Checking the "float" feature of a Power Converter.

[Franswa]

knowing a little how Jon uses his trailer sorta confirms my assumptions....I use quite a bit less power although I have not dug into it enough to put a number on my typical daily useage (as he has)

one thing that sticks with me is how complicated the 12V "thing" is...one could spend a lifetime or research and learning and still the findings would include words like "often" "sometimes" "almost".....compare that to other sources of heat or power and the numbers/findings are always exact to a decimal point!......maybe that's why 12V and solar are so much fun to "play with" in the end

Jon when you mounted your batteries on the back bumper (great spot BTW) did you have to move some other things around to adjust tounge weight??? or did none of that come up.....really enjoy your blog BTW

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Franswa

knowing a little how Jon uses his trailer sorta confirms my assumptions....I use quite a bit less power although I have not dug into it enough to put a number on my typical daily useage (as he has)

one thing that sticks with me is how complicated the 12V "thing" is...one could spend a lifetime or research and learning and still the findings would include words like "often" "sometimes" "almost".....compare that to other sources of heat or power and the numbers/findings are always exact to a decimal point!......maybe that's why 12V and solar are so much fun to "play with" in the end

Jon when you mounted your batteries on the back bumper (great spot BTW) did you have to move some other things around to adjust tounge weight??? or did none of that come up.....really enjoy your blog BTW

Don't be scared by those terms. Those are terms used by engineers and the scientific world. We in that group understand that there is no absolute, therefore we use what terms like often almost sometimes close to. We would like to be precise, but we live in a non-precise universe. Example 12Vots in an automobile system is not 12 volts it's closer to 13.8 then again how close to 13.8 Volts is it? How many decimal points do we go out to get that precise. The answer is more simple than you might think. For practical purposes we say 12 Volts, and that's close enough. But the engineering and scientific response is approximately 12 Volts.

I hope that makes some sense.

[Jon Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Franswa

...Jon when you mounted your batteries on the back bumper (great spot BTW) did you have to move some other things around to adjust tounge weight??? or did none of that come up.....really enjoy your blog BTW

Escape puts the batteries on the back bumper of the 17, at least if you get the 6V option. I believe they also place the 12V battery there as well. The 17 has the wheels well towards the back of the trailer - the 150 lbs of batteries still has me fighting to keep the tongue weight under 350 lbs with the trailer loaded to 3000 lbs. I have improved it a bit by adding a Stowaway II to the rear hitch. On this trip the trailer weighs 3100 & the tongue with 2 full propane tanks is at 340 lbs.

No sway or towing problems...