Unknown plug

[Plante]

We are new owners of a 1978 21' Clipper Party Model.  It has been unused for years because of sickness of the previous owners(very elderly).  Anyway - there is an electrical cord with a male end coming from an electrical box in the large storage compartment on the passenger side of the unit.  Does anyone know what this is for?

[Horst]

This is a longshot - I might be way off base, but.........
The "electrical box" might be your Converter. It needs to be plugged in so that you run your 12 volt lights/applicances off shore power when plugged in at a CampGround.
Simple test:
1) Plug your rig into shore power
2) Plug that male lead from your "electrical box" into the outlet in your storage compartment. You should hear a slight humming sound coming out of the "electrical box". You have found your converter.

[handyman]

simple way to find out open the door on the other side of the clipper and see if theres a cord and plug there thats where its supose to be but like Horst said it wont hurt to try

[Plante]

The plug for the converter is on the other side of the unit in a small door.  When plugged in all the lights and plugs inside the motorhome work and the tester shows 'high' battery charge.  Plugging the cord in from the large storage compartment doesn't seem to do anything.  Could it possibly be used for an external generator?

[Horst]

The plug of which you speak (on the drivers side, small compartment) is your shore power plug, and provides 110 electricity to your rig, and your plugs/outlets will run a toaster, TV, etc. That's the one you plug in when going to an RV park with full hook-ups.
However, your 12volt lights do not run off of this current UNLESS there is a converter which converts your 110 city power to 12 volts.

So, my next question is - do you know where your converter is and what it looks like? It's somewhere in your rig - in mine it is in the passenger's side storage compartment, on the left side over the wheels. Trace this plug  back, and my bet is it leads to your converter, and that you'll find a socket close to it and that is where you plug into.

[Horst]

ooops!!

I didn't read your original post carefully enough.
New questions:
1) How big is this "electrical box" that the wire in question is coming from?
2) Have you  put your head way inside your storage compartment, and looked toward the rear of the rig? Is there an outlet there? If so, that's where you put this plug (provided that this box is indeed your converter.)

[HPotter]

In the original Clippers, the heavy shoreline cord in the small door on the driver's side was to be plugged into the mating socket just inside that door. This connected the electrical system to the generator, if one was installed. Even Clippers without factory-installed generators had this installation, so a generator could be added later. I suspect that the left-side electrical box you describe may be the original factory junction box where the generator was to be connected. If so, it sounds as though someone installed this cord for an external generator. For it to work, the power cord would have to be plugged into the left-side outlet.

Harold, #886

[Den]

What Hpotter said, exactly. If I knew how I'd post a pic for ya. The outlet you tak about looks simialir to this. \_/

[Shayne]

If you mean the electrical box like in the upper left of this picture, labeled A/C Connect, then HPotter is exactly right.  And I suspect this is the case.
 

[Plante]

Thanks very much for your help - it all makes sense.  We haven't done any camping in a place without electricity so probably will never use it - but who knows???