Add shore power chord for rear air conditioner

[mayco]

Well im not sure if my picture is going to attach to this post or not but it says its added. So anyway, like many others i wanted to add an additional shore power chord to be able to isolate the rear air conditioner and run it along with the front ac at the same time while plugged into shore power. On my '83 310 the feed for my rear ac enters the coach on the curb side under what once was the curb side couch in the rear lounge floor plan. Ive removed both of the rear couches and converted it to a queen size bed with a hatch to access the area just behind the curb side closet. This is where the two feeds from the genset entered the coach.
The two feeds enter a simple octagon junction box where they are attached to one 12-2 wire going to the rear ac and another feed going to power the rest of the 110v devices in the coach. Its absolutely imperative that you isolate which one feeds the rear ac.

So i determined which was the ac feed and disconnected it in the junction box and then pulled out the wire that was going up to the ac unit. I then attached a short piece of romex to the ac feed coming from the genset in the junction box and ran it to a new duplex outlet that i located within a few inches from the box.

I then installed an additional new duplex box and outlet on the opposite side of the storage hatch and hard wired the cut off female end of a 50ft 12ga extension chord to the outlet. I ran the chord through the floor, across the bottom of the coach to the exterior compartment that contains my 30amp shore power chord.

So now i have one outlet that is power by the genset and another outlet powered by shore power.

Then i mounted a small square D breaker panel (2 breaker capacity) to the exterior wall inside the storage hatch with one single pole breaker installed. I used a short (3ft) 12ga appliance extension chord with the female end cut off and wired it to the "line side" inside the breaker panel. ( positive side of chord to the positive lug and the neutral side to the neutral buss bar.). On the load side of the panel i wired the 12ga romex that i had earlier removed from the original junction box. (Positive side to the breaker and neutral side to the neutral buss bar) . I took the ground wires from the ext. chord and the romex ac feed and tied them together with a pig tail going to a bonding screw to the wall panel.

So now if i plug the short appliance chord from the new panel into one outlet i have genset power, if i plug it into the other new outlet its shore power and i can run both air conditioners at the same time. Now of course this will only work if the camp ground provides an additional 110 outlet along with the 30amp shore power. This could have and has been done with switches however i like the idea of having to physically remove it from one power source to the other with no chance of intermingling.

While i was at it i got two new deluxe maxxfans installed that i found for 1/2 price. Woo hoo!! They are the manual open type without remote, which is what i wanted and ran across them on sale for 1/2 price!!

Well i hope the picture of the wiring install comes up with this post so you can see the configuration. Below this post box it says i have one photo, i hope that means it will come up with the post.

[cesalie2]

Mayo,

Congratulations on a job well done,

After we modded our 310 similarly to yours, we jokingly referred to our bedroom as "cold enough to hang meat"...

Daniel

[mayco]

Thank you, its one more thing checked off the list to do. We are finally gonna get out here in a couple weeks to our first rally. Looking forward to it...

[J. Morgan]

I have always thought that adding a second shore power cord would be the most simple way to add a second air conditioner, but I have never seen it mentioned here before.

I think that is probably what I would do if I ever were to add a second a/c.

Simple is good.

[truxpin]

Our 34' Limited has a second A/C unit in the rear bedroom. Wired on its own 30 amp plug. It doesn't get used much, but when it's hot enough.... It's a God send!!!!

Sent from my XT1030 using Airstream Forums mobile app

[la nomade]

well done,but reading your instructions makes me dizzy,i wish it was not so much of a ordeal,could use my rear and front together sometimes when really hot,so i just turn on the generator to cool things down..it powers both front and back????

[mayco]

I think sometimes when i try to explain in detail it can get confusing. My main objective with the mod was to be able to run the rear air without the noise and fuel consumption of the generator. Though my explanation may sound confusing to you, i assure you its not real complicated. I could break it down step by step if you would like, but realize that these coaches are wired differently for each yr, model, floor plan. In real simple terms, i added an outlet powered by the generator (on the rear ac circuit), added an outlet powered by an additional shore power chord, and a breaker for protection. The most important step is to isolate the feed coming from the generator to the rear ac. Now im sure its clear as mud.

[la nomade]

that is very clear,thank you....i will eventually make this change..have a good trip.....stay cool!!!!