How I Took My Journey Trailer All-Electrical (So Far)

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In one other latest put up, I shared what I discovered from going all-electric and taking my journey trailer off-grid for per week. Now, I need to clarify to readers what it took to show my older camper new tips. It took a stunning quantity of exhausting, intricate work to do that, and I’m not even achieved but.

Paradigm Modifications Aren’t Straightforward

Earlier than I get into specifics of what I did, I need to share some fast background for individuals not aware of RV expertise.

The primary downside is considered one of design assumptions. Excluding some very new and really costly trailers and motorhomes, they’re mainly all constructed with fossil fuels in thoughts, even in 2025. This makes quite a lot of sense as a result of the power density of propane is quite a bit increased than that of batteries, so it has all the time taken up quite a bit much less weight and area. And, extra importantly, the price of a propane tank is quite a bit decrease.

My journey trailer had not solely a fuel furnace, but additionally had a fuel range, a fuel oven, a fuel water heater, and even a fuel fridge. The microwave and air conditioner run on electrical energy, however these wouldn’t work until you might plug the trailer in or run a generator. The 30-amp energy cable was sufficient to mainly run the microwave, air conditioner, and fridge when in electrical mode (which alone pulled virtually 500 watts!).

However, instances are altering. Lately, the associated fee and dimension of batteries has come down. Many individuals haven’t solely changed their previous lead-acid batteries with lithium batteries of the identical dimension, but additionally add extra batteries to energy every little thing off-grid. Photo voltaic panels are additionally now fairly low-cost, so it’s frequent to place them throughout an RV’s roof to cost the batteries.

Extra just lately, corporations have been assembling every little thing wanted for off-grid energy into neat packages that we name “energy stations” or “photo voltaic turbines.” By combining battery cells, inverters, chargers, and every little thing else into one unit and promoting it to individuals with various wants, prices have come even additional down. This has led many individuals to easily plug their RV into considered one of these items when off-grid.

Step One: Re-Wire The Trailer To Hold The Energy Station Inside

Sure, I do know this image sucks, but it surely reveals what I needed to do first: get in behind the breaker and fuse field to re-route the flows of electrical energy. After ripping out the fuel range and oven, I may simply entry the twine coming in from exterior to {the electrical} hub of the trailer.

After pulling the wiring out of the breaker field, I prolonged it (with some very costly, thick wire from Residence Depot) to the opposite finish of the trailer and beneath the mattress the place I had fixed my EcoFlow Delta Professional 3 and further battery down with D-rings and ratcheting straps. Then, I ran one other extension again to the breaker field.

Subsequent to the facility station, the wire coming in from the surface ends in a single NEMA TT-30 (customary journey trailer 30 amp) receptacle and two NEMA 5-20 receptacles. The wire going to the breaker field ends in a NEMA TT-30 plug, which might both be plugged into the receptacle to bypass the facility station or be plugged into the facility station to energy the trailer.

I put in two extra circuits utilizing 15-amp Romex wire to energy the brand new kitchen home equipment immediately from the facility station, however these can be powered at an RV park by plugging them into the 20-amp receptacles. Care should be taken to not run too many home equipment directly in bypass mode, or the RV park’s breaker will journey.

Sometimes, although, I merely cost the facility station utilizing an RV park’s energy after which energy every little thing from the facility station. Or, if I’m operating too many hundreds (the Delta Professional 3 acts bizarre about charging AC and powering AC), I’ll bypass the 30-amp plug, maintain the range and toaster oven on the facility station, after which set the facility station to solely cost with just a few hundred watts to forestall breaker journeys. This enables it to cost in a single day whereas nonetheless letting me run AC, warmth, the microwave, and the fridge immediately on grid energy.

Step 2: Set up Extra Environment friendly Home equipment

As I discussed earlier, the manufacturing unit fridge that was designed to run on propane or electrical was simply horrible about energy consumption. It was OK to run on propane (assuming it didn’t get its flame blown out taking place the highway or park anyplace unlevel), however to run on electrical, it wanted over 400 watts of energy to make warmth that it will use to make chilly.

So, I purchased a extra environment friendly compressor fridge from Walmart that solely makes use of about 50 watts on and off as soon as it’s cooled down. It additionally has extra room for meals! It nonetheless wants a greater mounting job and a few trim work, however child latches have stored the meals inside taking place the highway.

Within the kitchen, I changed the fuel vary/oven with an induction cooktop from Amazon and a toaster oven I already had kicking round from my final trailer construct. These had been each mounted with recycled wooden and the toaster oven is stored in place with a ratcheting strap. Each of those home equipment are powered by their very own circuits immediately from the facility station, as described earlier.

Sadly, a requirement electrical water heater I purchased doesn’t appear to be working correctly, so I’m nonetheless engaged on sizzling water. I’ll replace readers as soon as I determine all that out. For now, I’m counting on RV park and truck cease showers (which are literally fairly good).

A Extra Sustainable Rest room

I’ve written quite a few articles about bogs and sewers up to now, and I made a decision to follow what I’ve preached. As an alternative of letting the #1 and the #2 combine in a nasty tank beneath the camper after which needing to fret about locations to dump the poisonous mess, I discovered a technique to set up my Trelino composting rest room rather than the inventory rest room.

After eradicating the manufacturing unit rest room and blocking the black tank off, we merely added some scrap 2×4 boards to create a bit wall across the base of it. It stays put taking place the highway, however can nonetheless be picked up for emptying and cleansing (these are scuffs on the facet within the picture).

Not like standard house or RV bogs, the Trelino funnels the pee into one place and the poop into one other place. The pee goes right into a storage tank, and also you sprinkle one thing like coconut shavings or peat moss onto the poop, and neither stinks. The poop bag can safely go into any dumpster or trash can (like diapers do), and the pee may be dumped right into a campground rest room or diluted and used to water vegetation.

Not solely do I keep away from the nastiness of hooking up sewer strains and the hassles of discovering dump stations, however I additionally significantly scale back the environmental influence of utilizing the trailer.

It Works Fairly Nicely

Whereas there are nonetheless some minor kinks to work out and enhancements to be made (like completely mounting the photo voltaic panels to be extra constant), I’m very proud of this setup to date. Not solely is it cleaner, however I’m avoiding some frequent RV hassles. I by no means need to go discover a place to fill or swap propane bottles, and I by no means need to search for a dump station.

There actually are not any downsides to date!

All pictures by Jennifer Sensiba.