hooking up shore power to my conversion van

Will a battery charger on the chassis battery keep it charged while using the accessories in the van while it's not running?

salvatorejrm wrote:
I don't have a chassis battery and my wife likes to leave the TV on all night.

Clearly you meant house battery as the chassis battery is for the engine.

Is your rig is not set up for a house battery then perhaps adding one and all of the equipment is a solution but likely involved.

Since you asked about hookups why not just add a basic battery charger to the battery?

I am looking to use the power at the campground will not be plugging it in at home. Thanks for the info much appreciated.

My assumption was apparently wrong - You will need to install a couple of batteries in your van and purchase a 300WATT PSW INVERTER to be able to do what you ask.

You will also have to watch your battery charge status and if you drain them down below 12.0VDC and not recharge right away they will not last very long. i.e. you will need to come up with a good way to re-charge your batteries.

What you don't want to do is tap into your VAN START BATTERY system otherwise you will run it down and be stranded somewhere and probably have to replace that battery as well...

You need a PLAN B called a small generator

Roy Ken

Assuming you are asking about hooking up to 120VAC maybe at home where you do not have a camp ground type pedestal around.

All you need to do is run a good quality preferably a 10-gauge construction grade YELLOW extension cord (10-3) into the 120VAC RECEPTACLE in your garage. You can use a 12-GAUGE (12-3) but I would not go any smaller gauge wiring extension cord (Like the red ones at WALMARTS)... All three wires must be connected in the receptacle to provide HOT-NEUTRAL-GROUND to your shore power connection. At the other end of the extension you will need to purchase a RV30A-15A long DOGBONE type adapter from WALMART that looks like this...

DO NOT USE any of the small 30A-15A round type adapters otherwise your shore power cable prongs will melt down on you.


We do this all the time with our two trailers sitting in my back yard. We can run most anything in the trailer with the 20AMP SERVICE we are plugged into. The problem is you can only one high wattage at a time. I.E. if you are running the air conditioner then when you turn on the microwave it will trip your house breaker.

We always use a RV 120VAC Plug In voltmeter in a good spot inside the trailer so we can get a good glance at it before turning on any high wattage item. This meter has the SAFE ZONE printed on the faceplate. If the AC VOLTAGE is not inside the GREEN SAFE ZONE then we will not turn on anything that is high wattage...



works good for us. Also is a good idea to carry these items with you on trips. You never know when you might need to plug-in to a 120VAC 15A/20A circuit. when we visit the kids we do this in their garage and sleep in our trailer when visiting.

Roy Ken

I don't have a chassis battery and my wife likes to leave the TV on all night.

Assuming you have a functioning converter, coach battery & chassis battery, why do you think that would kill your battery ?