Battery Box Setup recommendations?

yotes65

Observer
Greetings All, I have had the pleasure of reading many great threads on here about M416/M101CND Trailer builds.

I am in the process of acquiring a M416 myself. I would like to be able to have power when I am out off the grid. However I seem to lack the knowledge of what it would take to build a Power/Battery box that I like to add to my trailer. From what I have read it seems pretty simple to setup & build. As with anything before designing & assembling, one must determine their requirements... below is what I would like to accomplish:

RTT LED Interior Lights
USB Charger plugs inside of RTT for Cell and iPad
Awning Lights - awning will be over tailgate/cook area
Strip of LED lights below top edge of trailer lip
At least two 120v outlets.
Availability to expand if needed

Was thinking of picking up these to allow the ability to turn on/off some of the outside lights from within the RTT:
http://www.clickandlights.com/servlet/the-3/RM104-12V-4-Channels/Detail

For charging I would like to have the following options:
Able to charge via Solar.
Able to plug unit in at home to charge.
I have a fully functioning 7 pin connector - would like to charge via tow rig as driving.

I have no clue what I need to purchase or how to hook all of this up to make it work... Any suggestions?

Also any recommendations on items that I'd missed… things that would be useful.
 

Metal Twister

Highly Motivated
Well I'm in about the same boat as you. I'm collecting the stuff and will wait to see how you figure it out before I get started...:wings:Don't let those views numbers fool you. Lots of those are computer generated spy bots, Google, Bing, NSA, IRS, and every other search engine in the world gathers information by reading these posts. I bet less than half of those actually had real Eye Balls watching this thread. Out of the hundred or so that actually read it probably half are non posters (LURKERS). Out of the 25 or so left that could reply, probably about half of them will be where we are knowledge wise and would answer if they Knew. So that leaves about a dozen or so that can actually be of some help but they all live on the east coast and are in bed right now. The east coast crowd will most likely chew on this for breakfast and you might have a few answers when you get up tomorrow. Its all good, Hang tough. :Wow1:
 
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Lucy FJ55

Observer
Rad. I'm in the same boat too! Compiling all this stuff and with very similar goals/needs, but alas I do not have much to add to the discussion either.

Watching/lurking... :)
 

BoarderMX

Observer
While I won't profess to have all the answers, I'll share what I did and so far... (5 trips) it has been working well.

Harbor freight low trailer box as I have an axe, shovel and hi-lift jack behind it and wanted to retain access to the tools. The first pic shows the 6 position marine switch and the external shore charge (plug) port for hooking it up to a power source to charge hooked into a Norco Genius 2 battery waterproof charger charger along with a cig lighter port and a 2 slot usb charge port and the 20 watt solar panel on the lid. The switches outside control the exterior and interior LED lights on the trailer as well as the water pump.



Moving to the inside of the box, the outside switches and outside cig and usb ports are controlled by a Marinco master kill switch so no one can play with them when the trailer is left at the trail head. There is also a 12 position blue sea fuse box. Two optima blue tops in a stainless steel holders and a hellroaring battery isolator that is inline with a 50 amp resettable fuse on the hot wire coming off the trailer plug so there is not a back draw off the jeep if left connected when the engine is off. Next to that is a RioRand 30 amp solar charger which connects to the Instapark 20 watt panel mounted on the lid of the box. This keeps the batteries topped off when it is not connected to the jeep even with the fridge in the trailer running. The last is a Cobra800 watt inverter. This hasn't been used much on the trips. The fridge is direct connected to the batteries to allow the master kill to shut down all external power but keep the fridge running.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to reply.

 
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Septu

Explorer
Looks like you have a fan setup to deal with hot air inside the box. Any issues with dust accumulating?
 

yotes65

Observer
BoarderMX - Thanks, just what I was looking for. I love the Master Kill switch, great idea, one I will need to include.
 

BoarderMX

Observer
That is one sweet setup. Well thought out. More pics when you get a chance please!
Thanks! Here are a couple more, one showing the solar panel and another view inside when I had the original 20 amp solar charger and one of the outside led lights and the lighted switch panel. The outside lights are controlled by the box between the inverter and the solar charger. It allows 10 levels of dimming and a remote on / off. Nice for climbing in the tent then switching the lights off.




Looks like you have a fan setup to deal with hot air inside the box. Any issues with dust accumulating?
No fan, the black box is the hellroaring battery isolator/combiner. The other fan is on the cobra 800 invertor. I still get some dust in the box from the trail but not enough to worry about anything overheating.
 

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