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The problem with panels on your roof isn't lift, it's drag. And you can put an air diverter in front and even along the sides, that will not seal the undersides of the panels. Where this may get mixed up a little is when the airflow makes a lot of disturbance which will shake the panels- and...

No. And I'm not sure how that's such a feature when you can get a small space heater that is quieter and more efficient at turning electricity to heat.

Our single hose one is less than 50lb. For our RV, weight matters. My next step will be to insulate the hose.... If I could figure out where the condenser cooler inlet is, I would make sure it got "clean" air. Can't say that I really understand why a dual hose would be *that* much heavier-...

If you can find one that weighs less than 50lb, post it. All of the ones I've seen that are two pipe are at least 75lb- which means that IF I wanted to take it out, it would be much harder. It's funny that only +12k BTU coolers are dual hose. The all brag that you can cool more space with...

Single, and I do very much understand that they are not efficient. But it was the easiest solution, and it does work. Helps that we are not really paying for the power. Can't put a roof unit on, as we need the low clearance, cutting a hole for a window unit was unrealistic, but modifying a...

I had thought that a small unit would work for our small 17ft unit (12ft inside), which is also very short). But when it got to the 90's an 8000BTU portable unit had a tough time keeping it cool. It works, though- and if you can use a window for an outlet (which is what we do), there's your...

True. but the compressor vent can be indoors. Our trailer is sealed- if I want air to move in, I have to open it. I'm not dissing you because you have an absorption fridge, so at least accept that others don't want one for whatever reason. I didn't want gas in my camper, and I also...

Why DC fridge? No gas. No need for leak detection, no need for CO alarm (I have electric stove), no worry that my absorption fridge will burn down my camper. And when you compare LPG to electricity, I'm not sure if the cost balance is that bad- and I know my battery has more than enough...

Correct, I would just run an extension cord to the fridge. Other than that, maybe the cable modem, but that takes almost nothing. we have already spent a few hours in our trailer when the power went out, 12v tv for the win. But to be able to keep the food safe would be nice.

It would only need to run a handful of things for the home. For the camper- stove, microwave, AC/Heat, and coffee maker would be the big stuff. My surge protector tracks power usage, and this weekend, I'll start a spreadsheet of daily usage.

I'm sure we are not alone in getting more events where our power goes out. But it seems that it would be a good idea to use a camper trailer that would be set up for solar off grid power to also be used to supply some back up power to some appliances in your home. At least it does to me...

A question to the group about the set up.... Is there a reason why someone could not just tap into just 12 of the 24V battery? If you have two batteries in series, one spot is 12V, right? Is the fact that the discharge would be that unbalanced be a problem? That would allow the 12V system...

How does one shop for good power factor?

Yes, can someone please elaborate more? Especially how to shop for good components. We have thoughts to convert more to "off grid", and getting a good electric cooking device would be pretty key.

We thought the same thing when building our trailer- and kept gas out of it. But there could be a time where getting power doesn't happen- so you may consider getting a small gas burner that uses one of the tiny bottles to run it. If not used for primary cooking, they will last a very long...

Cool beans. Good luck with that.

FWIW, I'm not using one of the calculators. I'm using V= IR. We know V is 2.5V We know I is 25A So then R = 0.1 Ohms. Then I am looking up the standard resistance for wire gage, and I'm seeing 1.6ohms/1000ft for copper 12g. Another chart has it a 0.00521 ohms/m, which is 19m to get...

I thought we were talking 12g. Wasn't the question around 10g or 12g? Not sure how 16g got into the question.... If you need a .1ohm resistance to get 2.5v drop at 25A, and the resistance is 1.6ohms/1000ft, I get 62.5 ft to get 0.1ohms. Again, it's just simple math for the wire. Perhaps...

200ft for a 2.5V voltage drop at 25A for 12g wire covered in PVC. Similar calculator. Or you can calculate it yourself- for 2.5V drop at 25A- V = IR, so R would be .1 Ohms. A different chart (which I should have looked at), 12G wire is 1.6ohms/1000 feet, so .1 Ohm is ~75 feet. Still much...

So you are wondering if Ford installed a wire that is too small for the fuse that it assigned to that circuit? Seems to me that it would be kind of odd for an OEM to undersize a wire for a fuse. Especially since they would be very aware that you are delivering power from the fuse location to...

If it were me, I would not limit it.... I have one of the Renogy DC/DC units, and for the 20 A set up, they suggest 25a fuse for the supply, and 20 for the delivery. So you are meeting the supply spec out of the box. One other note- when I posted the 7 pin is rated for 40A- I just mean the...

Can you "trace" any of those to the 7 pin connector? Seems that both 10 and 90 could be the 12V supply to the trailer. That being said- with some margin built in, using the stock wiring would limit charging to the 20A charger if one used the base 7 pin connector. More than that would need a...

After wading through all of the arguments, since all I want to do is make sure my fridge is powered when we drive, the 10A info was very helpful. Although, I'll probably wire for 20A. And (horror of horrors) use the 7 pin connector, since it's rated for 40A. Since we will start out with a...

One person may not be able to "fix" it, but they can do *something* other than complain about it. All this thread is doing is hoping that someone else can fix a concern people have. Nothing else. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but expecting someone else to do *something* is a...

Wait- are people really saying that a steel frame is not capable of pushing multiple hundreds of amps of current? BTW, the real source of multiple hundreds of amps of current is the battery, not the alternator. And the alternator is grounded to the engine, which is grounded to the frame. And...

I have. Plenty of them. It's not a factor. And it's funny that you don't "want" to fix any of it- what do you want to do, then? Just complain? And blame everyone else? Isn't that what was ranted about in the first place?

Dude, China is a Communist country. The ultimate of subsidized. It's pretty amusing to me for large companies to complain about technology requirements for China, when they were willing to give it to them just to get the cheap labor in the 90s and early 00's. If we want to blame anyone...

If that's what you really think, it's just throwing more blame around. I've been an engineer for almost 30 years, and see plenty of lazy incompetent fit people as hard working skilled overweight people. Throwing labels around like that isn't really helping at all. We want to fix engineering...

Again, who is planning on starting that local manufacturing? Someone else?

BTW, I'm not sure how one makes the connection between overweight and being a lazy worker. Engineers mostly work at a desk- there's no physical activity for the gross majority of us. Being physically lazy is not an indicator of a work ethic for your job.

Even the not-for profit public university system is struggling with costs. Things have changed a lot since I went to school in the 80's. But this conversation has the potential to become incredibly political. One weird thing though- a few years ago, I had a conversation with the local big...

So a follow up question to everyone who agrees with his rant. What are you doing about it? Who is going out and getting an engineering degree to replace me when I retire? (on the "innovation" part of the rant- I disagree that US engineers are not innovative- we are, and there's a lot that...

For a better ground path on trailers, maybe people should be using conductive grease on the mechanical connections. That's a pretty hefty potential path.

When that matters, it won't matter whether the battery is inside or out. It will be cold inside like outside. LOL.

So doing some quick searches shows that LiFePO4 batteries are safe indoors and do not need venting. Just want to make sure that is everyone's experience here. Version one of my trailer, I mounted the battery outside- because I could. But as we are learning the trailer, it appears that the one...