12 Volt power point plugs install for CPAP power in bedroom.

[boyscout]

I simply reach down and plug the AC plug that came with my CPAP machine into one outlet and go to sleep. Pretty simple solution for a simple guy like me. 🙂

That works if you're in a campground plugged into A/C power. When we are, I plug the CPAP into 120V too.

However when the trailer is not plugged into A/C power, unless you have an inverter creating 120V A/C power from your 12V batteries then you have to take the 12V power from the batteries to run a CPAP (with appropriate 12V adapter) on it.

GD doesn't install any robust 12V circuits designed to allow owners to plug in common 12V devices (including CPAP machines with 12V power adapters). I wish they did... at least one in the bedroom and one in the living area would be very nice additions, three or four would be even nicer. CPAPs, TVs, cell boosters, wi-fi boosters, some routers, outside camera monitors, small inverters and more could take advantage of 12V outlets in the trailer.

As it is, we have to install them ourselves. This discussion is about installing one in the bedroom.

[Schiefswret]

That works if you're in a campground plugged into A/C power. When we are, I plug the CPAP into 120V too.

However when the trailer is not plugged into A/C power, unless you have an inverter creating 120V A/C power from your 12V batteries then you have to take the 12V power from the batteries to run a CPAP (with appropriate 12V adapter) on it.

GD doesn't install any robust 12V circuits designed to allow owners to plug in common 12V devices (including CPAP machines with 12V power adapters). I wish they did... at least one in the bedroom and one in the living area would be very nice additions, three or four would be even nicer. CPAPs, TVs, cell boosters, wi-fi boosters, some routers, outside camera monitors, small inverters and more could take advantage of 12V outlets in the trailer.

As it is, we have to install them ourselves. This discussion is about installing one in the bedroom.

👍🏻 Gotcha, good job.

[howson]

Sorry I was not trying to be funny. I'm definitely no engineer and definitely not an electrical one. I find electrical stuff the most confusing. I can do basic stuff myself like change out lights, fix faucets simple stuff like that. When I saw the 12v usb plug already there I thought it would be easy to add an outlet for my cpap by taping that usb. Sorry I don't have a pic but I literally tapped the wires going to the usb with one of those plastic clip thingys and wired it to one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thought it was simple enough, but now I see this setup with a fuse box and pretty thick cables (compare to the ones I tapped) and I'm questioning my install. I mean... it works... but not sure if it's safe now.

I also did the same for the TV. I found a cable outlet box online that had a 12v built in. I replaced my box with that one and plug in a small inverter and connect my TV to that.

No problem! Humor is very difficult to convey with words only!

If the wire tap is like the item in the picture below...I'm not a fan. On the Goldwing forum where I frequent these "taps" often lead to problems down the road (especially when the individual forgets how it was component with the issue was wired!).



A decent crimping tool with heat-shrinkable connectors is what I usually end up using. Requires a few tools (heat gun, etc) but once you have a couple of not-too-expensive tools you can do a lot of electrical work with very good results.

Yoda recently had a thread on this topic (at least on the crimper). Keith--how do you like the crimper you bought? Can you give us an update along with the connectors you are using?

Howard

[Yoda]

No problem! Humor is very difficult to convey with words only!

If the wire tap is like the item in the picture below...I'm not a fan. On the Goldwing forum where I frequent these "taps" often lead to problems down the road (especially when the individual forgets how it was component with the issue was wired!).



A decent crimping tool with heat-shrinkable connectors is what I usually end up using. Requires a few tools (heat gun, etc) but once you have a couple of not-too-expensive tools you can do a lot of electrical work with very good results.

Yoda recently had a thread on this topic (at least on the crimper). Keith--how do you like the crimper you bought? Can you give us an update along with the connectors you are using?

Howard

I really like it. I find more and more uses for the different dies - done a lot of testing on my junk HF terminals. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The wire strippers could be better - but to a good job. Crimp dies are easy to change and fit and crimp very well - no failed pull test yet.

dreamingat30fps

If you used the knife splicer as show above be very - very careful. When overloaded they will get hot and melt (been there). I hate them as they cut wire strands and make iffy connections. Over time with vibration they will cut the wire. Now if you tied into the 14 awg wiring GD uses for just about everything, you will be on the edge of overloading the circuit, but I believe GD has a 15 amp limit on them. If you tapped the 18-22 awg wiring that runs to the USB from the 14 awg - you will be overloading the smaller 18-22awg wire.Its sized just for USB usage. How do I know this - in my unit I had a light and USB port by each night stand. When I pulled the light it was wired with the thin wires that traced back to 2 splices where the thin USB wires also tied in. I was going to splice in at that junction until I discovered the circuit was not adequate.

