mouse-hole to twist-lock

GordonThree wrote:
Same thing here, but I didn't bother cutting mine into a circle.

Yeah, square would be much easier... I drilled a small hole in the center and used a short piece of thin wood with a nail in it as a guide to keep the jigsaw blade at the same radius all the way round. IIRC correctly, I made the disc round because the cheapest inlet I could find was a round one and wanted more of a factory look.

As an aside, the collar on the end of the cord is available with 1/4 turn locking or threaded. I've had both and like the 1/4 turn one much better. The inlet (Marinco at least) will accept both.

myredracer wrote:
This is what I did in a previous TT. I bought a mini cutting board from a dollar store that's made of HDPE and was about 3/16" thick. Cut it into a circle. Used a round style Marinco inlet. I used RV caulk between the HDPE disk and siding and fastened the inlet to the disk with small S/S nuts and bolts.

Same thing here, but I didn't bother cutting mine into a circle.

This is what I did in a previous TT. I bought a mini cutting board from a dollar store that's made of HDPE and was about 3/16" thick. It even had a sort of light cross-hatched surface which was good to help the caulk stay affixed to the HDPE. Cut it into a circle with a jigsa and rounded the edge off with sandpaper. Used a round style Marinco inlet (got for cheap on ebay). I used RV caulk between the HDPE disk and siding and fastened the inlet to the disk with small S/S nuts and bolts.

GordonThree wrote:
Got it finished, but won't be winning any beauty contests. It was so cold the caulking tape wasn't cooperating, I'll clean it up with a putty knife whenever spring gets here.

A keen eye might notice the receptacle itself is not "straight" ... that is correct, it's rotated a bit on purpose. I bought a fancy weather tight 90-deg pigtail adapter that goes from twist-lock to RV style 30-amp, and it was manufactured a bit off-kilter for some reason. So, I aligned the receptacle so the 90 deg cord could hang straight down, rather than off to the side. The cord I'm using now is the 25 footer that came with the RV, with a new end on it.

GordonThree ... I'm fixin to do the same thing. May ask what did you use as the back plate?

Milo

Got it finished, but won't be winning any beauty contests. It was so cold the caulking tape wasn't cooperating, I'll clean it up with a putty knife whenever spring gets here.

A keen eye might notice the receptacle itself is not "straight" ... that is correct, it's rotated a bit on purpose. I bought a fancy weather tight 90-deg pigtail adapter that goes from twist-lock to RV style 30-amp, and it was manufactured a bit off-kilter for some reason. So, I aligned the receptacle so the 90 deg cord could hang straight down, rather than off to the side. The cord I'm using now is the 25 footer that came with the RV, with a new end on it.

If your new inlet is going to be installed across a couple of the corrugations of the siding, you could use a self-stick weather stripping on the back of your fill plate to fill the spaces.

Like this coax mounting plate:

GordonThree wrote:

Bob Landry wrote:
Make a mounting surface large enough to cover the existing hole. Attach it with SS sheet metal pan head screws at the corners and run a bead of white silicone around the edge smoothing it with a finger. I used King Starboard, but any type of plastic tha can be worked with power tools will work.

Nice and clean install there.

The aluminum siding on my KZ is not flat like a fiberglass coach. Makes things a bit more tricky. I'll post up a pic when the sun comes back tomorrow, see what ideas you all can come up with.

My first trailer was also like yours. I used the corner attachment screws to draw the mounting surface up to where it just touched the aluminum and then ran white silicone into the gaps and then finished off the outside edge with a fine bead and smoothed it. It didn't distort any of the siding and the silicone provided more than enough adhesion.

Here's my cable hatch. Looks like I over estimated the width (my guess was 6.5, but its actually 5")



I'll cut down a piece of delrin or hdpe about 5x5", generously apply caulking tape to the back, screw it over the hole and then caulk the edges... need to find my hole saw stack to cut the hole for the twist-lock receptacle.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'll post an updated pic after the surgery.

Search Amazon for "deck plate" (the boating term). They come in different sizes. I changed one in my sewer compartment from 4 to 5 inch to accomodate a sewer hose with bigger connectors on the ends.

I used a piece of thick aluminum to cover the hole in the camper and drilled a hole large enough to accommodate the socket.