building 16 ft travel trailer

[kmksunfire]

Hi all!
I just got my first camper/travel trailer 2 weeks ago. starting from a 71 sprite musketeer already gutted,  installing water and elecrtic, propane lines appear good. Learning so much!  I wasted a lot of time worried about figuring out the electric before getting my walls up... and starting to think I just need to move everything forward.  coming onto this sight I learned a bit more about different setups and am starting to rethink a need for a converter...

rough plan is to outfit with bed, shower, sink, etc. skipping toilet and black water tank for now.

I don't plan on doing much shore hook up, starting to wonder if I need a converter/charger.  Currently going with two 6 volt trojan 105 batteries.
2000 watt inverter. I don't plan on using a whole lot of electricity but want the option for air conditioning. mostly computer, camera, lights, water pump.  would like to get solar panels, thinking 2-4 x 100 watt, or looking more into the 230 watt panel.
(still a bit hazy on how to get charge from tow vehicle. simple ass the right trailer hook up leading to "house" battery bank..)

 going to take it west through the rockies, down to grand canyon, up california. late march-june.  Alaska in the summer-not sure if camper is coming. I've thought a lot about different ways to travel, on bike, sailboat, travel trailer over the last stretch of time, and excited to finally have the little project to work on.  A bit over-welming, but I think I spend more time running through it in my head then I do putting work in. But it's wisconsin, and it's so cold right now!

cheers! I look forward reading more on this forum. and hopefully I can get some pics of videos together.

Kevin

 

[kmksunfire]

pics attached, i hope.

 

[highdesertranger]

waaaay cool. makes sure you do a wheel bearing service. keep us up to date on the build. o btw welcome. highdesertranger

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums kmksunfire! Looks like a fun project!

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[johnny b]

Nice job on revamping a nice old camper...  

However you're going to need to rethink your electrical plan.
"(still a bit hazy on how to get charge from tow vehicle. simple ass the right trailer hook up leading to "house" battery bank..)"

To get charge from your alternator will require a length of very large cable, with separate large 'Anderson type' connectors....there are charts and calculators online that show current loss per length of wire size....google is your friend.

This calculator was linked in the electric thread:   http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com/#

I put in 30 feet, 50 amps, 12v, 1% loss, for 3 hours, fuse terminated and it returned 2/0 AWG. You'll need your actual load requirements to see if this is enough. 2/0 AWG is big cable and requires very well made crimped ends (hydraulic tool)....bad connections can be a nightmare.


It takes a LOT of solar and battery bank to run a small air conditioner....it CAN be done but it ain't cheap. Search the 'electric' and 'heating a/c' threads here on the forum.....lots of great info....a lot of reading.

 

[kmksunfire]

Nice job on revamping a nice old camper...  

However you're going to need to rethink your electrical plan.
"(still a bit hazy on how to get charge from tow vehicle. simple ass the right trailer hook up leading to "house" battery bank..)"

To get charge from your alternator will require a length of very large cable, with separate large 'Anderson type' connectors....there are charts and calculators online that show current loss per length of wire size....google is your friend.

This calculator was linked in the electric thread:   http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com/#

I put in 30 feet, 50 amps, 12v, 1% loss, for 3 hours, fuse terminated and it returned 2/0 AWG. You'll need your actual load requirements to see if this is enough. 2/0 AWG is big cable and requires very well made crimped ends (hydraulic tool)....bad connections can be a nightmare.


It takes a LOT of solar and battery bank to run a small air conditioner....it CAN be done but it ain't cheap. Search the 'electric' and 'heating a/c' threads here on the forum.....lots of great info....a lot of reading.

thanks for the info. 
 yeah, I think the alternator is not a good option.  
also the air conditioner isn't required.  

think a 2000 inverter would be better then a 1000, or 1500.  be able to run a power tool or microwave, etc. I have an idea of my typical usage, but think the first 30 days will give me a better idea.   Have a bit of time before I buy inverter. budget says start with two batteries 2 panels. the goal is to minimize...so more batteries isn't option. 

I ordered the shower head and sink faucet today so I can get further on putting in my water lines. want to finish installing insulation and plywood on upper portion tom/mon.

 

[nobodyG17]

Welcome!   Wisconsin here as well.

Nice looking trailer.  Keep us updated.

 

[kmksunfire]

heya, just spent a bit of time typing lots of tid bits. but it all got erased. my fault. might not be all bad. so I'll post a few pics for anybody interested.

 

[kmksunfire]

couple in between pics

 

[BradKW]

Looking good, and welcome!

I kinda thought that big hole in back of trailer was custom cut to fit a 60" HDTV...but I guess a window could work too

 

[sushidog]

A small quiet generator would more easily run your air conditioner than a battery set-up. ACs draw a lot of power and unless you are planning on a huge battery bank and a small, efficient air conditioner (and you have an awful lot of money for the project) then a generator is more economically feasible, though a little noisy. You would still need a generator to recharge your battery bank.

