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Sunday, June 7, 2015

Add an external 120V receptacle


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Every motor home or camper van may seem to be deficient a feature or two. I purchased a Roadtrek 210P and I've made a few improvements to tailor it to my personal "tiny home on wheels" lifestyle.

One thing the 210P does not have is an exterior 120VAC receptacle. This may not be a problem if the site one rents has a meter with both 30A RV power connector and 120VAC ground fault receptacle. In such a case, all that is required is an outdoor rated extension cord and we can power up lighting, an induction heat plate or even a boom box. However, if the campsite has only a 30A RV power receptacle then we face a dilemma. The only way to get power to an exterior device or extension cord is to leave a door open and use one of the ground fault protected 120VAC receptacles.

That solution was not acceptable to me, and so I decided to add an exterior 120VAC receptacle. The following video shows how this was done without violating the integrity of the RT body and fiberglass shell.



4 comments:

RonBoyd said...

What year is your RT? Our 2008 210V has two external 120v outlets from the factory. They are located to on the left side of the battery drawer (outside of the battery compartment).

Norm R said...

Hi Ron;
My 210P does not have any outside 120V receptacles. It's a 2013 year. The closest we have to an outside receptacle is the one under the 3rd seat adjacent to the side entry door. That's the one I used in the video.

RonBoyd said...

Oh! That's too bad. (One could almost) use the term "design flaw."

Norm R said...

I'm sure Roadtrek had their reasons. One problem with any outside receptacles is keeping them dry. Another is keeping someone unauthorized from getting to them or using them. Deleting outside receptacles may simply have been a cost saving measure. The 210P is a really amazing product, but in such a small vehicle everything is tightly fit into the space, which is a premium. For example, I had a good time figuring out how to add a solar charger and panel while unobtrusively routing the cable to the coach battery compartment. Ditto for adding the power protective device, which includes a remote readout with bypass switch.