air conditioner plug

SteveGriz

I have a 320 S and would like to be able to use the electrical outlet where the air conditioner is plugged in while I am using the air conditioner. There are two sockets there but the plug is too large on the air conditioner to move back so I can use one of the sockets. Has anyone addressed this? Was wondering if I could just cut the plug off and put a smaller plug on to accommodate?

Verna

I pulled slack on the cord from the cabinet and was able to get enough slack to plug the A/C unit into he first plug. 

SteveGriz

Verna, when I tried that the smoke detector was too close and hit the large plug so I could not get it to plug into the first socket.

ScottG

As long as the plug is just a plug and doesn't incorporate a circuit breaker or other protective device, there's no electrical reason you can't lop it off and replace it with a plug that fits the space better. However, replacement plugs are often more gaumy than the original molded-on plugs as they need to incorporate screw terminals, dust boots, etc. to facilitate attaching them after the fact. You'll have take a look around to see if you can find something that works.

klenger

I would not alter the plug.  On mine, there are some additional components in the plug.  What you might be able to do would be to remove the AC from the housing, install a short (18" or so) extension cord with a conventional male end from the outlet routing the female end of the extension cord into the AC compartment.  Then plug the AC unit into the extension cord, and reinstall the AC unit.  You won't have ready access to the buttons on the plug, but I expect you would never need to.  With a conventional extension cord plugged in, you should be able to use both sides of the outlet.   This all assumes that the outlet is a standard duplex (2) outlet and not a single appliance outlet like is often used in RVs.

BrianZ

How about this..
Remove the double outlet mounting screws & rotate the outlet 180°, then plug the a/c into the outlet away from the wall.  This may free up the outlet closest to the wall, though you'd have some excess cable hanging out, unless you could make another hole for it.

PS:
I just noticed in our Danby unit's manual that it says it uses 4.8 Amps, but maybe that's average & not peak, as lists the fuse/breaker at 15A.  I presume they're referring to the breaker built into the end of the power cord.  It's on a 20A circuit, so seems like that outlet should have power to spare; otherwise, I can't help but wonder if NüCamp intentionally installed it to block the other outlet.  Either that or earlier units didn't have this issue & they didn't want to change the trailer design to suit one brand of a/c unit.

ScottG

I took my A/C out a couple years ago, but now that klenger mentions it, I do think mine had a circuit breaker incorporated into the plug. I'm not sure if all models are the same.

As noted previously, I agree you should not alter the plug if it is anything more than just a plug.

BrianZ's idea might work. If not, I suppose you could relocate the entire outlet forward a bit by enlarging and patching the existing cutout. That seem like a lot of work just to use that outlet for something else, but that's your call.  :-)

BrianZ

Or one of these rotating outlets..

360 Electrical 36092-W 15A Rotating Duplex Wall Outlet, White, Two-Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077XBG9MS

SteveGriz

Thanks for all the input. Will be looking at the options soon.