Fishhouse wiring???????

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I recently acquired a fish house. It is wired. Unfortunately the lady didn't know much about it, but it was a darn good deal so I bought it anyways. It is wired and what coming off the existing wiring in a box in front of the fish house is two large clamps(designed to hook up to the power source) but the house is wired for 110 not 12, I was gonna buy a generator for it, but have no idea how the heck to hook it up??? The wiring is your standard wire for wiring a house and it has those big clamps on it as mentioned above and she said her husband would hook up to a generator.... ANY THING WILL HELP ME HERE FELLA'S is there something you can buy to hook up to the generator than to these big clamps??? Thanks in advance.

[huntnfish]

I haven't seen anywhere you can hook up to a generator with clamps as you explained. Are there lightbulbs in the house. I would check those to make sure they are the standard 110 bulb and not 12v. My first thought was that she was mistaken and he had a generator with for some other reason, like maybe he hooked up a charger to charge the battery he used for the house. I know a few people that used regular 14-2 wire for their fish house so the type of wire in the house doesn't mean a whole lot.

[Ray1]

if it is wired for 110 you could cut the clamps off and put a regular cord end on it. They sell for a couple bucks. Or you could use a old extension cord and cut two or three feet off of it and wire that to the 14-2 wire. Just make sure you use the male end. Hope that helps.

[Jim Almquist]

I would be willing to bet that he had a generator that was capable of a 12 volt output. Huntnfish has the right idea by looking at the bulb will tell what voltage he was really running on.

[eyehunter]

Leech,

I wired my house with regular 14-2 house wire and on the outside I used an old extension cord like mentioned before. Just get one of those cords that are made specifically for plugging in cars, the ones that are only like 10'-12' long with the ends that can be taken apart. Take the male end off of the extension cord and wire it to the 14-2 wire coming out of the house and then put the aligator clips on the bare wires of the extension cord. When you are on the lake you can use the extension cord and plug the female end (the one still on the extension cord) into the one that you put on the 14-2 wire and clamp it to a marine battery, just make sure that you have 12V bulbs in the house. It doesn't matter if the house is wired with 14-2 or not the 12V will travel through it just fine. Now if you have regular plug ins in the the house or if you need to plug in a tv, you may have to go the generator route if the tv is not 12V. The nice thing about doing it this way is that in the off season when the house is sitting in the yard you can put regular light bulbs back in it and run a regular extension cord to your house and still have light running off of regular electicity. Hope this helps.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

it's 110 for sure, the bulb isn't a 12V bulb and it has a couple outlets in it that are set to hook up to electric burners for cooking that are in it, and little fluorescent lights above each hole that are definitely 110, they all have power cords that run to the outlets. All together there are 6 outlets in there. So it looks like I'd have to get a different end and replace those clamps. BUT THOSE CLAMPS STILL BAFFLE ME... I just don't get it. Unless he was using a huge Power inverter or something. Thanks for the help and good luck on the lake.