JayArr
Well-known member
Hi All
Our trailer is an early 90s Terry by Fleetwood, it's in good shape but only has a a pair of batteries with old school charger to power it. No inverter, no generator.
We love the government parks, the sites are larger and they tend to be nicer but they rarely have power so I get a little twitchy on day three of a long weekend concerning the battery bank level. In the spring and fall we need to run the furnace at night and I've now determined that we need a dehumidifier to keep the moisture down.
My solution is to add an inverter, I have a Xantrex Marine 1500 sitting on my shelf that a customer abandoned that I'll put to use. It should run everything but the AC and we're OK with that. The wife likes the idea of having the microwave all the time. If it turns out to be under-powered I also have some Freedom 458s in the 2000-2500W range I can swap in later.
The second stage is to add a generator so that we can recharge each day. Our Provincial parks allow windows of time for generators (9-noon, 5-7?) You can't run them all night.
I went and bought a Homelight 4000 portable generator on Craigslist. It's got the 8 HP Briggs and Stratton attached to a generator motor for 30 Amps at 120 or 15 at 240. It's also electric start so the wife can start it with the push of the button. I'm going to install it above the battery bank on the front tongue. (I have a mig welder so I'll make a frame for it). I should be able to just pull out the shore power cord, plug it into the genny and start it and let the Xantrex use the AC from the genny to recharge the batteries. I'm not going to wire the genny permanently, it has an outlet.
Now, as all ideas progress I started thinking of how to carry fuel for the genny and realized I have two forty pound propane cylinders right next to it so I found a propane conversion kit from US Carburetors for this model engine and it tees into the propane line from the trailer regulator. I'll pull the gasoline tank off and go propane.
Any flaws in my plan?
Has anyone done the propane conversion to a portable genny and mounted it permanently to their TT?
JayArr
Our trailer is an early 90s Terry by Fleetwood, it's in good shape but only has a a pair of batteries with old school charger to power it. No inverter, no generator.
We love the government parks, the sites are larger and they tend to be nicer but they rarely have power so I get a little twitchy on day three of a long weekend concerning the battery bank level. In the spring and fall we need to run the furnace at night and I've now determined that we need a dehumidifier to keep the moisture down.
My solution is to add an inverter, I have a Xantrex Marine 1500 sitting on my shelf that a customer abandoned that I'll put to use. It should run everything but the AC and we're OK with that. The wife likes the idea of having the microwave all the time. If it turns out to be under-powered I also have some Freedom 458s in the 2000-2500W range I can swap in later.
The second stage is to add a generator so that we can recharge each day. Our Provincial parks allow windows of time for generators (9-noon, 5-7?) You can't run them all night.
I went and bought a Homelight 4000 portable generator on Craigslist. It's got the 8 HP Briggs and Stratton attached to a generator motor for 30 Amps at 120 or 15 at 240. It's also electric start so the wife can start it with the push of the button. I'm going to install it above the battery bank on the front tongue. (I have a mig welder so I'll make a frame for it). I should be able to just pull out the shore power cord, plug it into the genny and start it and let the Xantrex use the AC from the genny to recharge the batteries. I'm not going to wire the genny permanently, it has an outlet.
Now, as all ideas progress I started thinking of how to carry fuel for the genny and realized I have two forty pound propane cylinders right next to it so I found a propane conversion kit from US Carburetors for this model engine and it tees into the propane line from the trailer regulator. I'll pull the gasoline tank off and go propane.
Any flaws in my plan?
Has anyone done the propane conversion to a portable genny and mounted it permanently to their TT?
JayArr