Power/Inverter Questions

[wavery]

Thanks, you did bring up a very valid point that I failed to explain, in my situation this is mounted on the front of a tt and as such there is not much risk of poles or anything else coming in contact.  Furthermore, these are fairly resessed to help prevent anything laying on top or hitting them from the sides.  Those are the positive connection disconnects ( matching the red positive that was existing on the trailer ), not negative, as you can see it goes up to the exposed positive connection that came stock on the trailer.  I had thought of placing the disconnects on the negative instead but considered that a larger potential problem of having a charged vehicle with no ground to the battery.  I had considered your idea also as we use that type of setup on the ambulance but I didn't want to build an enclosed box to mount it on.  The disconnects I chose are the same ones as designed for under-the-hood applications where caution would be observed.  In time, I plan to build either a wood cover or some other protection to prevent something from laying across the top.  Another idea I had was to actually put a rubber coating on the tongue of the trailer but as the weather was bad, I had never completed my work in either method.  

As with anything, people need to take caution in what they do and never assume that someone else's solution will work for them.

HMMM!! In one of the pictures, it looked like the cables were grounded to the frame. That's why I thought you were using the ground wires.

If those are positive wires, you may be asking for real trouble IMHO. I would, at least, make sure that those connections are covered. If something shorts them across that frame (like any kid dropping something, in any CG), you could have and unbelievable catastrophe. A metal object would get red hot instantly and melt through that propane hose in 2 seconds. That could get ugly real fast and there would be nothing that you could do to stop it.

The scariest thing that I can think of, at the moment, is some kid dropping his bike handle bars across that :yikes: .

Just my 2 cents worth :sombraro:

[AustinBoston]

The scariest thing that I can think of, at the moment, is some kid dropping his bike handle bars across that :yikes:

Who needs a bike handle when there's a handy dandy "safety" chain just hanging right there, with one end already securely grounded.  You'd get lots of sparks before welding was complete!

Austin

[wavery]

I think that I would put that in a box like this:
http://hdsupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10051&productId=36076&sType=SimpleSearch&searchTerm=332501

There are all kinds of boxes like this at Home Depot. They come in metal and plastic. I bought one for the A/C quick disconnect on my house a couple months ago. I think that it cost about $9. They have knock out plugs to run the wires through.

[dademt]

I think that I would put that in a box like this:
http://hdsupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10051&productId=36076&sType=SimpleSearch&searchTerm=332501
 
There are all kinds of boxes like this at Home Depot. They come in metal and plastic. I bought one for the A/C quick disconnect on my house a couple months ago. I think that it cost about $9. They have knock out plugs to run the wires through.

Thanks, that may be the easiest way to finish everything.  I only picked up the trailer about 1 month ago and am still working on it.

[dademt]

Thanks, that may be the easiest way to finish everything. I only picked up the trailer about 1 month ago and am still working on it.

Well, I did get a heavy duty plastic electrical box from tecot electric supply to put the connections/disconnects in.  Thanks for the idea.

[copcarguy]

As said before, why mess with inverters when you can go to www.jcwhitney.com and get 12V hair dryers, TV's, vacuums, etc...
 
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Browse/tf-Browse/s-10101/in_dim_search-1/N-111+600005407/c-10107
 
 
You can also go to www.realtruck.com and do a search on RoadPro.  They have over 4 pages of 12V stuff!

[Eksak]

We bought a small solar panel from Harborfreight.com attached it to the top of the popup, it is not powerful enough to run any equipment, but it does give a trickle charge on the battery.  We also bought a 2KW generator from craigslist.com for 300 bucks.  We use this to recharge the battery when needed.

[IMG]