plug on the side of exterior on my 28' ambassador.

[Lyvettely]

Hi everyone,
I just bought my first aistream. I am a newbie and I got my first airstream (a 1968 28' ambassador) just yesterday. Today I discovered an exterior plug just to the left of the door. Obviously it's a plug unit so I didn't want to start my question with "what is it?", but I was wondering why would a plug be needed on the exterior of the airstream? Since I will use my airstream as an extra room that will be situated near my main house, could I somehow hook up an exterior plug from the main house power, plug it into the exterior plug on the aristream and power my silver baby up through this?

[dwightdi]

If it is up high it is for plugging in an accesory coach light. If it is down low it is simply an outlet which you can plug an extension cord into to powere some 110 ac appliances or lights into when the unit is plugged into 110 campsite or house power.

[Ganglin]

Is it like this one?

[juel]

I use the outside receptacle to plug in lights for the awning or a radio. Sometimes I need to plug in my little Weed Eater" to clean up around the property in the Summer. These things are a great convenience. I wouldn't try to get power "INTO" the trailer through this. You could be in serious trouble. The plug in to get shore power to your trailer should be in the back and it should be a pretty heavy-duty looking 30AMP cord.

[kposey]

Fun Tiki lights!!!!!! All kinds too!!!! Flamingos.....halloween bats.....beer mugs......margarita glasses.......flags.......Easter eggs.......snowmen....

You get the idea. There are tiki lights for every holiday!

[Lyvettely]

Ganglin, your pic is what I was asking about...Thank you...ok, so it is for lights, radio's and such... right?
Since I bought my airstream to be used as another room or "apartment" like space I am really looking for an outlet where I can transfer power from the main house to my airstream. I am going to research this 30amp cord and see if I have one and that it's intact.
What else (safety precautions) should I watch out for?

[TBRich]

Welcome to the forums! And congrats on your new toy. If you plan to "power up" your Airstream via shore power at your home you might want to get a 30 amp line run near to where it will be living. That way, you can use an AC and/or other high-draw applicances. You can power up withouit a 30 amp line using a 30-amp-to-regular-household-110-receptacle converter-pigtail ...but that's not ideal...doing that you will be limited on what, how many, and in what combination you can use appliances...and will run the risk of blowing a fuse somewhere. We store our AS beside our house in a "Bambi Port" and had an electrician run a 30-amp line to it...not htat muc $$ and well worth it.

Good luck and have fun with the new AS!
TB

[Lyvettely]

Thanks for the welcome and all the quick responses! My brother and I found the amp line from the back and tried some quick hook-ups to see what was and wasn't working. We (but really I mean he, and I whole heartedly agreed) knows now what to do....we are going to call an electrician. :-)
Thanks, and I will definitely return with more questions...soon!