Camping Trailers (Moved from TrainOps 2024)

JRad · April 10, 2025, 7:36pm

Very nice, So the end goal with all that battery / inverter power is to run your AC’s etc. off battery? Also, how many watts of solar do you have. I’m at 400 and don’t have room for more on the roof.

My solar / battery will handle lighting and the fridge for several days without sun, or many weeks if there is good sun. I decided to go with a propane generator to power the AC/Microwave when we don’t have hook-ups. Going to pick up the genny, a Predator 5000, tomorrow on-sale.

I’m putting my loud and heavy Wheel House 5000 watt up for sale. Don’t need two. The Predator can do storm power duty as well.

rmccown-admin · April 10, 2025, 8:53pm

There’s one 390w panel on the roof, with room for 4 or 5 more, and there’s already a second wiring gland on the roof and wire run to the front bay. Plus I want to do a pair of 600w deployable panels. This will let us run the AC for a while. Im going to leave room for two more batteries. #overkill

rmccown-admin · April 12, 2025, 1:54pm

Reading back through the thread, I never did show what we finally ended up with for a truck.

2022 Ram 3500 dually Limited, with the HO Cummins engine (420 HP and 1075 ft-lb of torque). This thing is a beast, definitely not a daily driver. It’s a trim level higher than we were looking at, but it was at the right price point. It has all the bells and whistles, more than we wanted. Only thing we’ve added is a locking bed cover and a step to access the bed.

Last week we found a 5th wheel hitch, barely used, for half of new. Worth the 2 hour drive.

Rick_Marty · April 12, 2025, 2:14pm

An HO engine in a Large scale truck, interesting.

Korm · April 12, 2025, 2:33pm

that would be the right truck for down here.
just add a substancial cow-catcher.

JRad · April 12, 2025, 6:03pm

Wow, that’s pretty nice! Congratulations!

rmccown-admin · April 14, 2025, 9:44pm

Mounted the touchscreen for the Cerbo. Cut some 6mm PVC and 3d printed some brackets. It fits in a space that we really didnt know what we were going to use it for. This, at least will take up some of it. Now to blank off the back of the touchscreen.

And the Cerbo itself. This is the ‘brain’ of a Victron system. It’s mounted in the passthrough, near the stairs. Just need to find a 12v source I can tap into.

Rooster · April 14, 2025, 9:57pm

10 yrs from now ?

rmccown-admin · April 17, 2025, 3:48pm

Ran power to the Cerbo, using a spare slot in the 12v power panel… I’ve ordered some Victron bus cabling, which wont be here until tomorrow, so the display doesn’t show any status yet. But it does power on.

And installed the WiFi thermostat.

Rooster · April 17, 2025, 10:05pm

JRad · April 18, 2025, 2:05pm

Cool. When I was buying my MPPT solar controller I looked at Victron. Since my plan was not for a full blown AC/DC system like yours, the Victron buss capability was not important. I went with LiTime because it has a front panel display, seems beefier (definitely bigger) and was a little less expensive.

Once it’s all hooked up and operating be sure to post a few shots of that panel in the various modes.

rmccown-admin · April 19, 2025, 4:21pm

Got the solar controller and shunt talking to the Cerbo. The video shows the power going from the controller to the batteries (you can see the flow on the blue line at the bottom)

Also drilled and mounted the jacks for the deployable solar arrays.