Camper Trailer Enhancements

A number of items ordered from China arrived today.  All of them are required for some enhancements I have planned for the camper trailer.

Clockwise from the top left in the above photo.

• Mounting bracket for an Anderson Plug
• 12V to 15V DC converter
• 10 Anderson Plugs
• A Watt Meter.

These are required for three projects.  The first is to increase the voltage to the 12V oven in the back of the 4WD.  When running, the oven draws 15 Amps at 12V.  By increasing the voltage to 15V the heater element should get hotter.  The converter is rated at 30 Amps which should be sufficient to power the oven.

I've mounted the converter on the rear of the oven cabinet    

The second project was to mount an Anderson Plug on either end of the Watt Meter.  This provides a handy meter to monitor the various power sources and consumers.

The Watt Meter was plugged into the 4WD power supply to the oven with both the engine and oven off.

No current (Amps) and the voltage was 12.53V.  That slightly concerned me as I'd only taken the battery off the 240V battery charger that same morning. 

Then I started the 4WD with the oven still off.  The voltage rose to 13.63V and there was a very slight Amperage.  Probably due to power losses in the 12-15V converter.

Then the oven was turned on.  The voltage dropped to 12.39V and the Amperage was 15.86A.  I'll get around to testing the voltage on the oven side of the converter.  It should be 15V

The third project is to fit a 12V Anderson outlet plug on the trailer.  I've decided to fit one in order to run the oven in the back of the 4WD from the trailer battery when camped.  This avoids the potential of inadvertently flattening the 4WD battery.  It also means the solar panel can be recharging the trailer battery whilst the oven is simultaneously drawing power from it.

The first step in this project has been to wire an Anderson plug into the trailer.  I've sealed the back of the plug with silicon as it will be slightly exposed to the elements. 

The last part of this project is to fit a mounting bracket to the trailer.