What I discovered with my 178:

1) 12 volt power bus on bottom of Pod just forward of stabilizer street (port) side. Nice!

[edit: It's a short stop circuit breaker, not power bus]

2) Close by, 12 volt wires (green+white) running through floor into locker just froward of fridge

3) In locker mentioned above, removed panel covering 110 outlet. Noted wires (green+white) above entering and noticed 110 volt wire chase (channel) along outside wall.

4) Removed panel below draws and noted 110 volt wire run (above) exiting. Nice easy wire run.

So, looks like one could easily tap the 12 volt bus below the pod, enter in the existing hole and run whatever along the street (port) side. Of course, it would require inline fuses for whatever you do run.

I have a small 400 watt inverter now, but now I see wiring a larger inverter in that locker would not be difficult at all.

I hope that helps and would be curious if anyone else has tapped that bus.

fred

There is another chase that runs the width of the pod (178) from under the shower pan to under the slide out. It's where the shore power line runs and bathroom plumbing, etc. Short and easy access to power panel from under shower pan. It was a little trickier snaking my copper snake through it than the wall side, but not that bad. I left some strings in place in both chases for any wiring mod I might want to do. Sooo, you may not be able to run wires through the walls, but you certainly can through the floor! I use the copper ground wire from some romex scrap for my snake.

This channel is where the water from our leaky shower drain made its way last summer. We had it replaced but haven't tested it out yet. We did notice that the floor in this area is soft, presumably because it's hollow. Wondering if the water leak could have compromised any building materials used in that space?  The Camping World that replaced the drain said the floor was fine. Hmmm....

Y'all are more tech savvy than I and I always appreciate your insight!!

Glad to know it just might be possible to install a 12v socket next to the dinette!

I wouldn't worry about the wiring. It should be fine. There are a lot of wires running underneath your rpod that get wet all the time.

I could see a delamination issue if water seeped into the thin wood laminated to foam core. I would think you would notice the tile buckling a bit if it was an issue. You can easily remove the vent below bathroom floor and poke around a bit and look underneath the pod. I would think if there is a problem you might see it.

fred

I already was using two of the three spare 12v. positions on the WFCO panel so I decided to use the main distribution post and ground under the pod. I was a little concerned about the ground connection only because of the number of connections currently being used. After removing the grounding screw and reattaching, I fell confident it's not an issue.

[edit: It's a short stop circuit breaker, not main distribution post]

Of course, I disconnected both shore power and battery power (at the batteries) before starting.

I didn't have any reservations about making a hole in the floor. Heck, I've drilled larger holes below the waterline on six-figure yachts so holes in pod floor don't worry me - as long as you make sure you don't hit anything on the way out or in! I made a large hole (1") because it was the smallest hole saw I had. I started from the inside, then made a small pilot hole all the way through and finished from below. Gave me lot's of room for wires and goop.

I used 30A inline blade fuse holders for both sockets w/15A fuses. The wiring is 10AWG thin stranded copper from Home Depot. There was enough room in the existing split wire loom to run the wires below. I added a few wire tires just for added benefit.

After double/triple checking all connections I reconnected battery and measured both sockets with voltmeter just to make sure. It's easy to get mixed up sometimes. I then filled the hole with a ton of black silicone just like FR seems to like.

I'm happy with the mod and would welcome any criticism. pics...

We both use those little clamp on lights a lot. Me in my man cave and she in her pottery studio, soooo, I bought another one for $6.50, added a 40w "warm" LED bulb for $8.00 and plugged it into my little Cobra inverter plugged into my new 12v. outlet. I like! She likes. Nice comfortable light and @ 5w not worried about drain. Much, much nicer reading light than overheads.

Good idea about a light coat of grease. I didn't see any coating on the factory connections, but I'll try to find a standard.

Thanks.

fred

 

Vaseline will work well to prevent corrosion and water intrusion, as long as it is protected from being washed away.

[edit: It's a short stop circuit breaker, not 12v distribution posts]

The only change I made were the two white and two green wires terminated with the yellow ring connectors - white (positive) to distribution block and green (ground) to existing ground screw on frame. Simplest, shortest run for adding circuits to street side (slide side) of pod.

Here's a closeup of the distribution block:

[edit: as noted, it is a short stop circuit breaker, not distribution block]

Sound like good stuff and cheap insurance.

fred

Thanks!

fred

http://www.amazon.com/BUSSMANN-Circuit-Breaker-CBP-50BA-CBP50BA/dp/B009K705AO - http://www.amazon.com/BUSSMANN-Circuit-Breaker-CBP-50BA-CBP50BA/dp/B009K705AO

I would guess it's an automatic reset thing.

So in my install do you think it matters was side of the breaker my power leads should be?

Good catch!

fred

fred

Good eyes!

fred

The bottom case is essentially a "tub" so being inverted it will tend to not hold water.

However I don't like the exposed wiring where all the connections for running lights/brakes/turn signals/DC feed are connected.   Some day when I get time I'll enclose them all in a plastic box to keep road spray off.

 

BTW when we picked up our 179 I found the left and right turn signals were reversed...it was corrected by swapping the wires in this location where the connections are made between trailer and pigtail wiring...so much for FR's much touted QC process- the factory sure didn't check the lights on my unit!

Thanks

Gary