Adding 12V Outlets and where

Waiting for my Elkmont to arrive and am looking forward to its frequent use. I am looking to do some serious video recording and running a laptop for light editing and documentation notes. My problem...

Only 1 DC outlet located behind the TV . Not an issue, per say, when staying at a hookup but that will not always be possible.

I was looking to possibly add 2 to 4 more at various areas to run 12V battery chargers for the camera and laptop. My thoughts were placing them close to the existing lights and tying into their wiring. majority of the charging will occur during the day so I am not too concerned about current draw.

2 places are near the light sconces around the couch/dinette area, one on the bathroom wall and one on the small end wall between the couch and the "bedroom". Question: would anyone know if these walls be foam filled laminate or hollow?
I could try to pull one of the sconces and see what is behind it, will have to do this anyways to find out how/where their wire is run.
Other choices would be to tie into the lights over the "headboard" and mount the outlets to the bottom of the wardrobe closets on either side of the bed.

Anyone see a problem with this?

And the big question, what would this do to my warranty?

FYI one of of the extras I am getting is the 80 Watt solar panel kit.

I purchased an adapter from Radio Shack that plugs into one 12V DC outlet and provides you with 3 outlets. As I recall this was only about $20. When it is not needed we just remove it and store it in a cupboard. Works great.

I have been looking at that possibility and will be using it for the short term.
The downside for me is that the TV is near the ceiling next to the door at the foot of the bed. I would have to come up with a small table to set my laptop and chargers on below the TV.

I am looking for a long term solution and with what I was suggesting I could use the 2 night stands and the dinette table, and am hoping by doing this splitting up the load over a couple of circuits.

I am not familiar with the Elkmont but I looked at the diagram in the brochure. If your power converter is the same as my 3326 I had several 12V open circuits on the panel so I just wired in a new 12V heavy duty receptacle that can handle 15 amps that I bought at O’Rilleys Auto Supply. I put the new receptacle next to the power converter and existing 12V receptacle that came with the TM. The existing 12V receptacle can only support 8 amps according to the manufacturer and blew the fuse when I plugged in the pump for my air mattress that required 11 amps.

Looking at the diagram if you were to put in a new circuit you might be able to run the wire from the power converter under the shower to underneath the sink to under towel storage to under the couch. You could then install the wire to the front part of the couch and put the new receptacle there. At this location you can put your equipment on the table and run the power cord straight down to the floor. Another way that you can run the wires is to just drill a hole in the floor in the power converter area and just run the cables underneath the TM to under the couch and drill another hole to run the cables under the couch. Use some liquid foam (Good Stuff and any big box store) to seal the holes and make sure the wires are secured under the TM.

Good Luck!

Looking under the couch of my Elkmont there a bunch of 12v hot wires that you may tap into. Under the couch is the water pump, heater & the fresh water tank with lots of room to work with.

Depending on the amount of current you plan to draw from the outlets ( especially if all are in use at one time) you might consider running a separate #14 stranded wire directly to the battery. Don't forget the appropriate fuse. This might be more work but will prevent blowing fuses when you start operating appliances on the tapped circuit.

Thanks for all the feed back and wonderful ideas. Now I have to wait (boy the days seem to be getting longer) for the trailer to arrive and see which of these options will work best towards my needs.

BTW any idea about the warranty impact?

As far as impact on the warranty I would either send a note to Ed at Trailmanor customer service or ask your dealer because they would be the one to do the warranty work. My guess is that it would not affect the warranty. My reasoning is that if you cut into an existing line and do not change the fuse out that is on the line even if you overload the line it will blow the fuse before it does any damage. In this case all you have to do is replace the fuse. If you run a new line to the power converter I personally would not put a fuse bigger than 15 amps in the open space on the power converter and use an appropriate gauge wire (gauge is the thickness of the wire if you do not know the term) to run to the new 12V outlet. When I bought my wire at Walmart the package told me how many amps the wire would handle safely. I think I used 14 or 16 gauge wire.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by rumbleweed

Depending on the amount of current you plan to draw from the outlets ( especially if all are in use at one time) you might consider running a separate #14 stranded wire directly to the battery. Don't forget the appropriate fuse. This might be more work but will prevent blowing fuses when you start operating appliances on the tapped circuit.

It's actually not such a good idea to start running separate wires directly to the battery. There should be plenty of space in the fuse panel to add additional fuses. If there isn't, it would be better to start a separate fuse panel and wire it to the converter feed line. You can buy fuse panels from 2 fuses to 50 fuses. They are very common in the marine industry for boats.....(floating RVs).

The only wires that should be on the positive post of the battery would be the 12V feed to the converter, the trailer emergency brake and the inverter (if you have one). Once you exceed that, you are asking for problems.