opinions wanted

[rdemler]

I'm new to camping and trailer converting.I am trying to decide which way to go with my power supply.I will almost always be camped away from anyone and never in a campground.I'm thinkin running 12v lights from just a battery in the trailer.And running anything else I might need to run ie. small television,microwave,fridge,or freezer off a honda generator. The other thought is using a 12v battery and an inverter to power extra things.I'm confused as to which way to go for power,as I want to keep it really simple.Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

[mikeschn]

No one likes to hear a generator while camping. If you don't have access to a shoreline, go with solar!

Mike...

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Nice thing about solar is after the initial cost, its free energy. Although you'd need a heck of a battery bank to run a microwave. If you are out in the middle of nowhere, not around anyone, a nice generator might be the way to go. Those Honda's don't make too much noise.

[tony.latham]

One of the (many) reasons I camp away from campgrounds is to get away from the noise. I'm a 12v guy with 60 watts of solar power and find I have plenty of electricity for my LED lights, 12v DVD player and Fantastic Fan. I use a cooler with ice and I'm fine for three or four nights. If I wanted to go longer, I might throw in a second cooler with a chunk of dry ice. I cook on a propane stove and over a campfire with dutch ovens or grill.

Microwave, freezer, and fridge? That's a (horrendous) amount of juice. I don't think you're going to be able to run that stuff from a 12v system and an inverter. At least not from one marine battery. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I don't have a problem with you running a generator, it'd drive me nutts, but you and I aren't going to camp in the same canyon. So have at it, but I think you're going to need to wire in a 110AC system and hook your generator to it with that kind of power load. I don't think it'd make much (electrical) sense to run a generator that produces DC current and then changes it into AC current (with it's own inverter), which you would plug into another inverter to change it back to DC for battery charging and then another inverter to get your AC power. I THINK that would give an electrical engineer a stroke.



Tony

[Glenlivet]

An inverter's jusrt a waste of power for a little trailer. That's just for a big family RV when people want to run all kinds of stuff like 110 volt razors, cell chargers, curling irons, whatever off the battery. It draws a whack of power for that little convenience.
All a little trailer needs is a deep cycle battery and means of charging it. In my converted Cargo I have a generator and shore power plug (when that's available) for running things like microwave, A/C, toaster, and a smart charger for the battery. Everything else is 12 volts.
The smart charger doesn't overcharge, it tapers off as the battery approaches full charge and it doesn't backfeed when 110 is off so it can stay in circuit, it'll just automatically charge the battery when it needs it and when 110 is live. As well I have solar cells for charging the 12. volt battery and the battery charges from the tow vehicle when that's hooked up and running, though there's a solenoid in it to disco the trailer power when the vehicle isn't running.
The 3 way fridge of course and the stove/oven and catalytic heater run on propane.
Don't need no steenking inverter.

[rdemler]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.Looking into solar,but leaning towards a generator as I would'nt be anywhere near others.