Post by cowcharge on Sept 24, 2014 11:25:40 GMT -8
Hiya wolvenwood! I have a '76 Shasta 2250, and although the electrical system was incomplete when I got it (no battery, no converter, no water pump etc.), there was a manual for a converter in the drawer with the rest of the original manuals. So mine at least, I believe, did come with a converter. I bought a new one, and when I had the camper at home and plugged into shore power, like you I just plugged the converter into an outlet to charge the battery and run the lights and furnace.
I haven't really done anything to the 110v system in mine because I hardly ever use it. I'm parked at a farm, off-grid, so my only power is either by generator or battery.
As for routing all the 110v wiring through the converter, mine (Progressive Dynamics 45-amp) isn't built to do anything but plug into an outlet, and it's the only one I've ever used. The original converter, judging by the photo on the manual, wasn't hard-wired either. Pretty simplified systems in these old beasts.
I have however done quite a bit with the 12v system, because that's what I have to depend on now, and prefer to depend on in the future. The camper lighting, hot air furnace, and almost all of the wiring is still original. I put in a new water pump, and got the new converter while it was parked at home. Then I moved it off-grid, and I used to plug the converter into my generator to charge the batteries. To save on gas and eliminate the noise of running the generator, I bought a 210-watt solar panel, a Morningstar 45-amp charge controller, and two 6v Duracell (made by Trojan) 230-amp-hour golf cart batteries from Sam's Club. I have a 1000-watt Xantrex inverter that I bought on Ebay, that allows me to run all my 110v stuff off the batteries, but I generally just plug the 110 appliance right into the inverter. Sometimes I use an extension cord, to run a drill or shop-vac or something else that doesn't fit on the kitchen table, but there's still no interconnection between 12v and 110v unless I plug the shore power cord into the generator and plug the converter into an outlet. I've been toying with the idea of connecting the inverter into the 110 wiring so I can use any outlet, but it hasn't been a priority so far, and when I do, I need to carefully work out all the safety issues to prevent juice from showing up where and when it shouldn't. Some kind of selector switch that allows either the shore power or the inverter power into the 110 "grid", but not both at the same time. But in the year since I put up the solar panel, I've only used the generator a couple of times to run power tools. The converter's sitting on the floor under the kitchen table.
I haven't really done anything to the 110v system in mine because I hardly ever use it. I'm parked at a farm, off-grid, so my only power is either by generator or battery.
As for routing all the 110v wiring through the converter, mine (Progressive Dynamics 45-amp) isn't built to do anything but plug into an outlet, and it's the only one I've ever used. The original converter, judging by the photo on the manual, wasn't hard-wired either. Pretty simplified systems in these old beasts.
I have however done quite a bit with the 12v system, because that's what I have to depend on now, and prefer to depend on in the future. The camper lighting, hot air furnace, and almost all of the wiring is still original. I put in a new water pump, and got the new converter while it was parked at home. Then I moved it off-grid, and I used to plug the converter into my generator to charge the batteries. To save on gas and eliminate the noise of running the generator, I bought a 210-watt solar panel, a Morningstar 45-amp charge controller, and two 6v Duracell (made by Trojan) 230-amp-hour golf cart batteries from Sam's Club. I have a 1000-watt Xantrex inverter that I bought on Ebay, that allows me to run all my 110v stuff off the batteries, but I generally just plug the 110 appliance right into the inverter. Sometimes I use an extension cord, to run a drill or shop-vac or something else that doesn't fit on the kitchen table, but there's still no interconnection between 12v and 110v unless I plug the shore power cord into the generator and plug the converter into an outlet. I've been toying with the idea of connecting the inverter into the 110 wiring so I can use any outlet, but it hasn't been a priority so far, and when I do, I need to carefully work out all the safety issues to prevent juice from showing up where and when it shouldn't. Some kind of selector switch that allows either the shore power or the inverter power into the 110 "grid", but not both at the same time. But in the year since I put up the solar panel, I've only used the generator a couple of times to run power tools. The converter's sitting on the floor under the kitchen table.