Trailer electrical box ideas

[Captain Chaos]

I am in the planning stages of my electrical for my trailers HF tongue box. After days of research, (it feels like it anyway) I have a pretty good plan for what I would like to power. My build isn’t extreme, I don’t need to power much. I’m uncertain about some of the build as of yet. Generally, I scour forums and put together a build idea of my own based on how others have done theirs.

The biggest draw on my entire system will be a fridge. I am planning on a Dometic CFX50W. I have read that I can leave the fridge plugged into 12v and 110v constantly, as it has a built in voltage sensor that automatically switches it to the most efficient source. So, I can just unplug from the wall, the fridge will run off 12v until I return home and plug an extension cord back into the tongue box. 12v will be supplied by a AGM battery.

My plan includes a Noco Genius port plug, I think I will wire it directly to a gfci outlet. The fridge and a ctek battery charger/maintainer will be plugged into the outlet. The Ctek will be wired to a AGM 80ah-100ah battery. A circuit breaker, fuse panel, ground bus, and shut off switch will follow. (Not necessarily in that order) I will need a couple switches, and a Powerwerx 4 hole panel with a switch, 12v plug, usb charger, and voltmeter.

I have not decided how I want to mount all this in the HF box. Others have just drilled holes, and some put pieces on plywood against the walls of the box to screw components on to easily.

How do you have your electrical setup? And what would you do differently?

 

[SubeeBen]

Hey captain not sure if this will help but I used a progressive dynamics power control center model # PD4100 and did a lot of research on this topic & this panel does it all 12 volt/ 110 volt as well as it has to leads that go to positive & negative on battery & a built in battery charger/ maintainer. Hope this helps.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Boy, is that thing cool! I couldn’t find a price for one though. Where did you order it from?

View attachment 49242 View attachment 49241 Hey captain not sure if this will help but I used a progressive dynamics power control center model # PD4100 and did a lot of research on this topic & this panel does it all 12 volt/ 110 volt as well as it has to leads that go to positive & negative on battery & a built in battery charger/ maintainer. Hope this helps.

 

[SubeeBen]

I believe teradroptrailerparts.com or possibly etrailer.com ran about $ 150 to $170 but it’s compact, simple & handles all you need. Same panel in most rv s today just a small version. It’s still cheaper than all the other electronics combined which was going to be around $300 to $400.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I believe teradroptrailerparts.com or possibly etrailer.com ran about $ 150 to $170 but it’s compact, simple & handles all you need. Same panel in most rv s today just a small version. It’s still cheaper than all the other electronics combined which was going to be around $300 to $400.

That’s really reasonable. I found it on teardroptrailerparts, in case anyone else is interested. I just don’t think it will fit well in my tongue box. Had I saw it beforehand, I would have built differently.

 

[SubeeBen]

Honestly it’s only about 10” wide by about 6” tall & about 3” deep I can get you exact measurements if neeeded

 

[Captain Chaos]

I got started on my electrical box today. After a ton of research, I found that the Durastart marine agm is the same battery as the Duracell rv agm, but $65 cheaper. Both are made by East Penn, who also make Mid-states.

My parts from Powerwerx showed up today, so I got busy installing.




I had one screw up I will take care of later.


More to come!

 

[RockDisco]

Hi guys, I've been looking around trying to get info on building an off grid electrical system for a trailer. There is a ton of parts and it seems some will do the jobs of others. My question is; is there an all in one unit. Charge controller, inverter, solar manager, and power monitor all in one? Or is the idea of that a little to much of "all your eggs in one basket"? I really like the idea of having a good monitor to view how much I'm using, and bring in using solar. I just don't know if that would be apart of an all in one if it exists. Any advice?

 

[ArkansasDon]

I wouldn't change any thing to my set up. My electrical is set up for solar\off grid only, I didn't want any source of shore line connections. My electrical system consist of a Harbor Freight 2 3\4 cu, ft. steel tongue box, battery is V Max Tank 125ah AGM, Charge Controller is Renogy Wanderer 30amp w\battery temperature sensor, the Battery Shut Off Switch make its so I can shut down the entire electrical system for storage while trickle charging the battery, 4 bank fuse block, 3 12volt waterproof marine grade outlet sockets on the right side of the tongue box, waterproof rocker style switch to power the 2 filtered green LED lights on the tent rack on the right side. The left side of the tongue box is the solar port for the 2 100 watt Renogy portable suit case panels to connect into. This port runs 20ft. awg cable for the solar panels. What is nice about my solar system & the way I designed it, is I can connect both 100 watt panels together in "parallel" to receive 60 amp-hours per day or just hook up one single 100watt panel for 30 amp-hours per day depending on how much 12volt gear I want to use & still maintain charging my battery properly. The on board charger is a NOCO Gen 1 single Bank 10 amp On-Board Battery Charger. Digital Battery meter w\auto shut off. It's a simple electrical system I came up with but very safe & reliable.

