Will this work & should I do it?

[Keith Williams]

Quick question and I don't remember ever seeing this asked before.

I'm going to install a power jack, when I get a different one that will fit, but when I was trying to install the other one, I looked at where to get power for it. Since the Battery is way back on the corner of the Casita, I would have to run a > # 10 wire all the way back. That stuff was $1.49 per foot at ACE Hdw'r for stranded, but I suppose I could use Solid Copper OK.

Anyway, I began to wonder if I could get power off of the Plug that goes into the Outlet on my Tahoe and sure enough, when checking with my Multi-meter, I found good 12 Volts from one of the pins to the center post. Why couldn't I just put an adapter plug on the Power Tongue Jack, and plug it into that Pigtail when I wanted to use it??????

C'mon you "techies". Help me out here.

Thanks,

EKW

[Chester Taje]

If you draw power from your tow vehical, how are you going to move it up and down if vehical is not around. You may want to do some maintenance and need power and vehical is gone shopping with wife.

[Bill K]

In theory it sounds like you have a charge wire to charge your trailer battery.

Which means you should be able to put a female 7 pin connector on your jack and get your power from the trailer battery.

Bill K

Quick question and I don't remember ever seeing this asked before.

I'm going to install a power jack, when I get a different one that will fit, but when I was trying to install the other one, I looked at where to get power for it. Since the Battery is way back on the corner of the Casita, I would have to run a > # 10 wire all the way back. That stuff was $1.49 per foot at ACE Hdw'r for stranded, but I suppose I could use Solid Copper OK.

Anyway, I began to wonder if I could get power off of the Plug that goes into the Outlet on my Tahoe and sure enough, when checking with my Multi-meter, I found good 12 Volts from one of the pins to the center post. Why couldn't I just put an adapter plug on the Power Tongue Jack, and plug it into that Pigtail when I wanted to use it??????

C'mon you "techies". Help me out here.

Thanks,

EKW

[Keith Williams]

If you draw power from your tow vehical, how are you going to move it up and down if vehical is not around. You may want to do some maintenance and need power and vehical is gone shopping with wife.

I don't think I made it perfectly clear, sorry about that. I only would use the Trailer battery by pulling electricity back up the Trailer charge line, like he said, and I just wondered if reversing the current would wipe out any circuitry in the converter, etc. I do know that the line, from the front of the trailer, when it's hooked up to the Tow Vehicle, goes to the converter and then apparently goes to the battery as well.

I wouldn't only use the tow vehicle plug, I would set it up to pull from the trailer battery. I'm going to try it today. I am going to turn the Ultra Fab Odyssey 120 degrees and see if the Tahoe Door clears, if it does, I'm going to go ahead and use it until / unless someone wants to buy it.

Thanks for your responses.

Keith

[Frederick L. Simson]

I built an accessory box that would do what you want:
My "Geek Box"

[Keith Williams]

I built an accessory box that would do what you want:
My "Geek Box"

Thanks Frederick. It looks like I'll be building something like that. I knew you guys would come to my aid. I'll be in touch.

Keith

[james kent]

Someone on this forum welded a nut onto the top of their trailer jack and then chucked a socket into their cordless drill. Voila... power jack!

[RON HEIST]

Keith: If you're going to do it, do it right. Mount your power jack, then with some cable ties to attach it, run it back along your cable to plug into your TV. This wire enters your Casita on the lower right side front. Remove the floor in the closet, it just lifts out, where the wires come together. Next call Casita and they will tell you which color wire to attach your hot wire to. When you are done, replace the floor in the closet and WOW, you have a professional installation job and not something that some DAH put together. GOOD LUCK

[Keith Williams]

Keith: If you're going to do it, do it right. Mount your power jack, then with some cable ties to attach it, run it back along your cable to plug into your TV. This wire enters your Casita on the lower right side front. Remove the floor in the closet, it just lifts out, where the wires come together. Next call Casita and they will tell you which color wire to attach your hot wire to. When you are done, replace the floor in the closet and WOW, you have a professional installation job and not something that some DAH put together. GOOD LUCK

Hey Ron,

I already sorta did it. Maybe it looks like some DAH (i wonder if that means what I think it means?) did it, but I'll look into your idea. I must study your directions.

Basically, I bought an outlet that the 7-pin Round plugs into, wired the Jack wires to the Black and White posts (#'s 1 & 4 if I remember correctly), plugged the trailer pigtail plug in, and "Walla" it works great. But it's definitetly temp'ed since I'm at a campsite and still need to design and build a "Geek box" (thanks FLS) to mount under the Jack.

Once I'm done, I'll post pictures and description for all to see.

Regards to all.

EKW

[Keith Williams]

Here's what I did.

* Installed Odyssey 3000 Power tongue jack
* Changed Draw bar to one that's about 3 inches longer so the Tahoe Door doesn''t hit it
* Created a "Geek Box" sorta that mounts under the Jack Head.
- Found a 4 x 4 x 4 inch Grey Plastic junction box in the outdoor electrical dept at Lowes (about $8 )
- Drilled the cover with a 2 1/8 inch Forstner bit and mounted the Female 7 pin trailer electrical socket in the cover.
- Used (2) 2 inch U-bolts to mount the Grey box to the Odyssey post.
- Made the electrical connections

Plugged the Trailer Electrical Pigtail into the "Geek Box" and the Jack worked like a charm. I'm going to make a 3 foot Jumper with Male plugs on each end so if the Trailer battery is dead or not in the trailer, the Jack will still work.

I'm real happy with all this and I have about $20 in the whole deal. As soon as I figure out how to resize my pic's, I'll upload some.

Keith

[Keith Williams]

Here's 3 pictures of what I did. So far, it's great.

Regards,

Keith