how best to add a 12V power receptacle

I want to install a 12-volt power receptacle in my 171 because I have a number of things that could use it (various battery chargers, my CB/weather radio, etc.) and because it would be handier in some cases than having to plug those things into my SUV.

I added three 12 volt receptacles to my 171 on the weekend - I probably should have taken pictures.  I just wired them into a new circuit on the converter.

I went for simple placement of the outlets: two of them in the cabinet face below the sink (so that we could plug-in cell phones and leave them on the counter overnight) and the third in the base of the dinette seat near the front wall (for a laptop or portable DVD player, so that the cord wouldn't interfere with people sitting at the table).  After taking off a few panels and having a look around, I knew that it would be easy to run the wires to those areas; in fact, I didn't have to drill a single hole for wires.

I just picked-up a couple of outlets from Canadian Tire.  I can't find a picture of them anywhere online, but the were the simple ones that unscrew into two parts.  I then used a dremel tool to cut holes in the wood, pushed in the "finished" side of the outlet in the hole and screwed in the back piece from behind to tighten it up.

Connecting the wires to the converter is fairly simple.  First unplug your trailer from shore power and then disconnect the negative terminal on the battery, just to be safe.  There's a ground bar screwed to the floor in the converter bay (under the dinette seat) that you screw the negative wire to.   The positive wire goes into the converter.   Pop open the converter's panel and unscrew the two large screws at the top to remove the converter's front cover.  On mine, There were three unused 12v circuits at the bottom.  I picked one, screwed in my positive line, and put in a spare automotive fuse.

In total, it took me about 45 minutes to put in the three outlets.

-----

-edit- HuronSailor had some good pictures of wiring the converter in his fridge fan installation podmod.  Check out his post.

Bigbit wrote: One question for Outbound: you say to tap off the back of the converter to get 12VDC.  I assume that the 12VDC is still there from the battery even if there is no 120VAC from mains?

Yes, the 12v side of the panel is powered off the battery when you're not connected to shore power.  But, although you feed your wire through the back of the panel, the tap is actually on the front.  Here's HuronSailor's picture from his fridge fan podmod:



This picture is the front of the converter with the panel taken off.  When you flip-down the converter's door, you'll see the 120v breakers on the left and the 12v fuses on the right (everything else is covered by the trim piece).

I'm really making this sound complicated.  Honestly, its not.  Once you remove the front panel from the converter, its very easy to see where the wire should be hooked-up.

The annotations are from HuronSailor's original post.  I used a 10 amp fuse, just because I had a few lying around.  Cell phones, DVD players and radios don't use that much power, so 10 amps should be fine.  If you've got a 12 volt hair dryer or coffee pot, which need alot of power, I'd put in a 15 amp fuse (I wouldn't really suggest using either as they draw alot of power).

Great job, tedbear .  The 12v outlets do come in handy.