The down side is cords 'hanging around'.

I think it would be very workable with a front and rear plug... maybe one at each corner.

As mentioned, I did see a tear with a power strip in a notch in the galley bulkhead.. half in the galley, half in the 'living area'.....

I'm trying to work out my heater cord right now.... Was going to have it in the back, but am now leaning towards the front, with heater on a shelf (wired on to keep it in place). I will need an extension cord to charge the xpower, which will be in the back, or, I'll have to run a 12v wire under the tear, front to back, as the power wire, preinstalled in the walls, exits back/right side......

Eagle wrote:What is wrong with just having a power strip that has a breaker and plug that into the short line 110v AC and then plug your "stuff" into this?

The only problem I can see with that is running the cord inside - you either have to leave a door or your galley hatch slightly open. If I ever get to the point where I need a 110v connection inside (HA!) I'll rig an exterior RV-style plug-in connector that goes straight through the wall to a wall socket. But that ain't about to happen any time soon.

Joseph

I have pics of the transfer switch I built in the photos below. I made a transfer switch so I could switch from the inverter to "shore power" works great, and it is kind of cheap.

kai

There is a marine battery switch for dual bat systems. It has off, left, right, both.

could use it for shore or inverter power.. have to disable the both part, that could be trouble..

I had just posted athe exact same question over on the electrical forum.

Dawn

There is absolutely no problem with using an 'outlet strip'.

Just like there's no problem using a wash basin as a sink and throwing the water out when it's dirty. Or using a pitcher to carry water from the tap to the galley as your water supply, or using flashlights for lights inside the trailer, or using a card table and chairs for eating outside the trailer.
If you want a sink, with plumbing, that's fine too, or you want a powered water pump, or lights inside and out, or a built in table.

A teardrop is not constrained by what other people have built. If you look at the early, homemade teardrops, you'll see that they have no electrical system, or simply say 'you could put a car battery in to provide for interior lighting'.

Now a tiny travel trailer is even more flexible than a teardrop, because a teardrop should be a certain shape with a lift up galley in the back. But you could change even that and call it whatever you want.

In short, you can have whatever you want, or leave out whatever you want, it's your trailer, not mine.

The important thing to remember is placement for ease of use , maybe two strips one the galley, one in the cabin. It has been done before. I thought about doing the same thing. I opted for "wiring like a house" for purely cosmetic reasons. I would reccomend that you lay it out prior to the install during the build just to get it placed right for your use. That way you dont end up with a spider's web of wires that are in the way

Eagle wrote:Probably beating a dead horse here, but............

What is wrong with just having a power strip that has a breaker and plug that into the short line 110v AC and then plug your "stuff" into this?
This would be much easier than to wire your TD like a house? Then again, about all I know about this topic is "plug in, switch on".

If this is not a good idea, would appreciate an example with SIMPLE and DETAILED explanation of set up. What guage wire, what was hooked up to how big a breaker, etc.

Thanks

Eagle

Hmm, not a bad idea. The only thing it wouldn't have is ground fault protection, but I think they have pigtails at camping world with GF in them. Seems like it would be tons simpler than wiring from scratch.

Here's a wiring diagram I threw together showing wire sizes and such.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ebdosborn/tea ... iagram.pdf
Bruce