Easily add a 110v Outlet**

ctechbob

Well-known member
**If you have a good 12v source nearby. **And you don't need a lot of power for your 110v item.

I've been searching for a good place to mount the charger for the drill battery we carry with us for operating the stabilizers and other assorted tasks. Finally decided that I would add an outlet to the front passthrough. I was going to go into the wall to branch off a real 110v outlet when I realized there was another way.

I bought a 12v ---> 110v inverter, tied it in to the battery lead that my solar controller runs through (Plenty of cable there for the low wattage I'll be pulling through it) and mounted it in the passthrough.

The inverter also has a USB-C PD port, a Quickcharge Port and two other regular USB ports, so now I can charge random camp lights/flashlights up there and not have those strewn all over the inside of the camper.

Yes, nothing is level. Aware....
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I like it! I also see your TPMS repeater, I think it's the same as mine. The TPMS is 100% reliable with the repeater, not so much without.
 
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so instead of adding a 110V outlet you added a inverter? OK... makes sense..
Mainly because I'm too lazy to rip into the wall of the trailer to branch off an existing circuit, and I only need 30 or so watts to accomplish what I needed too.

If I needed more power I would have done it the 'right' way....
 
I like it! I also see your TPMS repeater, I think it's the same as mine. The TPMS is 100% reliable with the repeater, not so much without.

Yep, I'm lucky if I can get one to connect without the repeater..
 
Yep, I'm lucky if I can get one to connect without the repeater..
my dislike of TPMS began when we tried to install and use them on one of our 61 foot articulated buses.. these things do have a communication problem due to the length of the vehicle..

They had one employee designated to deal with the stuff at 3 separate operating divisions, and if we had a problem we had to contact this guy, place the vehicle out of service and then wait 3 to 5 days before this hapless sumbytch would show up and repair or think he repaired the device..

meanwhile, I work in the shop that needs to use these vehicles for revenue service and and with the mechanic's. who know nothing about it so they would come to me when the TPMS light was on, which seemed like a couple times a week... After about 10 false alarms and requisite waiting period for the hapless sumbytch to think he repaired the crap, next time a TPMS came on I had the mechanic remove the crap, I placed all the componenets in a box in my desk and didn't say a word.

a couple months go by, the aforementioned employee whose responsibility to work with and track the stuff showed up to check on the stuff because it had been working so well, and much to his chagrin he had a cow because someone had "stolen " the device.

Only reason I even heard about it was because the Shop Superintendent happened to mention to me that someone had stolen the TPMS unit.

I told him I had it, and whenhe asked why I told him it wasn't worth a sh!+, it caused more problems than it solved and he could have it back, because if he put it back on one of my buses the next time I had an issue with it they would never find it again. True Story...
 
my dislike of TPMS began when we tried to install and use them on one of our 61 foot articulated buses.. these things do have a communication problem due to the length of the vehicle..

They had one employee designated to deal with the stuff at 3 separate operating divisions, and if we had a problem we had to contact this guy, place the vehicle out of service and then wait 3 to 5 days before this hapless sumbytch would show up and repair or think he repaired the device..

meanwhile, I work in the shop that needs to use these vehicles for revenue service and and with the mechanic's. who know nothing about it so they would come to me when the TPMS light was on, which seemed like a couple times a week... After about 10 false alarms and requisite waiting period for the hapless sumbytch to think he repaired the crap, next time a TPMS came on I had the mechanic remove the crap, I placed all the componenets in a box in my desk and didn't say a word.

a couple months go by, the aforementioned employee whose responsibility to work with and track the stuff showed up to check on the stuff because it had been working so well, and much to his chagrin he had a cow because someone had "stolen " the device.

Only reason I even heard about it was because the Shop Superintendent happened to mention to me that someone had stolen the TPMS unit.

I told him I had it, and whenhe asked why I told him it wasn't worth a sh!+, it caused more problems than it solved and he could have it back, because if he put it back on one of my buses the next time I had an issue with it they would never find it again. True Story...

Yea, I still track pressures the old manual way, the TPMS is just there for sudden emergency type stuff.

It has saved my bacon before. I was coming home from a training class in my Acura one day when it flashed up on the screen large as life. Flipped over to my pressure readouts and it was counting down. 20....19....18.....17...

About as fast as you can read those numbers, that's how it was moving. Don't know what I hit**, but I had just enough time to get off the highway and into a safe spot to put the spare on. Kept me from trashing a wheel for sure, and from having to change a tire on the side of one of the highways down here, which is what I was more worried about. Getting plowed over by some drugged up idiot isn't high on my list of life experiences that I want to go through.

**Something circular. It punched a perfectly half moon shaped cut in the tire. Thankfully, it didn't cut all the way through, so it didn't drain as fast as it could have.
 
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these things do have a communication problem due to the length of the vehicle..
That is 100% correct. Without the repeater in both trailers we've owned, the receiver would lose the signal about 50% of the time. With the repeater, it's 100% reliable.

I had the mechanic remove the crap, I placed all the componenets in a box in my desk and didn't say a word.

a couple months go by, the aforementioned employee whose responsibility to work with and track the stuff showed up to check on the stuff because it had been working so well, and much to his chagrin he had a cow because someone had "stolen " the device.

