Need Electricity? Shocking.

So, it's a horse trailer-turned-bar...and it is finally starting to look like one. But while bartending, it would be nice if we could actually see the drinks we were making, right? Then came the realization--how the heck are we going to add lights inside this thing, not to mention, kegerators, fridges, plugs for espresso machines and most importantly iPhone jacks? This was a tough one. We needed The Whiskey Chaser to be able to power up during evening events, where access to an electrical outlet may not always be an option. But how?

Google 101, here we come. Shockingly, we found absolutely nothing on how to correctly wire a mobile bar inside a horse trailer, so we had to expand our search parameters. Instead we learned what we could about wiring RVs and boats and applied that to our trailer. We decided to run the interior lights off of a battery, so that we can operate at remote venues, but we also needed some 120V lines to run our appliances. We would need to combine the wiring schematics used in RVs to create some sort of hybrid power system. With out boring you with all this converter and inverter speak, I was able to diagram exactly what we needed with a marine battery and power center box. Thanks Amazon! It arrived in two days and we were excited to begin.

There I was, crammed in the trailer storage area, metal shards in my hair, while struggling to untangle red, black and white wires--needless to say, the excitement was quickly fading. After spending the day drilling countless holes through metal tubing and somehow avoiding sparking my clothes on fire, I finally had all of the wires connected. The fuses are were in, the converter was connected to the battery, the switches were installed this baby was ready to be plugged in. I connected some tester lights and appliances. With the switches in the off position, I plugged The Whiskey Chaser into the extension cord run that I had from the house earlier in the day. I waited a second...and then a second more...aaaaaaand...no power. I rechecked all of my connections for the millionth time before finally a light bulb went off (in my head, not in the trailer). I never actually plugged the opposite end of the extension cord into the outlet at the house. Whoops! I stomped to the house, cursing all the way, and plugged the cord in and YES! We had light AND the sweet sweet hum of a beautiful beer cooling and pouring machine. If only we had a keg to hook up and celebrate our accomplishment, but it was enough to bring our excitement level right back up again.

I found a little pride in DIYing this part of the project, along with the fact that I somehow avoided electrocution in the process. I'm alive, and the trailer has light, so that's a win!