Hey Folks.
I cobbled together a power system last year in an 18' cargo trailer I am converting to a Travel Trailer. The Initial build was cheap/quick and mostly just stuff I had on hand. I did order a Renogy 50A DC2DC charger. I had to overcome a few hurdles but it actually worked quite well. The biggest hurdle I had was the old 1000W inverter I was using inside the trailer. The fans are quite noisy everytime the fridge kicked in.
Now I have ripped it all apart and I am working on insulating and actually building out the interior. I stumbled on a used deal for a Victron MultiPlus 12/2000/80 . This fixes one problem we had with the old inverter.
The next problem with the rebuild is the Power wall is moving from the front of the trailer to the back. This will add an extra 36' of cable to my already 45' run for the DC2DC. Its running fine on the current 4 gauge wire but I suspect it will all have to be upped in size with a 80' run (round trip). This got me thinking again about using 120AC to run from the truck to the trailer. I can install the 1000W inverter I have under the hood and run an extension cord to the bumper. I can install the AC input for the trailer on the front and we are done! Well not really done and here are the questions that are coming up in my brain.
1) I need to look but thinking of putting the inverter under the hood. I would need it to be switched with the ignition. I have a 90A Solid State isolator I can use that I think would suffice. Am I missing something here (beyond fuse, switch and 12 gauge extension cord to bumper)? Is there a better option then an Isolator?
2) Thoughts on the power input on the trailer. I was going to go 30A but then I would need a dogbone to connect the 15A extension cord from the truck to the 30A receptacle on the trailer. Being in the weather I was thinking it might be best to avoid extra connections. Any suggestions here?
3) Am I missing something obvious here? On paper I can feed 80A to my batteries using the Victron instead of 50A with the Renogy. I will likely have to scale the Victron down to maybe 60A to not overload the inverter. It removes a piece of kit from the trailer and adds AC to the truck which could be handy for other things.... It seems like more people should do this and are not.. So what am I missing... Its ok call me stupid ;-)
Cheers guys and thanks in advance!
I cobbled together a power system last year in an 18' cargo trailer I am converting to a Travel Trailer. The Initial build was cheap/quick and mostly just stuff I had on hand. I did order a Renogy 50A DC2DC charger. I had to overcome a few hurdles but it actually worked quite well. The biggest hurdle I had was the old 1000W inverter I was using inside the trailer. The fans are quite noisy everytime the fridge kicked in.
Now I have ripped it all apart and I am working on insulating and actually building out the interior. I stumbled on a used deal for a Victron MultiPlus 12/2000/80 . This fixes one problem we had with the old inverter.
The next problem with the rebuild is the Power wall is moving from the front of the trailer to the back. This will add an extra 36' of cable to my already 45' run for the DC2DC. Its running fine on the current 4 gauge wire but I suspect it will all have to be upped in size with a 80' run (round trip). This got me thinking again about using 120AC to run from the truck to the trailer. I can install the 1000W inverter I have under the hood and run an extension cord to the bumper. I can install the AC input for the trailer on the front and we are done! Well not really done and here are the questions that are coming up in my brain.
1) I need to look but thinking of putting the inverter under the hood. I would need it to be switched with the ignition. I have a 90A Solid State isolator I can use that I think would suffice. Am I missing something here (beyond fuse, switch and 12 gauge extension cord to bumper)? Is there a better option then an Isolator?
2) Thoughts on the power input on the trailer. I was going to go 30A but then I would need a dogbone to connect the 15A extension cord from the truck to the 30A receptacle on the trailer. Being in the weather I was thinking it might be best to avoid extra connections. Any suggestions here?
3) Am I missing something obvious here? On paper I can feed 80A to my batteries using the Victron instead of 50A with the Renogy. I will likely have to scale the Victron down to maybe 60A to not overload the inverter. It removes a piece of kit from the trailer and adds AC to the truck which could be handy for other things.... It seems like more people should do this and are not.. So what am I missing... Its ok call me stupid ;-)
Cheers guys and thanks in advance!