Power System

So, before I get too ahead of myself, I need to start thinking of my power needs. The camper will run in one of 2 modes: with AC hookups or without. With AC comes the comfort of things like air conditioning and power for a laptop or large monitor, etc. This would be more for staying at friends' houses or some campgrounds where I don't want to rough it too much. I mean, I'm not an animal. I deserve air conditioning. 

For real roughing it or for nights like the campout with coworkers, all I really plan on doing with the camper is sleep and maybe reading before sleep. For this, simple battery backup is all that I really need. 

For simplicity sake, I plan on driving the bulk of the electronics in the camper with 12VDC. It's the native power provided by the truck and just about any PC gadget can run on either 5 or 12 volts. 

I hung the first side board onto the camper, having completed the ends (minus the door and windows, yet). This corner is the driver's side and is at the tailgate when the camper is in the truck. While, yeah, there's a trailer wiring jack in the bed of the truck here, I'm not going to be using it. Instead, it's just a handy place to run AC power to the camper that will be fully sheltered from the elements and easy to get to.

The black panel is just a scrap plate of 6061 aluminum with a male and female heavy duty extension cord ends coming through some bulkhead strain reliefs. The black cord is the input power where I plug the camper. You can see a plate with 2 switches above it- one is the accessory switch: a 120VAC, 15A switch that will turn power on and off to the orange cord. If the photos came out better, you'd see I stamped names and On and Off to the switch plate, but it's ungodly hot and humid and I couldn't see anything.

The other switch is the 12 volt supply switch where I can select either battery or 120VAC to 12VDC transformer. The transformer is powered directly from the input power and not through the accessory switch. The accessory switch is just to make it easy for me to turn on the air conditioner (to be added later)  from the comfort of the inside of the camper. The switch guard there is just to protect the switches so they don't get smacked as I bring stuff in and out of the camper. It's also cool looking. The bus bar is my 12 volt distribution bar. It's wired now to the switch which alternates between the transformer and the battery pack. The lights (I'm thinking LED Rope lights) and the sound system (pc speakers with subwoofer) will be wired into this panel and to the bus bar.

I've temporarily hung this panel until I get all the wiring done. The outlet there is a standard wall receptacle wired from the input power. It's live as soon as the camper is plugged in. I was tempted to add a breaker but I couldn't dig one up. If I find one, I'll add it. Or maybe I'll replace this with a GFE outlet. Meanwhile, it works. I plugged in the camper, ran my soldering station off the interior power and could turn a fan on and off that was plugged into the accessory power on the outside.

Now, I really need to get to work on that door.