Recharging

During my Easter road trip I realised there was a capability the trailer didn’t have.   Let me explain.

Last year I bought a DeWalt battery chainsaw.  It’s great for cutting firewood and I do like to attempt to poison myself by cooking over an open fire under the night sky.  Before the chainsaw I would cut firewood with an axle and handsaw.   The chainsaw is much easier on my old body!

The trailer second electrical fit (lithium battery installation) included a 2000W 240V inverter.  This also involved fitting a 240V 3 pin socket above the tailgate.  The idea was it might be used to power an induction hotplate at some future date.   That hasn’t happened, but I do have the chainsaw and the battery needs to be recharged.  Because the socket is on the back of the exterior of  trailer the battery can only be recharged when the trailer is stationary.   Whilst stationary the power is coming out of the trailer lithium battery.   This seems inefficient and it would be better if the chainsaw battery was recharged whilst I was travelling with the power coming from the 4WD alternator.

I decided to fit another 3 pin power socket inside the trailer allowing the chainsaw battery to be recharged whilst I the vehicle was moving.

After rummaging around in the ‘these might be useful one day’ drawer I found a suitable circuit breaker and dual 240V socket.  The circuit breaker is designed to go inside a switchboard so it’s cable terminals were exposed.   I solved this by making a timber enclosure.  Fitting everything was a rather simple task.

 

Circuit breaker on the rear partition in the electrical compartment and the power point on the sidewall.