Under estimating what you will need

[Shadow Catcher]

I am in the process of getting ready for the trip west and assessing adapting things like the Recom weather radio and Nancy's tablet, the lap top and the refrigerator in different locations. The commonality for both the Recom and the tablets is that they use wall warts taking AC and converting it to DC of a couple of differing voltages. We will for the most part not be on shore power so relying on solar much of the time. Compass Rose had three power points/cigaret lighter sockets, I don't like them not reliable and I just don't like them, so I have been switching them over to Anderson PowerPoles.
The Recom will take the 12V (I found it's wall wart puts out 18V) so a wire with the proper plug will be wired direct. The tablet wants 9V and I do not want to try it with more so I bought a buck converter that is regulated from China and have wired it with a power pole plug and the correct plug for the tablet. What to do with the Waeco refrigerator when we are out and about and don't really want it to leg off. It will now go inside Compass Rose plugged into a PP outlet.
I did not anticipate all of the things that would be plugged. We tented and roughed it for 35 years, now we get to take it all with us, its a lot more comfortable.
The moral of this story is when you plan your trailer leave the wiring open to expansion and adaptation and...

[8ball_99]

I'm a little surprised you have trouble with cigaret lighter sockets. I've never had a problem with them. I've got a few in the trailer, one on my motor cycle. Heck even have two in my SxS for running phone chargers ect. Love or hate them its nice to have a standard plug so you can move charge cables from different vehicles with out needing an adapter.

[bdosborn]

I had the plug for the endless breeze fan melt in a cigarette lighter plug. Luckily, they have a fantastic warranty and sent me a new fan for free.

Bruce

[Shadow Catcher]

I have had a number of them fail over the decades so Ya I really dislike them. The latest was the one that came on the Waeco refrigerator which was restricting power enough it would not go into boost mode. Part of my thinking is that what ever it i,s it will be less attractive to some one if it is an oddball plug is on it.

[aggie79]

I'm a little surprised you have trouble with cigaret lighter sockets. I've never had a problem with them. I've got a few in the trailer, one on my motor cycle. Heck even have two in my SxS for running phone chargers ect. Love or hate them its nice to have a standard plug so you can move charge cables from different vehicles with out needing an adapter.

Ours work great too - no problem. I did use the ones that had the spade lugs rather than the ones that had pigtails of 18-20 gauge wire.

[bobhenry]

Some of the more delicate pieces of electronic equipment can be fried by reverse polarity and the female cigarette lighter style outlet can easily be wired wrong. The center tip should be hot and the side barrell should be ground.

I am looking into trying to locate foreign outlets and plugins for the 12 volt DC portion of the caboose build. I especially like the German and Danish styles

[Shadow Catcher]

Anderson Power Poles can be assembled in various configurations and can be color keyed but once they are assembled, you can't plug them in backwards. I have used 50+ red and black 40A pairs and have a number of the 75A which are a fixed pair. Bob these are are as fool proof as you can have and they are plentiful and not expensive. http://www.powerwerx.com/anderson-powerpoles