Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

hello all! I was wondering what kind of voltage converter I would need for my teardrop project. I would like to use 12 volt lighting, a fantastic fan, and I would like to install a car stereo inside the cabin, the stereo wont have the big sub woofers just maybe 40 watts per channel. One other question about the car stereo would the antenna have to be grounded because I would attach it to the side of the tear.

thanks to all, Steve W.

wingrydr57 wrote:hello all! I was wondering what kind of voltage converter I would need for my teardrop project. I would like to use 12 volt lighting, a fantastic fan, and I would like to install a car stereo inside the cabin, the stereo wont have the big sub woofers just maybe 40 watts per channel. One other question about the car stereo would the antenna have to be grounded because I would attach it to the side of the tear.

thanks to all, Steve W.

Lottsa folks seem to swear by the WFCO converters. If you have a battery in your system, the battery will be able to handle the short term high current loads and once the high load is gone the converter will bring the battery back up to snuff. I'd see how much you'll need for your fantastic fan, car radio (but I prefer a small radio designed to run off batteries that has a 12 volt power plug as they are plenty loud for personal listening in a campground and use far less current than a car radio) and size your converter to handle those loads at the same time. If you plan to run anything else on a continuous basis I'd factor that into the equation also. No need to get a 7 gigawatt converter.

The antenna uses coaxial cable. An inner conductor and a circular braid around that conductor with insulation separating them. The outer braid should be connected to as large a piece of sheet metal as possible (if your teardrop has a metal skin that would be excellent) and the mount of the antenna usually takes care of this connection when the antenna is mounted to metal. If the antenna is mounted to wood, then a separate gound wire should be run to your frame for best performance although you may not notice that big a difference.

Cheers,

Gus

As Gus recommended, my antenna is grounded to the aluminum exterior.

Would grounding the coax to the frame suffice? Or would that set-up an electrical hum while charging, or using power elsewhere simultaneously, since the 12v ground is the trailer frame? Or, for better results, attach a "grounding plane" of metal to the plywood just for the antenna's benefit?

working on it wrote:Would grounding the coax to the frame suffice? Or would that set-up an electrical hum while charging, or using power elsewhere simultaneously, since the 12v ground is the trailer frame? Or, for better results, attach a "grounding plane" of metal to the plywood just for the antenna's benefit?

I think a good, maintained, connection to your frame would be sufficient. You can always experiment by attaching a piece of sheet metal or baking pan under the antenna but I doubt that you'll see a big difference. It may be that a good ground connection isn't that important. It is, though, good "practice" to have a "ground plane".

Cheers,

Gus

I selected the WFCO 8725 (25amp output) because of the 3-stage battery charger, for my Scamp renovation but for my original TD build I used the American 2000 (20Amp) converter (don't know but I don't believe it has the 'smart' charger??). My TD has numerous 12vdc lights (incandescent & LED), a Fantastic Fan, a Voyager AWM 930S (50watt-25w per ch) auto/RV stereo receiver w/CD player & digital clock, & we use a small 9" DVD player that plugs into a 12vdc outlet. We also charge multiple small appliance batteries (phone, camera, DVD player, etc.) from the 12vdc outlets. The 20amp American converter has provided plenty of power even when running the above, some simultaneously. If I were doing it again I'd probably go with the WFCO just for the 3-stage charging (or if you insist on American made, perhaps the Progressive Dynamics Intelliconverters, I think). For my stereo antenna I used one of the short (18" ?) flexible types, mounted to the side of my TD. It has worked to pick up weak, distant signals all over the USA, especially in the mountainous west. My speakers are probably the weak link; I used 2-way 4" flush mount in both the cabin & the galley hatch. They provide good (not great) sound inside the cabin but seem to lack 'presence' in the outdoor environment of the galley. I only play them loud enough to be heard in the immediate vicinity, i.e. 10-15' radius so that may be part of the problem?? I've thought of replacing them with some larger, 3-way speakers mainly to provide more low volume presence.

The American 2000 converter


The voyager stereo


Stereo & inside speakers


Galley speakers (in hatch) & converter location


My antenna installation

The Progressive Dynamics converters and load centers are US made and they are responsive to problems. I have been seeing a rash of complaints on other forums of the WAFCO failing in one form or another, country of origin is China.
We have a rubber ducky antenna meant to be used in fiberglass and it seems to work well try looking for marine antennas made to be used with fiberglass.

Upper right hand corner is the antenna.

Shadow Catcher wrote:The Progressive Dynamics converters and load centers are US made and they are responsive to problems. I have been seeing a rash of complaints on other forums of the WAFCO failing in one form or another, country of origin is China.

I stand corrected.

Cheers,

Gus

I went with the Progressive Dynamics PD9130 converter/charger and bought the charge wizard. I will be hooking up a car stereo as well and I bought this antenna from Amazon recently for $19.08. It is powered so hopefully that gives good reception and you can mount it inside or outside so it's flexible.



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FOUWNQ/ref=oh_o00_s01_i00_details