T&T: 12 volt receptacles

[Bob McLeran]

Tim, we had the same issue on Sanderling (the new one).

You can get two-pronged connectors at any hardware store (Home Depot has 
them in the electrical section) that will fit the 12 volt outlets. You 
can also buy very nice hefty 12 volt "cigarette" type outlets from West 
Marine that are need to be wired (they're rather heavy looking and black 
in color). You can then add some 14-16 gage wire in whatever length you 
want along with a two-pronged connector. Plug them into the 12 volt 
outlet, and voila!

I made up about four of them and keep them plugged into the 12 volt 
outlets that we use frequently.

I also wired a few 12 volt items (fans) with the two-pronged connectors, 
but learned the hard way that a 12 volt fan doesn't take nicely to 110 
volts! After that, I added outlet covers (the plastic push in type) to 
all of the 110 volt outlets so I'd be reminded what they are before 
trying to run 12 volt appliances at 110 volts!

You could also extend the depth of the teak boxes, but that would be a 
PITA. Also consider whether you could simply bore a hole next to the 
teak outlet box that would accept a cigarette-type connector, or simply 
rewire to a better location to mount the cigarette-type connector, then 
eliminate the 12 volt 2-prong outlets.

<><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><>
Bob McLeran and Judy Young                  Manatee Cove Marina
M/V Sanderling                              Patrick Air Force Base
Defever 41 Trawler                          Melbourne, Florida 



On 8/22/2007 12:15 AM, tbehan6468 at aol.com wrote:
> My new (to me) 1983 trawler has many 110 volt outlets in nice teak receptacle boxes. Next to several of them there?are?12 volt receptacles, also in their own teak boxes -?but these?are not the cigarette lighter type of outlets. They look just like the old 2-prong 110 volt receptacles?from olden days (the face plates say 'National'). My surveyor said they gotta go - too confusing?because they're right next to the 110 outlets.
>
> The teak box does not look deep enough for a replacement cigarette lighter style outlet (less then 2 inches deep), so I was hoping to find some kind of converter that I could just plug into the existing outlet. The converter would need to have?2 prongs on one end and the 'normal' cigarette lighter outlet on the other end. 
>
> I sure would appreciate any ideas on how to solve this problem, or maybe a good source for some shorter 12 volt outlets. The teak boxes are really nice so I'd like to keep them - and they're right where I could use some 12 volt power.
>
> Thanks folks,
>
> Tim Behan