IF you camped in an area of strong sustained wind (hour after hour after hour) and or your blades were very large, then it wind would help add power to your system, but other than sailors on the ocean, who camps and enjoys such windy places?

We are however considering one for a potential future sailboat setup, if we go that route.

My brother works at Airgas. They have spools of large, oxygen-free wire that works very well for taking 12v the distance of a vehicle and not losing much power.

I used it from the battery bay, to the main cut-off, to each of the fuse blocks (4). This way I can deliver large current if needed, or just higher-voltage to each location.

Since the design of the trailer has been worked out along the way, having the 12v power worked out this way helped with the flexibility. (And I can weld in the shower.)

:>
.-= Brian Fahrlander´s last blog ..Second Power Supply Test Underway =-.

In our T@b days, we actually converted the battery compartment to hold two batteries (260 amp hours), a 1000w inverter and solar charger all off a single 110w panel. Worked pretty well.

When I was T@Bbing, a few of us used to carry a spare battery in the back of our tow vehicles. I originally used to physically swap this battery out with the trailer battery, but what a PITA that was! Well then a buddy suggested rigging up some cables w/7-way connectors, and that made all the difference!

At night, just plug the trailer’s 7-way cable into this spare battery to get the extra juice needed. In the daytime, run a small cable from your truck to the battery to recharge it as you drive around town (or run a cable from your generator or solar system if you’re staying put).

Here’s a link to what my system looked like:
http://tabventures.blogspot.com/2008/04/battery-recharging-alternative.html
.-= Lynne´s last blog ..Killarney Wildlife =-.

Have a blast at Slab City when you get there. If you’re crafty, bring your artwork to help support the barter economy there.

Cheers!
.-= Charon´s last blog ..Gearing Up For Spring =-.

The options that solar gives you are awesome. We’ve not done QZ yet.. but hope to get there some day… but Slab City will likely call us stronger for its quirky freak nature.

However, the house itself has nothing that is gasoline run directly (charging while towing is a side effect of transitioning locations), so that’s really not much of a relevant comparison. We also hardly ever pay separately for grid power, as it’s generally included in campground fees. Considering we can run entirely off solar & propane for weeks on end (and optimized for that)… our solar consumption can make up a significant portion of our home energy use.

Sounds like you get about one kilowatt-hour per day from solar (100wattx2x5hr) at best. That’s about 10 cents worth per day, or $3 per month. So the solar offsets about one gallon of gasoline per month, from a cost perspective, and probably from an energy use perspective as well.

I’m a full timer in a 1966 Airstream Safari, along with my Best Beloved and two cats. The open desert of Quartzsite AZ was the spot that convinced us to get serious about our solar install. We want to spend more time boondocking and solar makes so many more options feasible. Our 1966 Airstream Overlander will be the recipient of said solar install. We hope to have it on the road after a full restoration by this autumn.

Thanks very much for your informative site and hopefully we’ll see each other on the road sometime.

Cheers!

Twitter: Poesleeve
.-= Charon´s last blog ..Gearing Up For Spring =-.

However, I can comment on some of skills and resources needed:

- Space to do it. One problem we ran into this last round was not having a workshop to do the work at, and my neighborhood in Florida being most anti-RV – so couldn’t even do the work in the driveway. With the Tab, Chris was blessed to have been able to use Steve Robert’s Nomadic Research Labs as an indoor workshop to complete the project.

- Comfort working with electricity, and knowledge thereof. It’s easy to do things wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing. Chris has a fairly high degree of comfort and knowledge of things electrical… and we’ve both gone to several solar workshops.

- Comfort drilling things through your rig. Your solar panel mounting will need to be darn secure (would be pretty awful to have panels flying off down the highway).

- Perhaps a bit of carpentry comfort – depending on what wiring and battery/charger compartment modifications you might need to make, as well as installing the monitoring panel.

I think it all comes down to – how confident are you in your self to research and trust that you can learn as you go? How comfortable are you cutting into your house? Do you have nearby friends who might be able to help? Sounds like you have time on your side so it wouldn’t be a rush job – so if sounds like something you want to tackle, there’s a great deal of pride that comes with having done it yourself.

Better to have a properly-installed, completely-working device than a botched job with a memory that fades. :/
.-= Brian Fahrlander´s last blog ..Second Power Supply Test Underway =-.

It’s quite functional

I don’t plan to ever “boondock”. The trailer’s just too small, not to mention the budget, to get completely self-contained. But then, I’m expecting to ‘orbit’ a city or town, since that where the jobs and people are. As much as I love Jackson Hole, WY, there’s just nothing out there on the mountain that I love to see.

Instead, I take a 12V mostly attitude; everything I do is built for 12V where possible. The few exceptions are for flat panels and/or monitors just now; all that I have are still 110v based, but not forever. Doing so makes me more flexible.

I’ve made good progress with converting computers to 12v vehicle feed; a replacement power supply is required. And machines I’m running on 110 now will be 12 when my Mom no longer needs me.

What sort of shower accommodations do you have in there? Our vehicles seem of similar size…
.-= Brian Fahrlander´s last blog ..Second Power Supply Test Underway =-.