Why 12 volt Exterior Outlets?

[Centex]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

.... The Andersen Powerpole stuff is nice, the little ones handle up to 45 amps... but they aren't weatherproof unless you put them inside a weather box. Otherwise they are my favorite DC connectors, and they have larger ones for 100s of amps.

John, now there's this option, looks like it'd be a very clean way to install an exterior Powerpole through our trailer shells: Panel Mount Housing for a Single Powerpole Connector with a Weather Tight Cover in White

Just for your consideration

[John in Santa Cruz]

ah, that white one is new. I have the older black dual one (inside), and I don't trust that cover to be actually waterproof, unless maybe you squirt a bunch of electrical silicone grease on it.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

So, now I am wondering if there might be a way to use a transfer pump (not the drinking water one!) to pump from the grey tank to the black tank.

I think that you would want to use a floating pickup in the grey tank to avoid the gunk on the bottom and the gunk floating on top, unless you use a macerator or trash pump.

A macerator pump can be attached to the dump valve outlet, and to pump through a garden hose to the black tank (via the toilet or an extra fitting plumbed through the trailer wall). These are not cheap, but they're commercially available mounted on a suitable fitting and powered by 12 VDC for pumping out RVs to a tank, and they can handle whatever is in the tank.

[Hawkeye Ed]

The exterior USB charger on our 2020 5.0 quit working so I decided the repair would be an easy project. Ha Ha.

To get to the socket locking rings on the inside I removed the passenger dinette seat cushion and figured out how to remove the plywood base below the cushion. Found the locking rings. ETI used all kinds of sealant so the job wasn't as easy as I hoped.

I ended getting the USB charger out with a big wrench which didn't really hurt anything valuable because you can see the USB charger was fried:

The cigarette lighter outlet in the other hole seems to be OK. I haven't yet decided whether to replace the USB charger with another one or install a second cigarette lighter outlet and use a plug-in charger like this in the future.

One thing to be aware of is that both the external 12V outlets and the inside outlets by the entrance are all powered by the same circuit that is protected by a 15 amp fuse in the WFCO power center. 15 amps at 12 volts calculates out to a theoretical total draw of 180 watts before the fuse blows (a practical limit of about 150 watts). So be careful how many high-current 12-volt devices you expect to run at once.

I'm thinking of adding an external PowerPole outlet on its own 30-amp service to run a little fridge and the other devices like a water pump or air compressor as others have done.

Any questions?

[John in Santa Cruz]

My approach to external USB charging was to take this little box, and replace it's cigar plug with a PP15. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09638CTJK

If I need multiple PP stuff at once, I have a 5 way splitter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KQD9V3G/