Sizing It Up--Blogsters Really Shrink It Down
Pardon the contradictory blog title here, give us a second to explain. For the last several years we've been fulltiming in a 28' fifth wheel. Mind you, it's an older rig, built before slide outs were the rage. Of late, two of us plus a fairly large (and self-centered) cat have been trying to live and operate a business out of that 28' feet of space. It hasn't been easy, and we've done more than just a little "kicking around" of maybe getting a rig with slide outs.
So a few months ago, we picked up a "project rig." A much abused truck camper with what we hoped was "potential." We've worked on it, and it's certainly worked on us, but hey, now we're ready for the first big trip, roughly 3,500 miles starting with a convention in Glendale, Arizona and thence to the Pacific NW. As is our habit, we try to "move in" to an RV a few days before we leave on a major trip--well, that's what we "use to do," when we had a land-based home. So now we're moving out of the fifth wheel and into the truck camper.
Still, as small as those 28 feet seem, we have been missing the "old days" when we traveled about the west with a much smaller rig--a truck camper. We went places where angels put on their hiking boots and saw some spectacular sights. It was never a problem, "flipping a U turn" if we saw something that we wanted to go back and look at again. We did hundreds of travel stories and it was just too easy. Once we got into the fiver though, those quick U turns were a thing of the past. We missed a lot of opportunities to research and write about things we saw on the road.
So a few months ago, we picked up a "project rig." A much abused truck camper with what we hoped was "potential." We've worked on it, and it's certainly worked on us, but hey, now we're ready for the first big trip, roughly 3,500 miles starting with a convention in Glendale, Arizona and thence to the Pacific NW. As is our habit, we try to "move in" to an RV a few days before we leave on a major trip--well, that's what we "use to do," when we had a land-based home. So now we're moving out of the fifth wheel and into the truck camper.Can you say: Anxiety? Stress? Raised voices? Looking back onto those "tough days" in 28 feet seem pretty laughable right now. Where on earth do you put a 5 gallon pail of cat litter in an 11' truck camper? How many pairs of socks will I need between laundry days? Should we toss out a lot of those plastic water bottles we've been refilling? And who has to share the dinette seat (living room seat, visitor's seat--all rolled into one) with Ithmah, the 17 pound pussycat?
I dunno, I guess you really don't miss your water.
Labels: downsizing, truck camper
Depending on the electric code of the state you live in, this job may be done several ways either as a temporary set-up or as a permanent outdoor 50 amp receptacle. Either way I highly recommend you hire a certified electrician to connect it for you because we are dealing with electricity here and it’s DANGEROUS if you don’t know what you’re doing. In reality, it’s dangerous even if you do know what you’re doing! A certified electrician will install your receptacle using the proper code guidelines for your state. That being said your electrician can put a 50 amp circuit breaker in the electric service box, hook up #6 wire to it and run it outside and into a weatherproof 2 gang (deep) box with a weatherproof cover and you are in business. 
In my case I could not route the romex #6 wire casing outside without tearing out the drywall around the box. Since we are only staying here a few days my brother-in-law and I decided to rig a temporary “emergency” set-up until a more permanent solution could be achieved. I bought about 10 feet of #6 romex wire which has four wires in a sheath. It consists of a ground wire, a white #6 common, a red #6 and a black #6 and costs around $2.50 per foot at Home Depot. I also purchased a 50 amp breaker that fit the electric service box and a 50 amp female receptacle that has its own self contained box. 
We basically made a heavy duty extension cord that comes right off the electrical service box. The electrician will remove the service cover and determine if there is room for a 50 amp breaker. In our case we removed a 40 amp breaker that wasn’t being used. We installed the receptacle after stripping the proper amount of wire off the romex. We removed about 16 inches of the romex cover to expose the wires that would be going to the breaker and service box. We stripped the tips of the wires and inserted the black into one side of the breaker and the red into the other side. It doesn’t matter which side your electrician puts the red or black wires on. Next we inserted the white common wire on the electric service common bar and also inserted the ground wire onto the ground bar in the box. 
All these connections are made secure by tightening screws down on the wires. How your electrician brings the wire out of the box to the receptacle depends on the local electric code. We inserted the breaker, tested the receptacle with a volt meter, plugged in the RV and flipped the breaker to the “on” position and have been enjoying refreshing air conditioning ever since. 
The way you test to make sure the receptacle is properly wired is to set you volt meter on AC to measure 240 amps. Place one lead into the receptacle where the black wire is and one where the red wire is and you should get a reading of 240 volts. Move the black test lead down to the common (white) wire and you should read 120. Now move the test lead that is on the red wire over to the black side while leaving the other test lead in the common (white) and you should read 120. 
Next move the lead on the black wire to the ground wire (the hole) and the other lead remains in the common (white – bottom blade) and you should read 0. If it checks out you’re good to go, if not, then trouble shoot the problem. Make sure the ground wire is in the green receptacle screw down holder and the common (white) is in the bottom blade position on the receptacle. Here is a link where you can learn more about how a 50 amp RV service is wired: 
