We are very fortunate that for whatever unknown reason my grandfather had run a very thick 200+ foot wire from the chicken coop to the tractor shed where we're setting up the new parking spot. This wire far exceeds the specifications needed to transfer the power we required. Thus the electrical project had two basic steps: first, upgrade and replace the breaker panels and under-rated wire between the garage and the chicken coop, and second, upgrade the breaker panel at the garage and run a new wire to the new parking location.
We wanted all the new wire run between buildings to run underground, so the first step was to cut a trench from the garage to the chicken coop, which my dad accomplished in pretty short order with a spade and post-hole digger.
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| The trench from the chicken coop (foreground) to the garage (background). |
Aaron hooked up the new circuit breaker inside the garage and ran wire through a hole in the back of the garage, down the new trench, and up the side of the chicken coop to a new breaker box there.
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| Hooking up the new circuit breaker panel in the garage |
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| Routing the wire through the new box on the outside of the garage - it was HARD work getting that thick wire to turn the corner!! |
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| Wire routed! |
Additionally, they took the existing wire that used to run up to a connection point atop a pole and ran it through another trench to connect at the new breaker on the chicken coop.
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| Working on taking the existing wire off the old rotting pole |
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| Running the wire through the trench from the pole to the chicken coop and hooking it to the new circuit breaker panel |
They finished this work in just two days.
Next it was time to upgrade things at the tractor shed. My dad again went out and dug the trench with a spade and post hole digger.
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| Trench from our parking spot (foreground) to the tractor shed (background) |
Aaron upgraded the fuse box inside the shed to a breaker panel and then they ran a wire out to a post my dad set in the ground. Aaron affixed a new RV receptacle to the post, with switches for each of the new outlets: 50A, 30A, and 20A.
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| Working on wiring inside the tractor shed |
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| Finishing up the wiring for the RV receptacles |
It's our own personal little campsite! At this point we could actually go ahead and move the RV near this new panel for better ease of getting on and off the farm, even without the concrete pad in place. We haven't moved the RV yet, but if we decide to take a quick camping trip somewhere we'll go ahead and park it near the new location.
We're waiting now for quotes from some folks to put in the concrete pad at the new location. The quotes will determine how much of that work my dad and Aaron will do themselves and how much will get hired out...stay tuned!
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