I wanted a 100% off grid solar system that gives me the amount of power to supply my 12volt gear during different times of the season camping & still have more than enough reserve into my battery for charging.

 

[RockDisco]

Nice work!! Looks nice and clean. Have you considered a DC-DC charger? I may very well have trips of mostly driving during the day with little time to put out panels. A week of poor weather would also require a good charge from the Truck.
How are those panels working for you?

 

[ArkansasDon]

I've camp'd in over cast \ cloudy days on trips & never had any issue of power. The panel or panels are producing power 25 % or up during cloudy days. Whether using one panel or both connected in parallel I just have to watch the power usage on those days. The solar system over-all Renogy I have zero complaints. I done lots of research on solar companies & settled with Renogy for the German built cells, their quality of the product & service is 100% outstanding. I gave them all the 12v. gear usage draw consumption data, times of usage & they came up with a fail safe system.

My battery is fully charged by the on board charger before we leave & the battery system is shut until we get to the area we plan to camp. I made the choice of a 125amp hour AGM battery because of they hold up very well in cold weather, VMax Tanks (battery I have) loose very little power during storage & have a 8 to 10 year life span. The 12v. gear we run is usually our Engel fridg\freez, Zodi Hot Shower system I converted to 12v., & Endless Breeze Fan during the hot summer nights. The Engel doesn't draw that much power, LED tent light strip is on only until we settle in bed, & the filtered LED lights on the tent rack are in use only when those late night bathroom runs are needed. As of the thought of DC to DC charger?, yes I thought seriously on this when I was doing my ground up build of my trailer when I came to the electrical stages of the build. But decided to go solar 100% & like I said never had issue of running out of power. My battery never dropped below 15%.

 

[RockDisco]

That gives me a lot of great information. A couple more questions,
1) In your set up, how do you measure % usage, do you have a volt meter, or something to show current charge\draw?
2) when you say "never dropped below 15%", is that 15% usage (85% left), or 85% usage (15% left). I'm worried as I have a simple system (fridge an lights) but calculate around 1% loss per hour, that really gives me 2 days if I don't get good sun, if I don't want to drop below 50%.
3) Have you played around with wiring your panels in series compared to in parallel?

 

[ArkansasDon]

Geographically, different (seasons) of the year it all depends. My 12v. gear I use is Engel fridg\freez (fridg mode only) pull anywere between .07ah to 1.8ah on set temperature on fridg, freez. The usage can go up during different seasons of the year.This will cause your fridg\freez to run more often like summer vs. less often in cooler months.
I live in the south so our weather in the summer is very humid, so my Engel will run more often which will use more power which this piece of gear runs "on demand". During summer my Endless Breeze Fan runs during sleeping hours 8hrs @ 1.6amps per hour "continously."
Early spring we have Proplex Heat Source Forced Air Heating System for our RTT that runs on propane & 12v. for the thermostat which is in the RTT. This pulls 1.6amps per hour "on demand" work like a household forced air heating furnace.
I don't figure in any 12v. usage that isn't in use for more than 10 minutes like the Zodi Hot Shower System the pump is turned on only to wet your self down then turn back on to rinse your self off which is little to no time, or LED light strip in RTT, or the tent rack lights which are filtered green LED's. LED hardly pulls any thing for power & the time frame is little to 10 minutes max. So to figure that as of consumption I don't.

When I ordered my solar system from Renogy all the manufacture's data was given on my 12v. gear, as well as the Geographic's (location), time frames of use, & the time of seasons for use. I informed them with I wanted the best system that will offer the wife & I. This is what they offered: Battery size, panels: the ability to run 2 100watts or a single 100watt, 30 amp charge controller that will handle up to 400 watts of panel or panels, cables size & the length. I have no reason to change up my solar system. The key for a good reliable solar system is to supply enough power for the gear in use during peak hrs as well as charging the battery or batteries to have the reserve during non peak hrs. This is what my system does.

We camp during early fall, early spring, mid spring, early summer & mid summer only. Late fall & winter we hunt & trap here on our farm so our trailer is parked in the shop building.

 

[RockDisco]

Thanks for the update. Great trailer. I’ll be looking at the Renolgy Panels. I found a cool battery meter that works over Bluetooth; powermon. I want to see how much juice I’m bring in from Solar or DC from the truck as well as usage. The Solar may be enough but being far more north than you I don’t think so early or late in the season.
That heater looks pretty slick, how do you like it?

 

[ArkansasDon]

the cost is the only thing I do not like, BUT the safety part of it supersedes the cost. Known their isn't any issue that could kill you while sleep is rest assured. The tent heats up to temp, the system shuts off, comes back on automatically when the tent drops blow temp. Hardly pulls any amps & 20lb propane bottle will last many trips.

 

[Todd & Meg]

I
View attachment 49677

More to come!

That Powerpole outlet was just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting that.

Todd

 

[Captain Chaos]

That Powerpole outlet was just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting that.

Todd

Anytime. Glad it could be of some use.