24v Travel Trailer System

[chrisski]

I‘m one of three people I know that have ditched the 12 volt battery.

How did you manage the merging of the tow vehicle 12vdc and the 24/12-70 Orion going to the 12vdc distribution

I simply put the 12 volt outputs to the old battery 12 volt bus. There’s a better and more complicated way of routing this directly to the RV Circuit breaker panel 13 volt input.

Remove the OEM battery, use the 24/12-70 to power 12v loads, block the 12v charge from the tow vehicle.

I did not remove it. It’s still connected and no issues.

1. Keep the OEM battery, use it as a buffer for momentary large loads and keep it charged with a Orion smart 24/12-30 isolated DC-DC keeping the 12V in from the tow vehicle.

I don’t know that model, but I recommend an Victron converter that will also charge a battery. 150 watts or more will cover all usage. I also would not exceed the max charging rate of the battery, usually 10% the amp hours for FLA

1. Keep the OEM battery, use the 24/12-70 to power loads/keep battery charged and use a 3 position switch to keep the non isolated orion from the tow vehicle's 12vdc.

I can’t speak to the first part.

I will say not much power goes down that tow hitch. If my leveling jacks died, the trailer 5 pin would not provide the 50 amps needed to raise or lower the Rv. This provides enough power for lighting and to operate the breaka, and will not charge a depleted battery in any reasonable time.

 

[Jracine]

I‘m one of three people I know that have ditched the 12 volt battery.

I simply put the 12 volt outputs to the old battery 12 volt bus. There’s a better and more complicated way of routing this directly to the RV Circuit breaker panel 13 volt input.


I did not remove it. It’s still connected and no issues.

I don’t know that model, but I recommend an Victron converter that will also charge a battery. 150 watts or more will cover all usage. I also would not exceed the max charging rate of the battery, usually 10% the amp hours for FLA

I can’t speak to the first part.

I will say not much power goes down that tow hitch. If my leveling jacks died, the trailer 5 pin would not provide the 50 amps needed to raise or lower the Rv. This provides enough power for lighting and to operate the breaka, and will not charge a depleted battery in any reasonable time.

Awesome, thank you very much!

 

[Sirtate]

Hmmm? Never saw that one before.

This is the one I have:

Dyna-Glo IR18PMDG-1 18,000 BTU Liquid Propane Infrared Vent Free Wall Heater​

On Amazon.

These heat objects in front of them instead of the air and no fan needed but I use a small DC fan on top just to move the air around better.

Good size for heating a room or cabin up to 400 sqft.

It is non vented and burns at over 99% efficiency so no vent needed. You can get vented propane heater on Amazon.

Most of the time the vent is for the Carbon Monoxide and other poisonous gasses. Which when the appliance is efficient and in good working order, aren't being produced in any significant amounts. This means that in a large volume of air, there aren't any issues. (houses, garages and such)

In a Travel Trailer, while there won't be any issues with poisonous gasses, the issue is water vapour.
Propane has 8 Hydrogen atoms linked to 3 Carbon atoms. This means that burning one molecule of propane will generate 3CO2 (an inert and harmless gas that makes beer fizzy) molecules and 4 H2O molecules (another inert and harmless gas that makes beer wet)...
It will increase the humidity in the trailer very quickly, causing mould and rot, etc...For every pound/Kg of propane burnt you will get 1.8lbs/Kg of water vapour (which will condense into liquid water if there are cool enough surfaces nearby)...

 

[Solarcabin Channel]

Hmmm? Never saw that one before.

This is the one I have:

Dyna-Glo IR18PMDG-1 18,000 BTU Liquid Propane Infrared Vent Free Wall Heater​

Most of the time the vent is for the Carbon Monoxide and other poisonous gasses. Which when the appliance is efficient and in good working order, aren't being produced in any significant amounts. This means that in a large volume of air, there aren't any issues. (houses, garages and such)

In a Travel Trailer, while there won't be any issues with poisonous gasses, the issue is water vapour.
Propane has 8 Hydrogen atoms linked to 3 Carbon atoms. This means that burning one molecule of propane will generate 3CO2 (an inert and harmless gas that makes beer fizzy) molecules and 4 H2O molecules (another inert and harmless gas that makes beer wet)...
It will increase the humidity in the trailer very quickly, causing mould and rot, etc...For every pound/Kg of propane burnt you will get 1.8lbs/Kg of water vapour (which will condense into liquid water if there are cool enough surfaces nearby)...

Then get a vented on as I have said 3 times here now.

 

[gregmay]

1. Remove the OEM battery, use the 24/12-70 to power 12v loads, block the 12v charge from the tow vehicle.
2. Keep the OEM battery, use it as a buffer for momentary large loads and keep it charged with a Orion smart 24/12-30 isolated DC-DC keeping the 12V in from the tow vehicle.
3. Keep the OEM battery, use the 24/12-70 to power loads/keep battery charged and use a 3 position switch to keep the non isolated orion from the tow vehicle's 12vdc.

Make sure you maintain 12v to your emergency breakaway switch, which I belive should be connected directly to your lead acid house battery mounted on the tongue. Be prepared to prove that your electric trailer brakes have power at ALL times, if your power system does not provide that supply if turned off and you rely on your tow vevicle to provide power to your electric trailer brakes they will not fuction if/when your trailer becomes detached when you're driving. "Option 3" keeping the 12v lead acid seems to be the best arrangement.

 

[HarryN]

Most of your ideas are sound. I am not so sure about Northern Ontario and LiFe batteries unless your plan is to run heating in the trailer to keep it at least 5 C no matter what.

I am a big believer in 24 volt systems, but the most efficient way to do this is to have mostly 24 volt appliances. About the only thing that is hard to find in 24 volt are roof exhaust fans. Otherwise do everything that you can to have 24 volt appliances vs 12 volt.