Campground Hookups

[Christina]

My second teardrop, a Pleasant Valley Spirit, will be my first teardrop with battery or electrical power. In fact, I have never camped with any kind of hookups.

What do I do? The Spirit has a 20amp converter with a battery and 110 / 12 volt receptacles with a landline. What kind of extension cord (shoreline cord?) do I use? Do I have to worry about voltage issues at certain campgrounds? Will hooking up to the campsite charge my battery?

All I will really be running is some string lights, the galley and bed lights, maybe a heated mattress pad and in the future, a small toaster oven.

I have tried to contact the manufacturer, but they are not responding.

Thanks!!

[Rickxr2]

I use a 12 gauge extension cord from Lowe's. It handles the A/C, lights, charger and single burner stove no problem. I've got a 50 footer, 25 feet doesn't always reach.

Rick

[kirkman]

You might also need one of these adapters for some camp ground hookups.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/power-grip-adapter-30a-male-to-15a-female/27985

[iplay10us2]

Definitely get the 30a to 15a adapter. If you ever got to a campsite and the regular 110v outlet didn't work, or wasn't even there, you would need the adapter.

I saw that teardrops of florida has a teardrop on ebay and it has the giant decals on it, too. Glad to hear you finally got yours off without too much damage.

[Miriam C.]

We have a 14 gage, grounded that won't get stiff in cold weather (blue cord). I only bought the 25' and it is long enough most of the time.

I have a longer outdoor cord for those other times. Have fun with it. I also bought an electric hot plate and coffee maker since I am using electric.

[madjack]

...first off, get the 15A/30/A adapter...should be under 15 bux and worth a million, for that once in a while you will need it...I use a 25' 12ga extension witha GFIC built into the male plug end and a 4gang box on the other and I carry 2x25' 12ga outdoor ext cords...this allows me to have a GFIC, then run one extension to the camper and one to the picnic table or wherever I set up my cooking setup since I like to cook outside of the galley.......
madjack

p.s. if you have a converter, it SHOULD charge the battery as well...please note, I said SHOULD............MJ

[wlooper89]

Christina,

I am curious as to how the extension cord from campground power connects to the trailer. With the electrical system already in place there must be a power inlet or some provision for the cord to connect. That would pretty much determine what type of cord to get. I am not familiar with this trailer but it surely does look nice in your avatar!

The Pleasant Valley web site mentions a "7 prong round plug" and I am not sure what that is. The term "landline" is also unfamiliar to me. Assuming the inlet on the trailer is configured like a 15A plug, two flat blades that are parallel and a round one (may be U shaped) for ground, a heavy duty 15A extension cord should work fine. As others have mentioned a 30A to 15A adapter for the campground outlet would be a nice addition, in case the campground 15A outlet is absent or not working.

As Madjack said the converter should be set up to charge the battery. In my homebuilt electrical arrangement a battery switch connects the battery to the converter. Another possible arrangement is for the battery to always be connected to the converter.

You can check whether the converter is charging the battery by plugging in the trailer AC electrical and powering the converter. Then using a multimeter (sometimes called a volt-ohm meter) check the battery voltage. If it is above 13V, then the converter is charging. Below about 12.5V means the multimeter is reading only battery voltage.

Bill
PS This is a digital multimeter priced at $3.99 that seems a great deal. The cheaper the better. I have one from Radio Shack that might be about the same price after shipping costs. It will probably take a digital meter rather than analog meter to read the voltage that closely.
http://www.kiesub.com/prostores/servlet/Detail?no=877

[wlooper89]

My second teardrop, a Pleasant Valley Spirit, will be my first teardrop with battery or electrical power. In fact, I have never camped with any kind of hookups.

What do I do? The Spirit has a 20amp converter with a battery and 110 / 12 volt receptacles with a landline. What kind of extension cord (shoreline cord?) do I use? Do I have to worry about voltage issues at certain campgrounds? Will hooking up to the campsite charge my battery?

All I will really be running is some string lights, the galley and bed lights, maybe a heated mattress pad and in the future, a small toaster oven.

