Installing a 12 volt Cigarette Lighter Style Adapter on 2017 International

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Adventure.AS

Interesting adapter. Max output is only .8 amps - not much compared with a regular 12v outlet which is usually 15 amps.

The voltage and current in a USB charger are limited internally. The wires running into the back are 12v. Amazon sells a number of marine 12v. cigarette lighter sockets that are a single hole or a 12v socket paired with a USB socket. If you have access to the back of a USB you can spare, see if there's just leads pushed on to spades. Pull them off and replace the fitting and plug back in (Keeping polarity in mind.) They may be fused at the converter, so don't count on 15 amps.

[rocco52]

The wires coming from the USB are not large enough gauge to handle 15amps. The pig tail wires coming from the new cigarette style plug that I got from West Marine needed to be crimped into the main power leads replacing the smaller USB wires. It was not hard, they had left plenty of spare wire to work with.

[SilverHouseDreams]

Originally Posted by rocco52

I replaced one of the USB ports in my night stand with a 12V socket from West Marine. The USB port is attached from behind with a large plastic nut. The 12V Marine plug was almost identical and fit in the same hole. Do not use the wires that are plugged into the USB port, they will not handle the load. They are attached to heavy 10 gauge wires that are color coded. Make note of which one is attached to the "+" on the back of the USB port and connect the 12 volt port accordingly. I did the same thing at the other end of the trailer in the cabinet next to the DVD player except that I kept the USB port and added a 12 Volt port.

Why would you ever want to run it off of the inverter which is in fact running off of the 12V at a much lower efficiency, you should just run it off of 12V or 120V...and the 12V is already running off of 120V when connected to shore power, so the sensible option is to just run it directly from 12V. Unless efficiency of the battery supply doesn't matter. You really only have 2 power supplies in the trailer, as the actual energy either comes from 120V shore power or from the battery.