Adding a 20A inlet

Bob Landry · 09-26-2013, 01:48 PM

Does anyone know if KS ran the 110V wiring under the floor? I havn't dropped the coroplast yet to look at it.

My plan is to add a 20A power inlet, going to a sub breaker panel for branch protection so that I can run space heaters in the winter or fans in the summer without tapping into my 30A service which is already running at max. My thought is to go in between the slide outs on the street side. That would be the bathroom and I will build a box to mount the breaker panel in. Then if I can bundle the new wiring with the existing wiring, I should be able to put the outlets close to the existing ones, clearly marked, of course as 20A outlets.

jsmith948 · 09-26-2013, 02:33 PM

Bob,
Recently had the coroplast down on our Cougar. There wasn't any romex to be foundunderneath the floor. I believe all of our 110 VAC wiring is in the ceiling. As an example, our power cord mousehole is on the rear wall. The orange romex runs from the junction box located under the rear cabinet up the wall and disappears. When working on the power panel, I saw that the orange romex comes down into the back of the panel from up above. Hope this helps

Bob Landry · 09-26-2013, 02:41 PM

My orange romex runs into the floor. That's what led me to think the 110V wiring was run under the trailer. When I was adding a galley outlet, I opened the compartment where the converter is and it appeared that all of the 110V wiring went below. In the course of tracing some 12V wiring, it looked like that is all run through the ceiling. It's easy enough to drop the coroplast. It's only held up with 5/16 self tapping screws. I've just got several projects in the mill and I'm trying to save time and get everything done before cold weather sets it. Cold weather? I live in Texas. I can't believe I just said that. LOL

michol02 · 09-26-2013, 09:11 PM

I ran 20 amp service to mine a while back. It uses the park power breaker(no breaker inside trailer). I ran a 12 gauge cord(tie wrapped to the 30 amp cord) into the trailer. Connected it to 14 gauge romex, which runs between coroplast and floor, avoiding slideout gear, to 5 plugs throughout the trailer. 20 amp plugs are black so I can tell them apart from the 30 amp plugs, which are off white.

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Cords going into trailer.

michol02 · 09-26-2013, 09:13 PM

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One of the plugs. Used to run small appliances.

Bob Landry · 09-27-2013, 03:57 AM

My 30A cord is detachable, so I have to go with the same for the 20A.

I have a couple of comments about your mod, meant to be constructive, and not critical. Your 5 outlets do not need to each be on a circuit breaker, but the power coming into the trailer needs to be circuit breaker protected at the input so that you are not relying solely on the power pedestal breakers for protection. That's why your shore power goes to a panel with a double pole breaker.
I would not have mounted an outlet on the countertop surface because of the possibility of water spills, but since that's a done deal, I would replace that particular outlet with a GFCI type. That should be done for any outlet in close proximity to a water source, inside or outside. One GFCI outlet can protect several outlets as long as it's the first one in the string.

jsmith948 · 09-27-2013, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

My orange romex runs into the floor. That's what led me to think the 110V wiring was run under the trailer. When I was adding a galley outlet, I opened the compartment where the converter is and it appeared that all of the 110V wiring went below. In the course of tracing some 12V wiring, it looked like that is all run through the ceiling. It's easy enough to drop the coroplast. It's only held up with 5/16 self tapping screws. I've just got several projects in the mill and I'm trying to save time and get everything done before cold weather sets it. Cold weather? I live in Texas. I can't believe I just said that. LOL

I don't know why there would be such a difference between two models.
TT vs 5ver? Maybe there was a tall guy installing my 120 VAC wiring and they had a short guy doing yours??

Anyway, good luck with the mod.

Bob Landry · 09-27-2013, 05:34 AM

Who knows wht the gurus at Keystone think when they design these things. I gave up second guessing them long ago. My power panel/cpnverter is in the bottom of a diagonal panty by the door. Next time I'm at the trailer, I'm going to pull up the panel covering it and see where everything goes. Obviously, it's going to be easier to run wiring under the floor than through the ceiling(impossible). I need to drop the coroplast anyway to see where I'm drilling. It would be a real drag to drill into a tank, and that's the general area I'm looking at to install the extra wall outlets. The bathroom and entertainment center are between the two slide outs, so putting them there would eliminate constant flexing of cable so I could use romex and not stranded marine wire.

michol02 · 09-27-2013, 06:41 PM

You're right Bob, I should have a breaker in the trailer. I'm relying on the park power breaker to always work(and we know how perfect park power is) LOL. I do have all the plugs on a GFCI(first plug in the loop). I have a small breaker box in the shop that I can install in the cable storage area. Thanks for the advice. I'm a "shade tree" electrician(in training)!!

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