Today's report - the 120 volt electrical inlet.
I'm still reporting on the several things I did that one day. Two reports ago was the back window, and veneer on the interior window opening edge. Yesterday zipping up the left rear corner and taillight backing. A real nice ugly prep job! There's another window/veneer thing coming up tomorrow - that bad wall at the left rear side? And it was even more involved than that minor stuff on the back window. But today?
We have to take the "less than exciting" stuff along with the more involved things, so I decided to add excitement to this installation report by leaving the electricity hooked up during install. I know! That's just shocking!
Here's the original round style electrical inlet hookup location; probably a 15 Amp. It used the large hole and the triple screw attachment. The PO couldn't find the right type of cord, so he changed it out to a standard 15 Amp single gang box style horizontal mount inlet, that you can plug a regular extension cord into. That's what made the two further out holes.
Of course I had to remove it for the wall build, and you can see the large hole is blocked by the new wood framing. I also didn't like his fairly cheapo looking plastic housing and cover unit, so used my metal one. I simply pulled it off the shelf; I had originally bought it for Lil' Queeny before deciding to upgrade her to a 30 Amp inlet.
And Tow-Mater may get more power someday too! But for now, he'll be satisfied with 15 Amps. Leave your big screen TV's and household appliance at home - no AC. Back in the day we were tough! We didn't need AC, because everyone sweated and stunk. Don't you remember those days on the park tour-buses when all the happy campers would load up? Thank goodness for many bus windows!
Anyway, in the previous shot you can see the little cross-hairs where I planned to shoot a hole through the new wood. I dropped centerline down slightly for certainty in covering openings with sealer.
Choosing the right hole saw.
I started on the outside, then came in to finish up on the inside, so as to keep the surface edges clean. If you don't, hole saws can really splinter out a hole, and you know me, we don't want ugly, even in our prep! Witness my beautiful gash prep yesterday! 90 count them! ;)
I leave about 6-8 inches of conductor beyond the outer sheathing, about 3/4" of stripped, and turn a practiced half circle of proper size in the ends with needle nose pliers (almost to the tips) before ever reaching for the device. Also, if you place the half circle on the terminal in the correct direction, it will tighten the loop, instead of opening the loop when you tighten the terminal screw. How tight? I've heard, tighten until JUST before the threads strip. Yes, you have to destroy an outlet to get the feel - but that gives you three tries right? Three to learn a "feel" should be enough. Don't strip out threads on the one you intend to install. Just saying.
No sharp bends either. Keep you bends in a sort of loop curve so you don't weaken or break the conductors (wires).
This is not all there is to electrical, just a few tips I've learned, used, and find helpful. I am not an electrician, and do not attempt this at home.
(Dave looks over at his Attorney and gets the go-ahead nod.)
Sheesh, what you have to do these days.
Then I put on the original cover. We'll finish it someday.
Now we'll let that complete oozing. I already trimmed the top edge because it needed just a bit of extra pressed in at the middle. If I can see the edge of the butyl close to the edge of the device, I'm not against forcing some more in to meet it. But only on small areas. In this case, the day was still pretty cool, so the butyl wasn't as squeezably soft as on warmer days.
