fixing a very old trailer in a campground, any ideas?

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whogoosedthemoose

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I have a mobile home that has been in the same campground for many years , and would like to make it more modern( better, newer electrical stuff, etc,) hoping someone here can give us some ideas on anything to make this rig remain dependable. One catch I have is the power- there are four homes in our little corner of the woods, and each trailer gets a paltry 20 amp service. Needless to say, running any appliance besides the AC kicks a breaker, incuding the well pump. I have a neighbor who uses a marine battery for power, and others, as we who use the 20 amp service. My idea is to use two marine batteries, plus the 20 amps, to free things up a bit. Any ideas?
 
If I were you, I would go the battery route and get a good charger. Propane would work for the frige, stove and water heater. Lights and TV could be 12 volts to run off the battery. Then you would only have to alternate between the AC and water pump. That shouldn't be too bad.

Doug
 
Be sure to get at least a 3-stage battery charger.  Most automotive ones don't work that well with deep cycle batteries- you could get a charger converter made for an RV.  One example is the Intellipower 55.  You couldn't run the air conditioner and the charger at the same time, so just switch off.  Run the AC for a while, then run the charger.  If you want to run the toaster or microwave, you can only have ONE of those items on at a time.

If you can afford it, get two 6 volt batteries wired in series.  They run about $130 each but will last 10 years if you keep up on their maintenance.
 
Are we talking about a mobile home or a travel trailer?  There's a big difference between them as far as their electrical wiring.

Travel trailers are made to go from place to place and stay overnight without needing external electricity for basic functions.  Their primary electrical setup uses 12 volts from a storage battery to run the lights and several appliances like the stove fan, furnace blower and internal water pump.  The battery is in turn charged by the converter when you're plugged into electricity.

The air conditioner and outlets come off of a separate 120 VAC system that's connected to the shore power cord.

A mobile home doesn't have the 12 volt battery, lights, etc.  All of it's electricity comes from the 120 Volts AC system.

If you have a travel trailer, with the dual 12 volt / 120 volt electrical setup, it's fairly easy to upgrade the converter, put in a couple of batteries and have at it.  But if your mobile home is 120 volts only, you'll have to do some major disassembly of the electrics to convert the lighting system over to run from a deep cycle battery while keeping 120 volts to the appliances, et.
 
Use a generator from Harbor Freight.  My husband is in construction and most sites he works on do not have power on as they are gut rehabs and he has to take his generator with him everywhere....so get a generator and you will be fine and not pull any power or have to worry about draining or popping
 
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