Thursday, May 30, 2013

Wiring and insulation

Long time, no post, but things are happening.  

After re-framing pretty much the whole trailer and 
attaching the outer skin to that framing, 
David ran wires throughout. 
He's also been insulating using perfectly cut-to-size panels of rigid insulation. This is really light weight and unlike the batting form of insulation, can contribute at least a little bit of structure to the camper.

Here's a view looking to the back of the camper.




 
So tidy and nice!

Here is some info on the wiring and electricity set up, in case you are interested in that kind of thing.
We bought a Deka 8A4D battery, which seriously cost almost as much as the trailer. (Keep in mind that we got the trailer at an auction for a great price, but STILL). It's a 200 amp hour battery, made in the USA. (You can one made in China for half price but we prefer to support US made products).


The battery isn't pictured here, but this is what you are looking at:

Top left: the fuse box.
Top right: the converter that converts 110v "shore power" to  12v "battery power" 
Bottom:  this is the outlet where the shore power enters, after it goes through a service panel with two 15 amp circuits. (That is probably more than we will need, but it is better to be safe.)
Notice the converter just plugs into it, and then the converter connects to the Deka battery (those wires aren't shown in the photo above).

One circuit from the fuse box runs into a 12v outlet so we have a place to charge phones and other little devices. The other circuits run to over head lights, under cabinet lights and a small fan. There is a circuit reserved for a little laptop for watching dvds or such (nighttime comes early half the year in Montana!).

The oven/stove/heater are all propane, so that isn't involved, and the fridge is literally just an icebox, so that isn't involved either.

I thought people might be interested in this because the old campers weren't set up to run off a 12v battery. Ours was set to connect to "shore power" and also had some propane appliances (lamps, etc, in addition to the stove and furnace).  When thinking about our future use of the camper, it's likely that we won't typically be camping somewhere with shore power.  

All the electrical "stuff" is mounted under the seats in the dinette. There is plenty of room down there, so lots of room to work, room for ventilation, and room for the potential addition of a solar powered system. 

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Meanwhile I've been sewing. I finished the seat covers. It was a learning experience, and they look pretty good.  We ordered a 3/4 size bed (on the advice of people on the Tin Can Tourist site on Facebook, we went with this one  It's made in the US! And less expensive than ordering foam and fabric etc and making one yourself.)