Shore Power

#vanlife .

I need more power

When we were tent camping, we rarely had the opportunity to plug anything in and had few power requirements beyond our flashlights.  Our new van has a small refrigerator, a roof fan, USB charging ports and lights so we have an electrical setup with a battery charged from the van alternator to power them.  We did not expect to have much opportunity to “plug-in.”

As it turns out there are actually many camp sites that have 110V power available.   We found ourselves dropping an extension cord out the back more often than we first thought we would.  It was a pain to open the back doors to do that especially with our bikes attached to the back.

So I bought a Marinco receptacle, drilled a 1 7/8 hole in the bumper, cut a 14 ga, 3 wire outside extension cord, ran it through the pass through in the drivers rear behind the bumper and can now easily plug in. (I couldn’t bring myself to correct this since it made me laugh! – Mrs Ram)

 

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2 thoughts on “Shore Power”

  1. I’m trying to put the same marinco plug in my promaster in the same spot you did and have a few questions. One, did you remove the corner panel or just remove the three bolts and pull it out? Second, there is a small plastic pass through that has a rubber flap covering it. Is that where you ran your wire into the van or did you go in somewhere else? Pls tell me more about where you brought your power in.

    Do you wish you had wired for 30 amp instead of just 15?

    Thanks in advance for your assistance.
    Vic H

    1. I did not remove anything. I just drilled through the plastic bumper with a hole saw from outside. If you measure inside the bumper from underneath and then drill in the right spot you can avoid any sheetmetal.

      I removed one end of an 12 GA extension cord and ran it through that pass through from the inside out to the bumper. Then wired it to the newly installed Marinco Plug.

      15 Amps has been plenty for our needs. It runs the battery charger, our microwave and a small electric heater if its cold. We do not run the heater and the microwave at the same time.

      Note that after a year the cover stopped staying closed. I stopped at an Ace Hardware and picked up and o-ring that fits into the groove on the cover and keeps the cover closed.

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