Article from: April 26th, 2012

 

I have been converting my off grid trailer to solar for the last few months now. The last step in the process was to remove that old, bulky power converter and the 115 volt power cable that was normally used to plug into the grid at campgrounds. I am installing a simple fuse box instead of that unit.

 

If you want to go off the grid and go fully solar with your camper, RV or trailer, you will not need that bulky, heavy power converter anymore. All it does anyway is convert the 115 volt AC power from the campground to 12 volt DC for your light bulbs and water pump inside the camper. For a solar powered trailer, that is useless. Pull it out and get a power inverter that converts 12 volt DC to 115 volt AC if you want to run any appliances.

 

Below is the photo of the power converter with the cover off and the 120 volt cables visible on the top right corner.

 

 

 

 

I removed the bulky old fuse box and converter, leaving the AC RV wires behind. Instead of labeling them, I removed them each one at a time and fastened them to my new fuse box. I kept them in the same order as they were in the converter box. Later I can label them on a piece of paper and keep it by my new fuse box.

 

Now I have freed up about 3 cubic foot of space where the converter was. That space will be nice to have for storage as anyone with an RV or camper knows. Storage space is valuable.

 

 

 

 

The new fuse box is from the local auto parts store (napa, they have a lot of options) and has 6 fuses, which is exactly what the power converter had for my 12 volt devices. I kept the original fuses as well. Made converting the camper easy.

 

Later I will screw the new fuse box onto the side wall permanently.

 

I got a few meters off ebay, coming in the mail in a few weeks. I cant wait to get them installed. They are all digital and each a different color. One will be for battery voltage, one for current coming from the solar panels and the other for voltage from the solar panels. Later I will add wind energy as well and the meters can help monitor the voltage and current.

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Troy Reid

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