2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 61

Day 61, Thursday, December 18, 2025 - La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ, Day 19 - 0 Miles, 3,449.7 Miles for the Trip

52°F overnight & 54°F for my morning walk. It hit 80°F outside by my under the trailer temperature sensor, and 85°F in the inside rear of the trailer. That is the warmest part of the trailer with the passenger side of the trailer facing south. At the head of the bed it hit 77°F, the same for the area I store my meds that are not suppose to exceed 80°F.

I read during the morning, then decided to tackle one of my trailer projects. The receptacle that I usually plug my toaster into is directly wired to the converter & not the sub panel that runs the rest of the receptacles (with the exception of the one I added for my electric heater). I did ask Escape to install the receptacle directly to the converter since I planned to use it for the electric heater and wanted to save the wear & tear on the transfer switch of a high current load, and would never run the electric heater on the inverter. After using the trailer for a year of so I determined that the direct wired receptacle put in be Escape was on the wrong side of the trailer. Not their fault - they put it where I asked; I just changed where I usually sit.

So, today's project was to rewire the receptacle to the sub panel so that it is on when the inverter is running. Like all renovation projects, it was both easier & more difficult than expected. The easy - I could power the receptacle from another receptacle on the same side of the bench so I didn't have to tear into the sub panel wiring. The difficult part - both receptacles are the RV type that are crimped to the wires & do not have an electrical box. I went to Ace Hardware in Parker and picked up an old work box, back wired receptacle (I won't use the stab type) and a cover. While the RV type receptacle is also a stab type, at least it has multiple pins if you put only one receptacle on a wire or do a continuous feed through when wiring multiple receptacles. Here is what they look like. It takes a special tool to clamp them although I have done a couple without the tool using a couple of boards & a "C" clamp.

A RV Receptacle

I enlarged the hole so the old work box fit and discovered that the 1/8" panel was too thin for the box clamps. I had to add 1/2" spacers to clamp the box. Other than that it was just the hassle of spending a couple of hours on my 81 year old knees. It is in & working.

By then it was 3:00 & I sat outside in the shade reading until dinner.

Dinner was an Amy's Enchilada Bowl.

Until Next Time -