How to hook up battery to breaker Box

[Carmella & Kevin Byers]

 

Hello, I have been trying research this on the web but have been having a hard time finding direct answers to my questions.

We have a 12ft trailer that has had all the wiring pulled for a remodel however we left the breaker box. I would like to add 2 6v batteries to the trailer to run the few lights, outlets and an electric burner for cooking.

So my question is, how do you wire the battery up to the breaker box and still leave a plug in for when there is shore power?

What I do know is that we will need and inverter from the battery to make it A/C but the invertors that I see on-line all have a cigarette lighter hook up. Is there one that can be connected to the battery cables? Then how do I wire the inverter to the breaker box? Or is there a special inverter for just this need?

Lastly, how will the batteries re-charge, if I am hooked up to shore power will they re-charge?

Thank you

Carmella

[John "T" Nordhoff]

Yeppers Matthew, I'm scrolling down through all this and Ima thinking this is a 12 ft Trailer NOT a 45 Ft Prevost 50 amp Humongous Motorhome lol. Hey two golf cart batteries,,,,,,,,,,,A 30 amp or so Progressive Dynamics Smart 3/4 Stage Charger with Charge Wizard,,,,,,,,,,,A 400 Watt stand alone PSW Inverter for small electronics and charging,,,,,,,,,,,,A 30 amp shore power cord and a small combination 12 VDC and 120 VAC panel IS PLENTY. You start talking Magnum Inverter/Chargers, they may cost more then the trailer lol 

 Oh well were havin fun right

 John T

[Matthew Tritt]

Exactamente! As I recall, when I camped in my 59 VW kinda-camper, I felt priveleged to have a place to sleep that wasn't on the hard, cold ground. Having the little icebox was much better than a bunch of soggy cardboard and plastic bags floating around in the bottom of a portable ice chest and 5 gallons of onboard water delivered with a hand pump was pretty neat too. I say just leave the little trailers be with the minimalistic systems they have and be happy that you don't have to fold up a wet tent when it's time to head home. (Of course, I say this after sinking a deplorable amount of dough into upgrading my own RV!)

[Matthew Tritt]

Carmelita: Sorry that this discussion went off the rails, but there is one thing I need to say before I give it up. That is that your idea about using an electric cooker is pretty-much impossible - unless you always have access to shore power when you head out to the wilds. Propane is much faster, hotter and just plain better for cooking, so keep that gas cooktop and save yourself a lot of grief. You CANNOT use an inverter to power a cook stove. You would need a very large battery bank and a very large, expensive inverter, as well as a good generator to accomplish the same thing you can with just a 5 gallon bottle of propane and a decent propane stove.

[Rich Thomas]

This is why GORV's is such a great place. An exchange of Ideas on a common topic. My take from all this is a well balanced RV is going to have a good balance of LP, AC and DC. and can be tailored one way or the other to favor the source for the intended use. Then there's that whole Black water thing?

[zane lile]

Carmella - What do you want to run from the battery ? I have a 12 ' I built myself - I run the water pump, light in bathroom, light in kitchen,from the battery. I also have a refrig, I can run off an inverter it is only about 100 watts, 12 v, 120v are LP gas, so I can get by with a 400 watt inverter. I normally run the refrig. off lp when boondocking, but I can switch to 12v if needed. The cook top, by all means go to LP gas. Do you have a water heater ? I run my W.H. off lp along with my cook top, I do also carry a small generator when I leave the house. When you add, a cook top, refrigerator, AC, lights, and other, the use of electricity goes wany up. To recharge you need a battery charger a simple unit like for your car are a comb. unit. The breaker box you talk of, is for the 110 volt shore power, you will have to add fuses are another breaker box for your 12 volts.Write back and let us know what all you wish to run off battery and how long you wish to be with out shore power, we can then help you more.In fact whenyou tell us the rest of the story we can draw you a diagram of how to wire the trailer. Good luck.