Second best RV mod - Gen and xferswitch

[tubular031]

I finally got to test my idea out this weekend. I installed a transfer switch and ran a wire up to the pinbox. I put my little champ gen in the bed of the truck and plugged in the trailer and fired everything up. Driving down the road on the way to camp this weekend I had the AC in the trailer going off the gen running in the bed of the truck. Got to camp and it was 107 outside!!! The trailer was 78 deg Awesome! No waiting 4 hours for the trailer AC to drop the temp down after we got to the site.

A couple things to remember…. I have an EMS hardwired into my trailer ( http://www.progressiveindustries.net/ems_hw30c.htm ) so there is no worries of the Gen running away or frying my trailer. The EMS will cut power off if anything goes wrong. I HIGHLY suggest everyone get one!! Next, the gen gets HOT when pushing 25 amps and sitting in the bed there is not much airflow when sitting still. When going down the road at 50+ mph there is LOTS AND LOTS of airflow so no worries of over heating.

Those of you with motor homes and toyhaulers know about this since most have gens installed from the factory.

[troid123]

Originally Posted by tubular031

I finally got to test my idea out this weekend. I installed a transfer switch and ran a wire up to the pinbox. I put my little champ gen in the bed of the truck and plugged in the trailer and fired everything up. Driving down the road on the way to camp this weekend I had the AC in the trailer going off the gen running in the bed of the truck. Got to camp and it was 107 outside!!! The trailer was 78 deg Awesome! No waiting 4 hours for the trailer AC to drop the temp down after we got to the site.

A couple things to remember…. I have an EMS hardwired into my trailer ( EMS-HW30C ) so there is no worries of the Gen running away or frying my trailer. The EMS will cut power off if anything goes wrong. I HIGHLY suggest everyone get one!! Next, the gen gets HOT when pushing 25 amps and sitting in the bed there is not much airflow when sitting still. When going down the road at 50+ mph there is LOTS AND LOTS of airflow so no worries of over heating.

Those of you with motor homes and toyhaulers know about this since most have gens installed from the factory.

Interesting idea, I like that! Thanks for sharing.

[oldschl1]

Ya, not bad I like it

[wingnut]

need a bit more for those of us that are "electrically challenged"...but im all for running the AC when driving down the road

[tubular031]

The transfer switch is like a relay. It lets you give 2 inputs with a common output. the output is the trailer power. Input A is the shore cord and input B is the gen. You find the power into the fuse box and cut it and put the transfer switch in there. then hook the cord running up to the front to the other side of the xfer switch. When you get to camp and plug in the cord the switch will filp from gen power to shore power. Then turn off the gen and setup camp. pretty neat. Ill see if I can get a picture this weekend. Not much to see but you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

[wingnut]

alright...i understand what a transfer switch is, and how it operates...but what im not getting is what you use to get the power from the generator to the RV while rolling down the road.

i have a mental imge of zip-tying the RV power cord down the side of the RV, up the trailer hitch and into the bed of the truck where the generator is

[tubular031]

Thats one way of doing it! haha

I ran a wire from the xfer switch in the basement through the front wall to the front compartment under the bedroom. Then I fished the wire between the bedroom floor and the outside skin up to the pinbox. On my trailer the light cord followed the same path so I sorta used that to help get the cord in. Then the cord drops from the pinbox to the bed like the light cord does. Remember if you are planning on doing this to use 10 gauge wire or better.