Electrical plans - Group review please

[BLTillson]

Greetings and good morning,

My trailer project is reaching a critical phase where planning and drawings are transformed into solid reality. It is certainly exciting but a bit scary to delve into a project with so many aspects that have to be right for it to be useful, comfortable and safe. Before I start stringing wires and before my time to return items elapses I wanted to post my current and hopefully my final electrical schematic for the group to review for errors and misunderstandings. I do understand that there are many ways to make this work. I am looking for outright errors or potential dangers in effectiveness at this point. Thank you all.

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[BLTillson]

One note: One of my concerns was that the battery cutoff is in the right place. My intention is to be able to cut all power to any device that may drain the battery slowly.

[tony.latham]

I don't see any electrical issues.

The thing that jumps at me is the number of lights. Four in the cabin, three in the galley, and one in the tongue box?

Is this a "normal" teardrop? Or something bigger? We find one light in the cabin and one in the galley is fine.





Tony

[Philip]

Put a disconnect between the alt feed to trailer or disconnect the trailer plug when parked. You don't want to drain the vehicle battery.

Battery type? AMG or something high end???

Are you going to be off grid a lot or campground runner? A set of panels only throwing 10 amps would be a very slow recharge of a battery if it's very low.

[BLTillson]

I don't see any electrical issues.

The thing that jumps at me is the number of lights. Four in the cabin, three in the galley, and one in the tongue box?

Is this a "normal" teardrop? Or something bigger? We find one light in the cabin and one in the galley is fine.





Tony

It's on the larger side as am I, (6'-5") Holds a queen bed in length with a little squeeze at the wheel wells.

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Looking at it I am not sure what we were thinking with the galley lights. That was planned so many months ago. My wife is coming to my desk now to help get this figured out. Thanks as always!

[BLTillson]

Put a disconnect between the alt feed to trailer or disconnect the trailer plug when parked. You don't want to drain the vehicle battery.

Battery type? AMG or something high end???

Are you going to be off grid a lot or campground runner? A set of panels only throwing 10 amps would be a very slow recharge of a battery if it's very low.

The charge selector will isolate the vehicle from the trailer. At least that is what I planned. Position 0 on the switch turns off all charging sources. with that and the battery disconnect. I think the batteries both vehicle and trailer will be safe. Does that make sense? I am starting off with a 75Ah AGM with the ability to add a second, in parallel when it's in the budget or a rich uncle dies.

Battery.jpg (45.84 KiB) Viewed 565 times

Charge selector switch.

Changeover swithc.png (120.9 KiB) Viewed 565 times

[tony.latham]

That was planned so many months ago.

Damn fine graphic of your project. I find designing them in CAD makes things a lot easier during the build.

:thumbs-up:

Tony

[featherliteCT1]

I do not think that that Baomain switch is DC rated. That could be a safety problem if the switch is ever operated under load.

[BLTillson]

I do not think that that Baomain switch is DC rated. That could be a safety problem if the switch is ever operated under load.

Thank you. I will check into that. One of the features I liked about it was that it had dual poles for each position. Meaning I would disconnect both sides of the circuit at the same time. Such as, disconnect the solar panels from the solar controller while disconnecting the solar controller from the battery which is a requirement of the solar controller. (I think that made sense!)

[BLTillson]

Damn fine graphic of your project. I find designing them in CAD makes things a lot easier during the build.

:thumbs-up:

Tony

Thank you. I can't imagine trying to design and build one without it.

[Onajourney]

A few things jump right out.

1. You can easily consolidate those lighting circuits. Not sure what type of lights you are using but I assume LED. A typical puck lights draws .25 amp but check yours.
2. If for some reason you want all those separate circuits, down size the fuses accordingly.
3. Wire sizes are over kill. 18 awg is adequate for most branch wiring circuits rated up to 15A depending on length.
4. Double check you shunt monitor. Most monitor the negative side and your drawing shows it on the positive.
5. That Baomain switch should be rated to 20A and is good for either AC or DC currents.

Enjoy your build.

[bdosborn]

<snip>
Bruce

[BLTillson]

A few things jump right out.

Thank you for the input. It is greatly appreciated.

1. You can easily consolidate those lighting circuits. Not sure what type of lights you are using but I assume LED. A typical puck lights draws .25 amp but check yours.
2. If for some reason you want all those separate circuits, down size the fuses accordingly.
3. Wire sizes are over kill. 18 awg is adequate for most branch wiring circuits rated up to 15A depending on length.

We are already working on the circuit distribution. It kept changing throughout the design process and took a back seat until now. I have already made changes. Since I did purchase the 14ga wire I will live with the added safety factor. Most of the separations are based on zones. Guess I am taking cues from home wiring.

4. Double check you shunt monitor. Most monitor the negative side and your drawing shows it on the positive.

Here is the wiring diagram from the installation instructions. It shows it in series with the negative pole.

shunt wiring.jpg (44.04 KiB) Viewed 459 times

5. That Baomain switch should be rated to 20A and is good for either AC or DC currents.

I agree, I double checked it and it is rated for 20A at 240v

[featherliteCT1]

How do we know the switch is DC rated?

[H.A.]

1, The positive 12V powering the battery monitor should be fused.
2, Be sure none of the 12V appliances are self grounding. Or if they are be sure their mountings are isolated from chassis.
If one of those appliances were self grounding, your battery cutoff is effectively bypassed.

Were I building this and ignoring for now the merits or not of the rotary switch...
I'd not have battery cutoff on the negative. Putting instead between battery and positive bussbar.
Or more likely, I'd simply use the main battery circuitbreaker as the battery cutoff. The 12V supply for battery monitor, I probably put it on the load side of battery cutout also.

Greetings and good morning,

My trailer project is reaching a critical phase where planning and drawings are transformed into solid reality. It is certainly exciting but a bit scary to delve into a project with so many aspects that have to be right for it to be useful, comfortable and safe. Before I start stringing wires and before my time to return items elapses I wanted to post my current and hopefully my final electrical schematic for the group to review for errors and misunderstandings. I do understand that there are many ways to make this work. I am looking for outright errors or potential dangers in effectiveness at this point. Thank you all.

Main Electrical 2.png