Do a test - go to the fuse block and find the circuit you tapped into. Turn on only that circuit and find whats connected. In my case it was all the usb in the bedroom, ceiling lights, bath lights and fan and a few others. When I added up what could be typically on (Bed ceiling - bath ceiling and bath fan I was at 50% of the 15 amp limit. If I use the heater on my CPAP I can pull upwards of about 10 to 12 amp, thus my heaving wiring. Now I don't use the heat very often, but I wanted to be safe.

It would really help if you took a picture of where and how you tapped the line.

And welcome to the forum.

Keith

[dreamingat30fps]

No problem! Humor is very difficult to convey with words only!

If the wire tap is like the item in the picture below...I'm not a fan. On the Goldwing forum where I frequent these "taps" often lead to problems down the road (especially when the individual forgets how it was component with the issue was wired!).



A decent crimping tool with heat-shrinkable connectors is what I usually end up using. Requires a few tools (heat gun, etc) but once you have a couple of not-too-expensive tools you can do a lot of electrical work with very good results.

Yoda recently had a thread on this topic (at least on the crimper). Keith--how do you like the crimper you bought? Can you give us an update along with the connectors you are using?

Howard

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure those are exactly what I used.

I really like it. I find more and more uses for the different dies - done a lot of testing on my junk HF terminals. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The wire strippers could be better - but to a good job. Crimp dies are easy to change and fit and crimp very well - no failed pull test yet.

dreamingat30fps

If you used the knife splicer as show above be very - very careful. When overloaded they will get hot and melt (been there). I hate them as they cut wire strands and make iffy connections. Over time with vibration they will cut the wire. Now if you tied into the 14 awg wiring GD uses for just about everything, you will be on the edge of overloading the circuit, but I believe GD has a 15 amp limit on them. If you tapped the 18-22 awg wiring that runs to the USB from the 14 awg - you will be overloading the smaller 18-22awg wire.Its sized just for USB usage. How do I know this - in my unit I had a light and USB port by each night stand. When I pulled the light it was wired with the thin wires that traced back to 2 splices where the thin USB wires also tied in. I was going to splice in at that junction until I discovered the circuit was not adequate.

Do a test - go to the fuse block and find the circuit you tapped into. Turn on only that circuit and find whats connected. In my case it was all the usb in the bedroom, ceiling lights, bath lights and fan and a few others. When I added up what could be typically on (Bed ceiling - bath ceiling and bath fan I was at 50% of the 15 amp limit. If I use the heater on my CPAP I can pull upwards of about 10 to 12 amp, thus my heaving wiring. Now I don't use the heat very often, but I wanted to be safe.

It would really help if you took a picture of where and how you tapped the line.

And welcome to the forum.

Keith

I will try to get a pics tomorrow. I'm suppose to go to the trailer tomorrow to deal with a slide issue (unfortunately we store it about an hour away from home), but I recall them being so thin they were hard to work with so not good. Even though I never use the humidifier on my cpap (I don't even bring that part with me) knowing what I know now the cables probably can't even handle that.

I even finally bit the bullet and picked up that 2 lithium battery deal from costco. I thought I would install them inside the passthrough and figured I would have somewhere to connect them inside the water bay (is that what it's called) where I worked my magic on that usb splice. That's actually why I came on here to see if I could find some info on where to connect them... now I'm thinking they may have to go back to costco.

[Yoda]

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure those are exactly what I used.



I will try to get a pics tomorrow. I'm suppose to go to the trailer tomorrow to deal with a slide issue (unfortunately we store it about an hour away from home), but I recall them being so thin they were hard to work with so not good. Even though I never use the humidifier on my cpap (I don't even bring that part with me) knowing what I know now the cables probably can't even handle that.

I even finally bit the bullet and picked up that 2 lithium battery deal from costco. I thought I would install them inside the passthrough and figured I would have somewhere to connect them inside the water bay (is that what it's called) where I worked my magic on that usb splice. That's actually why I came on here to see if I could find some info on where to connect them... now I'm thinking they may have to go back to costco.

Don't give up yet on the Lithium yet - there are plenty of folks here that know a heck of a lot more than I do on them. Ask a way - no question is dumb here.

[OffToHavasu]

That works if you're in a campground plugged into A/C power. When we are, I plug the CPAP into 120V too.

However when the trailer is not plugged into A/C power, unless you have an inverter creating 120V A/C power from your 12V batteries then you have to take the 12V power from the batteries to run a CPAP (with appropriate 12V adapter) on it.

GD doesn't install any robust 12V circuits designed to allow owners to plug in common 12V devices (including CPAP machines with 12V power adapters). I wish they did... at least one in the bedroom and one in the living area would be very nice additions, three or four would be even nicer. CPAPs, TVs, cell boosters, wi-fi boosters, some routers, outside camera monitors, small inverters and more could take advantage of 12V outlets in the trailer.