A well insulated 16ft trailer will probably need about a ton of cooling power (12,000 BTUs.) A typical 12,000 btu window AC unit draws about 1250 watts (11,5 amps at 120 volts) to run, surging to around 1600-1700 watts to start. A 2,000 watt Honda generator would work. That's a little small for most roof mounted 13,500 btu RV ACs though. It will work on some but not others. You can get small mini-split AC units that are more efficient, drawing less power but they are more expensive.

If you have your heart set on a battery powered AC, the most efficient unit available is a 12,000 btu mini-split heat pump that runs off of 48vdc drawing only 560 watts (11.5 amps) that could be run off 8-6v golf cart type GC-2 batteries. It costs around $2,000 and the cheapest GC-2 batteries I found at Sams Club run about $680 and weigh about 530lbs. They would run this AC unit about 9 hours wide open till they reach about 50% capacity and need recharging, which should easily get you through the night, as it is very unlikely they will run wide open all night, but will reduce power conserving energy as needed. You would need from 1,200 -1,500 watts of solar to recharge them during the day. A complete solar/battery/AC set-up will set you back around $5k+. Here's a link for more info if interested: http://www.geinnovations.net/solar-electricity-cost.html And a great source for cheap high voltage solar panels for such a system: http://sunelec.com/

Good luck with your build,

Chip

 

[Patd4u2]

A small quiet generator would more easily run your air conditioner than a battery set-up. ACs draw a lot of power and unless you are planning on a huge battery bank and a small, efficient air conditioner (and you have an awful lot of money for the project) then a generator is more economically feasible, though a little noisy. You would still need a generator to recharge your battery bank.

A well insulated 16ft trailer will probably need about a ton of cooling power (12,000 BTUs.) A typical 12,000 btu window AC unit draws about 1250 watts (11,5 amps at 120 volts) to run, surging to around 1600-1700 watts to start. A 2,000 watt Honda generator would work. That's a little small for most roof mounted 13,500 btu RV ACs though. It will work on some but not others. You can get small mini-split AC units that are more efficient, drawing less power but they are more expensive.

If you have your heart set on a battery powered AC, the most efficient unit available is a 12,000 btu mini-split heat pump that runs off of 48vdc drawing only 560 watts (11.5 amps) that could be run off 8-6v golf cart type GC-2 batteries. It costs around $2,000 and the cheapest GC-2 batteries I found at Sams Club run about $680 and weigh about 530lbs. They would run this AC unit about 9 hours wide open till they reach about 50% capacity and need recharging, which should easily get you through the night, as it is very unlikely they will run wide open all night, but will reduce power conserving energy as needed. You would need from 1,200 -1,500 watts of solar to recharge them during the day.  A complete solar/battery/AC set-up will set you back around $5k+. Here's a link for more info if interested: http://www.geinnovations.net/solar-electricity-cost.html And a great source for cheap high voltage solar panels for such a system: http://sunelec.com/

Good luck with your build,

Chip

This guy put a mini split in his trailer conversion, They are a lot more efficient than window AC's for sure, you can get them in 110 or 220v. They are not that hard to install yourself. you can pickup a 9000 mini split AC for around $500-$600

 

[kmksunfire]

Looking good, and welcome!  

I kinda thought that big hole in back of trailer was custom cut to fit a 60" HDTV...but I guess a window could work too

haha, if they didn't consume so much energy maybe.  mini projector will shoot against drop down screen.. i think

 

[kmksunfire]

A small quiet generator would more easily run your air conditioner than a battery set-up. ACs draw a lot of power and unless you are planning on a huge battery bank and a small, efficient air conditioner (and you have an awful lot of money for the project) then a generator is more economically feasible, though a little noisy. You would still need a generator to recharge your battery bank.

A well insulated 16ft trailer will probably need about a ton of cooling power (12,000 BTUs.) A typical 12,000 btu window AC unit draws about 1250 watts (11,5 amps at 120 volts) to run, surging to around 1600-1700 watts to start. A 2,000 watt Honda generator would work. That's a little small for most roof mounted 13,500 btu RV ACs though. It will work on some but not others. You can get small mini-split AC units that are more efficient, drawing less power but they are more expensive.

If you have your heart set on a battery powered AC, the most efficient unit available is a 12,000 btu mini-split heat pump that runs off of 48vdc drawing only 560 watts (11.5 amps) that could be run off 8-6v golf cart type GC-2 batteries. It costs around $2,000 and the cheapest GC-2 batteries I found at Sams Club run about $680 and weigh about 530lbs. They would run this AC unit about 9 hours wide open till they reach about 50% capacity and need recharging, which should easily get you through the night, as it is very unlikely they will run wide open all night, but will reduce power conserving energy as needed. You would need from 1,200 -1,500 watts of solar to recharge them during the day.  A complete solar/battery/AC set-up will set you back around $5k+. Here's a link for more info if interested: http://www.geinnovations.net/solar-electricity-cost.html And a great source for cheap high voltage solar panels for such a system: http://sunelec.com/

Good luck with your build,

Chip

thanks for the info.