I have tried to contact the manufacturer, but they are not responding.

Thanks!!

It finally dawned on me that the 7-Prong round plug mentioned at the Pleasant Valley web site has to be the the connector to the tow vehicle. That is what I have, a 7-pin plug and receptacle. That is nice and could mean a provision for charging from the tow vehicle.

So now I am only puzzled by the term "110 / 12 volt receptacles with a landline". quoted from the original post and also at the Pleasant Valley web site. Could landline mean that a power cord was meant to be included with the trailer? This trailer is very unfamiliar to me. It sounds very nice to come from the factory with all the electrical setup.

Bill

[Shadow Catcher]

The land line I think is a holdover from the marine/boat electrical terminology. Our trailer came with a 30A land line with a number of 12V plugs fed off of the inverter and a number of 110 outlets.

[Miriam C.]

...first off, get the 15A/30/A adapter...should be under 15 bux and worth a million, for that once in a while you will need it...I use a 25' 12ga extension witha GFIC built into the male plug end and a 4gang box on the other and I carry 2x25' 12ga outdoor ext cords...this allows me to have a GFIC, then run one extension to the camper and one to the picnic table or wherever I set up my cooking setup since I like to cook outside of the galley.......
madjack

p.s. if you have a converter, it SHOULD charge the battery as well...please note, I said SHOULD............MJ

Oh yeah! fortunately we carried both cords to Louisiana as we needed one for the TD and one for the First Up lights. You can have one long and one short.

[ARKPAT]

kirkman
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:54 am Post subject:
You might also need one of these adapters for some camp ground hookups.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/it ... male/27985

I have the same thing and also a 30 amp to 50 amp plug using a 50 four wire seventy-five foot RV hook-up cable ( when needed ) or a 20 amp 125 volt house heavy duty outdoor extension cord ( lighted-ends ). The latter is the most used; the 50 amp RV cable is VERY HEAVY and used mostly with the generator I sometimes use. Just MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING 125 volt NOT 230 volt if you use this arrangement ( I always test voltage and grounds on a plug before I plug anything in an outlet - if you are not sure always ask )



Pat

[tearhead]

We just agreed to purchase a 5 by 8 Little Traveler that's new, but not being sold by the original dealer or the manufacturer--so there's no one of whom we really can ask questions. Hopefully someone here wouldn't mind cluing in a couple of newbies!

We want to have our tow vehicle (gosh it's hard to think of a Subaru Forester as a tow vehicle!) set up properly.

Until we get the Forester hitch and wiring installed, we're going to get an adapter for our truck, which has a 4 connection (the trailer has a 7 prong plug). Any advice on whether it would be better to have a Subie dealer install the hitch and wiring, v. a U-Haul place?

[iplay10us2]

I have a Forester and a Silver Shadow. The Foresters come wired with a 4-way flat (at least mine did and I believe that is standard on them). I had to get an adapter to convert my 4-way flat to fit the 7-round on the teardrop. You can get the adapters at walmart and similar places. I went to U-Haul and had them mount my adapter because I didn't feel like messing with it. If you want the Forester to charge the battery while towing, you will need to run a charge line from the battery to one of the extra wires ( i forget what color right now) on the adapter for it to charge.

I have a 12v outlet at the back of my Forester, and I might be able to run the charge wire from there, but am not 100% sure about that. I am planning on asking the dealership about that when I take it in for servicing. That would make it much easier than running from the battery.

I have not added brakes to my teardrop.

[tearhead]

Thanks! It never occurred to met that the Subie might already have wiring. Then I just need the adapter. Do you think it would be better to have the dealer install the hitch or could a U-haul place do it just as well (since the wiring doesn't seem to be an issue)?

[iplay10us2]

I had U-Haul do mine, because there was a difference in price.

What year is your Forester? Mine is an 06. It seems like the wiring harness was kind of hidden in that little cargo area where your jack/spare tire is located. You can call your dealer and ask about the wiring harness, but it should already be there.