Exterior USB not charging

[Padre]

Why would anyone want USB ports on the outside of the trailer?
My personal reason, to keep every child, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, their friends, family, and acquaintances who are camping with us out of our shiny escape to charge devices. Need an on board nuke plant.
Fighting a losing battle...
Padre

[Padre]

And, I might add, mine quit working also. Explains all the traipsing in and out of my camper.

[Iowa Dave]

In my authoritative way I just tell my grandkids “We’re camping, you don’t need no blankety blank electronic devices. Go pick me up some Hickory nuts, mushrooms, worms, caterpillars pretty leaves, bird feathers.
Whatever natural thing I can think of. Then we have a science lesson they don’t get in school and they ask when we’re going fishing again. And we go.
Iowa Dave

[Ooshkaboo]

It’s a year old, we’ll see how long the new one last.

[brroberts]

As mentioned in my Padawan’s Life thread, the paneling under there is both stapled and glued. I didn’t expect the glue. I’ve started, so I’ll just rip it out now and replace when done. The plan was to remove the staples and reuse the paneling. I’ll replace it with something close, or some of the paneling I had ETI ship with the trailer. It’s not ever seen while living in the trailer, so just about anything would do.

Using a multi tool and blade to cut the paneling / glue remnants.

[Ooshkaboo]

It’s way easy to access on a 5.0, even better I can reach right to it from the hatch option.

I did have my fridge open up a few times, drilling the latch hole was a get it right the first time deal…

[bborzell]

‘22 21C. Outside USB port has never worked. 12V cig lighter works fine.

Not worth the time/effort to replace.

[brroberts]

It’s a project to replace. Paneling glued in. Water line 90 to the sink directly behind the outlet. Since I’ve already started, I’ll finish it.

[VanB]

Originally Posted by bborzell

‘22 21C. Outside USB port has never worked. 12V cig lighter works fine.

Not worth the time/effort to replace.

Agreed, our exterior USB was dead on delivery on our December 2021 delivery on our 21C as well. The lock ring is very tight, and was afraid of cracking the fiberglass as it was flexing as I tried loosening the lock ring with pliers. Decided to leave it alone for now. The 12v side works great.

[brroberts]

The paneling was glued with Loctite PL and the 90 waterline bend in front of it sure make this a fun project. I haven’t tried the lock rings back up in the cabinet. I might have 2 whole days in this just replacing this outlet. If I had known about the water lines and adhesive, I’d probably have left it broken, but sitting in the sun reading a book on our iPad on a lazy day in the mountains or at the beach while being able to just plug in the tablets is nice.

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by brroberts

The paneling was glued with Loctite PL and the 90 waterline bend in front of it sure make this a fun project. I haven’t tried the lock rings back up in the cabinet. I might have 2 whole days in this just replacing this outlet. If I had known about the water lines and adhesive, I’d probably have left it broken, but sitting in the sun reading a book on our iPad on a lazy day in the mountains or at the beach while being able to just plug in the tablets is nice.

Not sure if I’m too late with this, but you mentioned you’re using a doitall-multitool.
This scraper accessory works wonders.

[brroberts]

No scraping. I’m having to cut.

[brroberts]

Where I cut out paneling 46 7/16” X 17” to 14” in size, I will have to make three pieces and add some blocking because the finished cabinet is not large enough to make one or two panels fit. I’ll make it all removable so in the future electrical and plumbing in there will be easy access.

[CharlesinGA]

For those of you who want outside USB power and either don't have the power outlets, or they don't work, or you actually consider glassing the holes closed and refinishing the mess to do away with the USB power plugs, here is a good alternative.

Most everyone has a cordless drill, impact, etc, and most everyone buys the same brand of everything for battery interchangeability. Well, the newer USB power ports and even many of the plug into the power/lighter socket ones are designed to operate on as much as 24 volts or even up to 30 or so.

There are many ways to make a portable power pack, but the gist of it is a adapter that slides onto the brand of battery you have, and they are $15 on Amazon and are called "power wheels" adapters as you wire them into kids power wheels that they drive around the yard and use your 18 volt tool batteries. I found them for Makita/DeWalt/Milwaukee/Kobalt/Ridgid AEG/Black&Decker/Craftsman and even the oddly shaped Ryobi. They all have wire pigtails sticking out of them, with a fuse holder in the positive, and many have a rocker switch on them (which is good to get). You then, in one or many different ways make a bracket or something to hold the USB power ports (I bought things called "tents" by the Chinese) and mounted them in there (I used these in the trailer to mount the USB power devices on the wall on either side of the dinette also)

A piece of lightweight 2 inch angle aluminum screwed to the battery holder with holes in it for the chargers would work as well. This is a use your imagination thing.

Just be sure that any chargers you buy (and there are zillions of them on Amazon) say 12/24 volt or similar. Also realize that any of the chargers that have switches on the face, either touch sensitive capacitance type, or tactile click type, all draw a small amount of current even when turned off. In my trailer, I ended up installing a illuminated rocker switch to positively disconnect the power, as the two I had in there were drawing 1.76mA combined when off (I discovered this when I went to put the fuse in and the blown fuse indicator was on).

If anyone is interested in links to any of the things I have shown, just say so, its all Amazon stuff, and a piece of plywood out of the scrap box cut, drilled, sanded and varnished with a couple of coats.

Charles

[brroberts]

I have the M12 adapter and it will run my iPad. I have the DeWalt and it will charge an iPhone, but not an iPad. The max output current on each device is different. I travel with my D20, not my M12, but my USB is now replaced. I now have easy access to fix it anytime needed.

[Oldtimer]

I installed my USB ports on the storage hatches easy to get to and install . No dealing with cutting the fiberglass. Readily available to use on both sides of trailer

[brroberts]

Mine is factory in front of the PS wheel well.

[C-weed]

I have a slightly different problem. On the return trip from picking up the new 21c trailer, the outlet by the door entrance round plug stopped working. I had a small air leak in my mountain bike tire. Which caused this outlet to be used a few times for a small compressor. The inside of the socket has backed off the base and is dangling. Is there a ring on the inside that holds this socket on to the outer base?

[Camp@Home]

You have picture?

[brroberts]

Should be a threaded ring on the inside.