Just about finished installing what I believe may be the most advanced electrical system in a teardrop trailer. For more than 12 years the wife and I were cruising sailors. When making the switch to camping I felt it was necessary for me to have 2 things, sleep well and not sacrifice on our electrical needs. I could deal with everything else if I just had those two necessities.
The wife and I purchased a new/custom ‘Vistabule’ teardrop trailer last year. Not wanting to sacrifice anything electrical we had on the 50 foot boat and since the little teardrop was new I started from scratch and re-installed the electrical system leaving only the pre wired lights untouched.
My system consists of 2-100 amp hour Lithium Ion (LiFePO4) 12 volt batteries, a 1,500 watt pure sinewave inverter, 40 amp 120 volt charger, a high amperage feed from the Jeep alternator to the teardrop batteries for charging from the tow vehicle, Victron battery monitor & MPPT solar controller, iphone monitoring along with 2-100 watt semi-flexible solar panels (roof mounted).
We just returned from 10 days of dry camping in Joshua Tree National Forest here in Southern California and after a lot of trial and error including shorting out a Victron solar charge controller and purchasing a replacement the system is working great! We have all the power we want (at the moment, 50 amp hours in a 24 hour period) and can charge the batteries using either the 120 volt shore charger, the Jeep’s alternator or the 200 watts of solar panels. We can also monitor everything by bluetooth on our computers or smart phone. We have a refrigerator, make percolator coffee in the morning and can plug in anything that can be plugged into a household circuit at home (like a waffle iron). With our charging system we can re-charge the Lithium Ion batteries quickly with 120 or the Jeep alternator, or, (using the solar panels) re-charge the 50 amp hours we normally use in a 24 hour period by 2PM on a sunny day and can go 4 days 'dry camping' before needing to recharge by any source.
I’m impressed with myself, (sorry) and plan on making a website with detailed information on what I tried to do, what I accomplished and what I learned putting the system together. At the moment the wife and I are just enjoying the fact that the system works great! My approach was when in doubt, make the system bigger and it seems to have worked, from wire sizing to solar panel output.
If anyone is building an electrical system for a small trailer or RV and wants some input, send me an email, that is until I make that website. I did a lot of research online and found there’s nothing that starts from scratch and builds the ultimate system. Be warned though,,,, doing all the work myself it still cost more than $4,000.00 for the parts.
Approximate cost,,,
Lithium Ion batteries, $2,300.00
Wiring $ 500.00
Solar equipment $ 450.00
Battery/solar monitoring $ 400.00
Misc. $ 450.00
Email address: [email protected]