14v accessory power jacks

What have rv builders been using for plugging in their 12v accessories?
I purchased two $55 cigarrette accesory jacks from ACS and they came with an ugly mounting plate attached to the body that I dont think I can remove. I was hoping for a cleaner look on my arm rest. These from ACS would look bad I think but would be well mounted and prevent any rotation etc.. Not sure If I should try something from autozone or not. Oh, and does anyone know why they would want 50 bucks for one of these Non tso'd jacks? The Tso'd ones where even more...I think $85. WoW!

Thanks!

check out 'powerlet' / BMW style plugs

If you do a quick search, I think there's a thread on this....(altho some of the links may not work).
I think the powerlet is about $20 or so.
I just went to the auto wreckers and pulled a nice plug with the snap on cover from the dash of a Jeep...had a nice angle bracket & all, which I didn't use, just drilled a 7/8" hole in the dash.
$1.
also some nice 'power ports' buried in the console of newer cars/ minivans etc.

I just bought a cigarette lighter at Walmart and step drilled a hole in the panel and mounted it. I just leave the lighter in the hole unless I am using the 12 volt outlet. Looks great!

John Morgan

Stein

I picked up a couple from Stein:
http://steinair.com/storedetail.cfm?productid=19

Ditto for the ones from Steinair. The backshell simply unscrews from the body. Installation is to drill a hole with a 7/8" unibit, then put the body in from the front, and screw on the back over the body. They also have a nice attached rubber plug for the front. Great to have if you mount them somewhere down where stuff might drop in the outlet.

http://www.waytekwire.com/item/11010/POWER-SOURCE-12V-OUTLET/

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/waytek/catalog225/#/79/OnePage

might need to order the cap separately.

Got mine at Autozone for like $5.

It just fits in a hole and comes with a nice captive cover.

Google ?12V Receptacle? and see what comes up.

I bought my dual receptacle from West Marine, which you can see on the right side of this picture.

However, I'm not sure West still sells that unit.

Also, I put heavier gauge wire and a 7.5 amp breaker on one of the plugs and wired it to the always hot buss so I could plug in a battery minder. The other plug was on the Avionics Master buss so it would go on and off with the switch.

VW and Audi Part

The VW/Audi Part has a really nice fluid damped flip out door, and can be had on ebay for ~$25.

Check out ebay Item number: 200776384840 as an example.

Powerlet

PLUS ONE for Powerlet.
It is a significantly better quality connector than a "cigarette lighter plug", and it would be great if we all adopted it as a standard. It is a bit smaller (less panel space) and makes a very positive latching engagement.

You can order receptacles and plugs from the company direct, or at better motorcycle accessory shops.

I put a receptacle on a 15A fuse direct to my battery in my -8, and I have a plug on my battery charger, on any accessories that my back-seater wants to power in flight, and I made a special adapter that has a Powerlet plug on one end and a cigarette lighter receptacle on the other end, in case I am somewhere that the 'unwashed masses' haven't figured out that this is the better interface to use.

flyboy1963 said:

If you do a quick search, I think there's a thread on this....(altho some of the links may not work).
I think the powerlet is about $20 or so.
I just went to the auto wreckers and pulled a nice plug with the snap on cover from the dash of a Jeep...had a nice angle bracket & all, which I didn't use, just drilled a 1" hole in the dash.
$1.
also some nice 'power ports' buried in the console of newer cars/ minivans etc.

Click to expand...

We have both the cheap ones as well as the expensive ones. The cheap ones are pretty good for the price, but the expensive VW/Audi ones are also nice (albeit many times the price). Just about anything out there will work, including some of those nice power points that also have USB power jacks in them as well. We might start carrying some of those if demand is there.

Cheers,
Stein

Powerlet for sure

These are designed for the task, not adapted cigarette lighters. Powerlet also has an amazing array of adapter cables to accomodate virtually any device interface you need.