Only reason I even heard about it was because the Shop Superintendent happened to mention to me that someone had stolen the TPMS unit.

I told him I had it, and whenhe asked why I told him it wasn't worth a sh!+, it caused more problems than it solved and he could have it back, because if he put it back on one of my buses the next time I had an issue with it they would never find it again. True Story...
That's a great story!
 
That is 100% correct. Without the repeater in both trailers we've owned, the receiver would lose the signal about 50% of the time. With the repeater, it's 100% reliable.


That's a great story!
the stuff on cars is engineered by the automakers, it is alot better than the crap people use on their trailers.
like you said, you have to have a repeater to make it function..
when I got mycurrent RV the previous owner had a TPMS unit on it.
First time I went to check the tires I realized I needed to use a torx head screwdriver to remove the sensor in order to top off with air was when I realized it was pointless and I was going to sell it to someone who thought it was good idea.
I did. Think I got 100 bucks for it..

I just use a gage, as well as a tire thumper.

then again I pretty much look at my tires every time I get out of the vehicle while travelling
and also eyeball them in the mirror while driving.

as Ctech noted, it wont prevent a rapid deflation but it might let you know one is happening quicker than the old fashioned way ..

TPMS is a systm put in place for that 99% of the motoring public who are basically clueless.. people who don't even know enough to check the oil level are who it is aimed at.
that is my take on it..
 
TPMS is a systm put in place for that 99% of the motoring public who are basically clueless.. people who don't even know enough to check the oil level are who it is aimed at.
that is my take on it.

I agree with that 100%.
 
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I guy I worked with wouldn't have torn the side off of his bigazz toy hauler if he had trailer TPMS.
 
I guy I worked with wouldn't have torn the side off of his bigazz toy hauler if he had trailer TPMS.
well, you really can't say that with 100% accuracy... he might have still tore the side off even though he knew something was going wrong... what you can say is it MIGHT have gave him a warning that something was a miss..
I've had a car tire lose the complete tread and the tire still had air in it... I've laso had belt separations, and the tire maintains air pressure... in fact I knew I had a defective tire on my trailer one time, because I saw it hopping when I went thru a toll booth. stopped and looked at it,,, seen it was football shaped. thought I could make it the last 50 miles... I made it the last 40 miles, stopped for fuel and the sucker exploded at the gas pump. TPMS would have said that tire was OK, but me looking in the mirro was what actually saw the problem.


tires can fail rapidly and the only thing TPMS is going to do is let you know there aren't any air in it if it goes boom. :) the point of a TPMS is to be able to check tire pressure from the drivers seat, it is not a magic wand that will prevent any other tire failure...
it is mandated in automobiles because the same people who don't know to check their oil level also dont check their tires.. so the nanny state intervened and tried to mandate away stupidity.. which ios impossible.. LOL.
 
I guy I worked with wouldn't have torn the side off of his bigazz toy hauler if he had trailer TPMS.
I was towing my Airstream (think very expensive and pretty aluminum sides) and developed a rapid leak from a tire. I never would have known, except my TPMS is set to alarm on a rapid deflate. It did and I stopped. The aluminum side of my Airstream was still intact and pretty when I got the tire fixed.

To me 100% of the value of a TPMS is deflation while towing. I check the tires every morning and evening and know when I start towing for the day they are at the proper pressure.
 
I was towing my Airstream (think very expensive and pretty aluminum sides) and developed a rapid leak from a tire. I never would have known, except my TPMS is set to alarm on a rapid deflate. It did and I stopped. The aluminum side of my Airstream was still intact and pretty when I got the tire fixed.

To me 100% of the value of a TPMS is deflation while towing. I check the tires every morning and evening and know when I start towing for the day they are at the proper pressure.
nowadays people call em China Bombs... but back in the day when all tires were American, they still had flats on trailers because people exibited the same behaviors... trailer sat in the yard for six months, they hooked it up and took off without checking a thing... I dont think much has changed over the years either,, hence the development and mandate of TPMS.

Sometimes I think it is a feel good thing for people who have some mechanical insecurities , like buying tire road hazard protection, towing etc... but if a person actually does what they are supposed to do and check their tires regularly, I would say TPMS adds a extra layer of protection..

that is really all it amounts to, one more warning device in a system of checks..
kinda like having a gage as well as a warning lite..
 
nowadays people call em China Bombs... but back in the day when all tires were American, they still had flats on trailers because people exibited the same behaviors... trailer sat in the yard for six months, they hooked it up and took off without checking a thing... I dont think much has changed over the years either,, hence the development and mandate of TPMS.

Sometimes I think it is a feel good thing for people who have some mechanical insecurities , like buying tire road hazard protection, towing etc... but if a person actually does what they are supposed to do and check their tires regularly, I would say TPMS adds a extra layer of protection..

that is really all it amounts to, one more warning device in a system of checks..
kinda like having a gage as well as a warning lite..
These were Michelin LTX tires, very high quality. I bought the trailer from Airstream with 17" LTX tires, not the china bombs you get as standard.
 
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