Tying Into an Outlet On a RL Model

[Bob Landry]

My trailer is an Outback 277RL, but this question could pertain to any RL model where the power connects at the rear of the trailer.

My shore power comes into the bottom compartment of a table that has a swivel rocker on each side. Behind each chair there is a 110V outlet.

I have an aluminum storage box on the rear of my rig that houses an air compressor, chocks, wooden pads and an assortment of stuff. In order to use the air compressor, I have to run an extension cord from the box to the outlet on the side of the trailer.

What I want to do is tie into one of those outlets, run the wire out the bottom of the trailer and into the storage box where there will be a switched electrical outlet that will be used to run the compressor. That way, I can reach in and flip a switch and I have air without having to mess with an extension cord.

I guess my question becomes, has anyone tried to run a wire down the back wall from one of those rear outlets. I think the rear wall is hollow because it flexes, unlike the other walls that have styrofoam sandwiched between the panels. I'm hoping that this will be an easy project, just wondering if anyone has done something similar.

[hankpage]

Bob, When I replaced the electric hatch on my Cougar the rear wall was basically hollow except for some fiberglass insulation. Removing the plate for your electric entrance, to peek inside the wall, may allow you to fish a wire over from one of your interior outlets and install another exterior covered outlet. Just thinking out loud, Hank

[JRTJH]

Bob,

We also have the table/cabinet, swivel chairs and two outlets on the back wall. Our shore power conversion to Marinco enters the RV at the back of that cabinet and goes under the floor over to the circuit breaker box. The back wall is a floating wall and except for a little (very little) substructure, it's pretty much open. There are a couple of vertical studs from the lower platform up to the window support framework, but the wall floats on that and isn't attached so it should be simple to fish a 14 gage romex along that route.

Either of those outlets on the back wall is about 2' from the center of the table/cabinet. I think it would be pretty simple to run a piece of 14 gage romex from either outlet to the center and then to install an outlet box under the Marinco outlet (or use a Marinco outlet) to provide 115 VAC there. Then, rather than hardwiring the box, you could install an outlet inside the box with the switch you're wanting, but don't hardwire it, install a plug on that outlet and simply plug it into the outlet under the Marinco 30Amp inlet. That way, you could simply unplug the box outlet should you need to ever remove the storage box and/or use the outside plug without having to even open the storage box.

If this seems confusing to you, I'm thinking out loud and tired at the same time, something that for me is a challenging way to be when I try to explain something......

[SteveC7010]

Bob, I fully agree with Hank and John on this. The back wall should be exactly what you expect it to be and fishing a piece of romex here or there should not present any unusual challenges.

I'm thinking that you could use that dead space in the bottom of the cabinet where the big Marinco already is to create sort of a reverse shore line. Use a shore line hatch, and maybe 15' or so of high quality outdoor extension cord. Cut off the male end and connect into the 110vac pretty much like you've planned. When you need the extension cord, open the hatch, pull out the female end and however much cable you need and you're good to go.

Now that I think about that a bit more, I may just have come up with another mod for my rig. (tx)

[Bob Landry]

It was a pretty simple job. The hardest part was dealing with the 16 screws that KS used to put that small table in. Since my goal was to not deal with extension cords at all, I opted to hardwire from an outlet behind the chair to an electrical box in the aluminum box. I used a square box with a standard outlet and a DPST switch. I split the outlet so that one is always hot and the other for the air compressor is switched on by reaching in the cabinet. The wall was basically hollow and it was easy enough to fish the romex through it. There was already a hole in the floor where the shore power wiring goes to the converter so I used that and ran the romex out the edge of the coroplast covering to the box.
I considered the suggestion about just adding another outlet to the back of the trailer, but I wanted to reserve that area in case I want to add a 20A inlet to run space heaters during the winter without using the trailer's 30A setup. Still haven't decided on that yet.