Power Take-Off in Front

When I installed my electric tongue jack a while back (a worthwhile upgrade IMO) I obviously needed to get power from the battery located in the rear of the TM up front to the jack. Because of the heavy power draw of the jack, I felt that rather than try to splice in from one of the existing power sources up front I should run a dedicated wire. So, I ran some heavy duty wire and wrapped it inside plastic accordian wrap for extra protection and connected it to a fuseable link off the battery and snaked the wire out of harms way totally inside the frame and up to the hitch area.

Because I actually had to take off the swing hitch to get the TM to fit inside my garage (taking it off buys about an extra inch which I need to close the garage door!), I figured that I should find some clean and easy way to disconnect the power to the jack to avoid stressing the connection when removing the entire swing hitch. I also figured that disconnecting it could prevent campground ner-do-wells from fooling with the jack when I wasn't around.

It took a bit of research to find a male and female connection that was heavy duty enough to handle the connection and power draw of the jack. But I found and installed a heavy duty weatherproof marine (marinco brand) female outlet permanently in the subframe so I could totally disconnect and reconnect the power as needed. I spliced the male connector to the electric jack and plug and unplug as needed. It actually locks in place with a tight weatherproof seal. I also purchased extra male-end connectors at that time for future need.

Recently, I purchased a PowerMover, which is an electric trailer dolly that requires house current to run the motor, but still requires 12v to accuate the TM brakes. So I spliced one of my spare, male end connectors to the dolly and use the existing permanently mounted female jack for power for that too.

All in all, it's worked out very well - providing I don't need to run two things simultaneously I will be fine for future needs. The attached photo shows the female connector mounted unobtrusively in the sub frame, and I put the male connecter in the picture to give you an idea on what it looks like.

I don't know if this would ever help anyone else, but so far it's worked out well for me.
Dano

[grill-n-go]

Very nice. The day my back gives out or DW threatens to trade me in, I'll PM you for specifics on, cost, materials and sources.