As it is, we have to install them ourselves. This discussion is about installing one in the bedroom.

To add to this, it is MUCH more efficient to run the CPAP direct from 12v than running through an inverter to 120v. You'll get more mileage off your batteries on 12v than you will 120v.

[dreamingat30fps]

Ok so I got a pic of what I did. You can see my 12v outlet "panel" on the left side, my 110 outlet in the middle and the usb outlet off to the right off screen. You can see the thinnest red and black wires coming off the plastic splice go to the usb and some slightly thicker cables go to the 12v outlet. It does have an inline fuse on the positive cable going to the 12v outlet.

The original usb wires are coming from that wire nut in the center of the screen. Looking at it now I think it would have been better to remove the wire nut and connect the thicker 12v outlet cables into that bundle and then put a new wire nut as the 2 black and white cables (I'm assuming this is where the 12v power is coming from for the usb) are much thicker. What do you guys think?

[howson]

What do you guys think?

I'd crimp the wires together instead of using a wire nut. You could use butt connectors or crimp cap connectors. ("Crimp cap" is what is on the wires in the center of your picture.)

As previously mentioned Keith, aka Yoda , has done a lot of research on the tool topic. This is his thread: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...ailer-tool-box

If you search Amazon you'll find kits of butt-splice connectors in different sizes. I like the ones that are heat-shrinkable after crimping. (I usually put a second layer of heat shrink over the connection, too. If you want to look at an example see this thread: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...-inop-easy-fix

Below is an example of a collection of different sized crimp cap terminals and below that is the tool to crimp them. (I'd stick with copper vs aluminum for the core material.)

[mpking]

Since I just ran out and bought those, here is the link to the product in that picture:

https://www.amazon.com/AIRIC-Connect.../dp/B08C7J3TDK

[Yoda]

Ok so I got a pic of what I did. You can see my 12v outlet "panel" on the left side, my 110 outlet in the middle and the usb outlet off to the right off screen. You can see the thinnest red and black wires coming off the plastic splice go to the usb and some slightly thicker cables go to the 12v outlet. It does have an inline fuse on the positive cable going to the 12v outlet.

The original usb wires are coming from that wire nut in the center of the screen. Looking at it now I think it would have been better to remove the wire nut and connect the thicker 12v outlet cables into that bundle and then put a new wire nut as the 2 black and white cables (I'm assuming this is where the 12v power is coming from for the usb) are much thicker. What do you guys think?

When you pull the tap apart notice how much damage was done to the wires strands by the knife. Use the butt connectors Howard and mpking recommend. Pick up a good crimping tool too - makes a huge difference in making things easy to do.

I hope all this helps
Keith

[mpking]

Just thowing this out there.

I think I like these better than the end splice connectors:

Wago Lever splice connectors.

https://www.amazon.com/Wago-Lever-Nu.../dp/B01N0LRTXZ

[ThePowells]

I gotta pull out one of the 3M connectors I found laying in my insulation over the weekend. It has three connection ports and works on the same principal as the taps shown before, but it has two separate knives so each wire is cut twice. I think I will pop some wire in there just to see how bad the damage is on the wiring.

[Dadeo6472]

I installed two 12 volt outlets in our 18RBE Imagine last spring for two CPAPs. I got lucky. Either GD went with heavy duty wiring, or the previous owner had upgraded a circuit feeding a serial port for some unknown reason. I was able to run a branch for the 12 volt CPAP plugs off the existing 15 amp 12 volt circuit that fed the ceiling and bed area led light as well as a USB power supply. My jaw dropped open in surprise when I realized how easily this was going to be. The circuit has way more than enough capacity to run the 2 CPAPs and led lights. Maybe the wiring was set up for current hogging incandescents. I don't know. But I made the connection at the USB port on the left side of the bed. The CPAPs run all night and don't drain the battery. We've used it for weeks. As long as I can recharge the house battery the next day by either running the car or generator, it works.

[Dadeo6472]

I learned to splice wires on boats. Marine wiring takes much more abuse than automotive or RV wiring and the standards are much higher than the rats nest I saw when I opened up the electrical area of my GD. To start with marine wiring has to be well labeled and solidly attached to the boat every 18 (corrected) inches, so no wire is strained from the constant pounding that boats get in rough water. The crimp connectors are also designed for marine applications. The crimping metal chemically bonds to the wire over time. Then I use electric tape over the splice for strain relief. In wet locations I use heat shrink wrap to seal connections. The new connectors have made it unnecessary to solder, which can be hazardous in the bilge of a boat, where fuel vapors reside. But it works. In 40 years of boating I've never had an electrical circuit that I've installed fail.