Need to add a 12V outlet

[RjayMcMillan]

Hey all. we just bought a new 2018 Melbourne 24K. We dry camp a lot and need to add a 12V outlet for a small inverter as it seems there are none provided. Any ideas of what I can tap off of to get the job done? I want to add it around the TV at the over cab bunk or on in the cabinet next to it. Also I need to add a 2nd battery, the tray will only fit one battery. Any thoughts on a location for the second? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Pfflyer]

Welcome to the forum from another 24K owner. For a power draw of an inverter I would do a direct connect fused connection to the battery. There is a 12 volt wire I believe for the TV power antenna close to where you want but I doubt it would be a large enough wire. As far as an additional battery I have thought about a fabricated drop down tray in the same place at the current location. There is another Melbourne user that added another battery in the rear pass through compartment totally separated from the current battery with a switch. He could then pull off that bank when the OEM battery got low.


Good luck and safe travels.

[Forwardever]

I recently had my dealer install solar, replace the house 12v battery with a 6v AGM battery and add another of the same in the passenger side compartment aft of the rear wheel well. Although we gave up valuable storage space, the extra amp hours was well worth it!

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by RjayMcMillan

Hey all. we just bought a new 2018 Melbourne 24K. We dry camp a lot and need to add a 12V outlet for a small inverter as it seems there are none provided. Any ideas of what I can tap off of to get the job done? I want to add it around the TV at the over cab bunk or on in the cabinet next to it. Also I need to add a 2nd battery, the tray will only fit one battery. Any thoughts on a location for the second? Thanks for any suggestions.

Hey to you. Congratulations on the new Melbourne and welcome to the forum.

[Jagiven]

Welcome aboard. I am not a MH expert. I have added 6 12v outlets around our htt. I would start with some snooping. For example our 12v fuse box had a fuse in each slot. Maybe 4-6 were not used. So I tapped in to some of them. As for routing the new wire, I looked to see how/where all the other wire where routed. I followed those wires, pipes, heat ducts etc. I also found the cabinet lower shelf is hollow, and I carefully took some apart to route wires.

[pconroy]

It our last RV, I tapped into a 12V light fixture to power an extra 12V outlet.

[rgolding]

One little idea I've used a lot are power strips. It provides you with extra plug- ins for all the little gadgets we have, and it also provides a circuit breaker. We
have 11 extra power strips in our RV and even have brought 3 up through the floor from storage compartments, so I can unplug from the normal GFI plug in the storage compartment, and hookup a separate extra power supply from an extra extension cord going to the campground post for an extra space heater.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by Forwardever

I recently had my dealer install solar, replace the house 12v battery with a 6v AGM battery and add another of the same in the passenger side compartment aft of the rear wheel well. Although we gave up valuable storage space, the extra amp hours was well worth it!

May I ask a question regarding your 6 volt batteries? How far apart are they? It sounds like they are not next to each other. What size cable did they use to connect the batteries together?
Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[RoyBraddy]

I think you need to look at what purpose the added 12V socket is going to do for you... I have found that high DC CURRENT needed lets say 4AMPs DC and higher with need to be more on the DIRECT CONNECTED cable with ring terminal to a 12VDC Power LUG setup near the battery source...

They would use something like this from BLUE SEAS sold by AMAZON...


I also have a BLUE SEA FUSE PANEL in the line as well to provide total Power LUG fuse protection


I have two of these mounted close to my BATTERY BANK where the HOT 12VDC base is painted RED and the GROUND 12VDC is painted black. This allows me to run cables with two 12 gauge leads (or higher capacity) in a single cable called BOAT CABLE to tap into my 12VDC source...


When wanting to provide high DC Current (4AMPS DC and HIGHER) the use of these handy BLUE SEA POWER PANEL are not big enough in capacity to use. Things will start overheating for you... A small portable TV Screen unit may pull 5-6 AMPS DC Current.

I love these BLUE SEA POWER PANELs however and have two of them in my OFF ROAD POPUP one on each end where I have a table top for thing like DEVICE Battery charger and low DC requirements... Also love having a DC VOLTMETER in one to monitor the static 12VDC level on a regular basis...



These type panels have round units in them that can be rotated allowing you to mount the Power Panel vertical or horizontal. I find the USB power connections get used the most. The large DC connection is only good for low DC current unit like maybe a DC fan or something that only needs a couple of Dc amp to operate... Also found if you are going to have a DC METER in them it is nice to also have a POWER ON switch as the 12VDC Meter back lighting is kinda bright... I do leave one of mine ON all the time and it does make a great nite lite as well... Check out the various power panel options at AMAZON... very inexpensive and you would want to wire these type panel into a 12VDC LUG setup like discussed above...

I have already used up all of my spare 12VDC fused position in my 12v DISTRIBUTION Panel. That too is a great place to tap into your 12V Battery setup...



I really like to use the ring terminal type connections verses plugging in a single 12VDC Plug. If you really need to do this and it is 5-6AMPS DC be sure you purchase a matching pair SOCKET and PLUG which will not start getting hot on you perhaps... I find all of these goodies at AMAZON...



Roy Ken