Several years ago we remodeled the RV dinette. Benches on each side of the table were replaced with real chairs. We traded guest twin bed conversion capability (which we never used) for shelving on both sides of the table. Key to making that possible was consolidating all the electrical stuff into a compact cabinet under the table between the shelves. The cabinet hides the wires for all the AC and DC circuits as well as the converter/charger. Its face left access to the power panel with all the breakers and fuses. (Previously, all that electrical stuff wasted most of the space under both benches.)
The dining mod also involved ditching the LP furnace (which didn't work anyway). To stay warm in cold weather electric space heaters work well. We always have shore power at full hookup RV sites in volunteer villages where we serve. To help reduce the trip hazard of a corded heater an outlet was added under the table. This winter I completed a mod to control the heater from our wall thermostat. An outlet was added under the table that only gets power when the thermostat says so. (Eventually, I'd like to replace the space heater with baseboard heaters; meanwhile, at least the wiring is now in place for that mod.)
A power strip was originally hidden just under the table in a basket that slides out over the shelves. That's worked well for plugging in mostly things that need charging like laptops, tablets and cell phones. At least when we've had shore power. Recently, we've been using the RV off grid much more than we had previously. It seemed a shame to run the generator sometimes for a few hours just to charge up a few devices from AC adapters.
Believe it or not the RV only had two 12V outlets. One in the bedroom ceiling corner for a TV. Another in the dash that actually draws off the starting battery. That's it. So last week I added more DC power outlets to charge our devices. Since their was plenty of DC power under the table, adding a dedicated circuit was easy. Of course those were powered by the bank of house batteries. For the hardware I found some nifty outlets locally. They provide both a cigar type 12V plug and two USB outlets.
One on each side of the table seemed only fair. To install them nicely I added junction boxes and ran heavy gauge wires. Then whittled appropriate holes into cover plates so they could be mounted flush and blend in with the AC outlets. I was feeling downright clever and proud of myself!
Unfortunately, I learned an expensive lesson. Apparently, with the house batteries temporarily removed from the RV when shore power was cycled off/on there musta been a spike. Both 12V plugs were fine but both of their USB modules died. Also, two dangling iCords were fried. They weren't even plugged into devices at the time. Which seems fortunate in hindsight, since the devices are way more expensive! Still, I was too disgusted to design an idiot proof solution for protecting them so I just scrapped that idea. Instead, I got another cover plate and mounted two conventional 12V outlets.
Maybe that's just as well for compatibility. Car chargers can go back and forth between vehicles. And dedicated USB converters always draw a little parasitic power whether anything's plugged into them or not. So they can be easily unplugged until needed. All in all this is a good solution. Now I just need to find another pair of matching 12V outlets to finish the other side of the table.
