School me on power for my trailer
 

I bought up a little trailer (10'x5') and I think I should work on getting it ready to take out to nationals.

http://cloak.ws/pics/trailer/IMG_6184%20(Medium).jpg

I've read a few of the other threads where people are mentioning Optima batteries. They look to be deep cell/marine batteries. Does anyone have a good place to buy them or where should I look locally? I poked around Sears' website and they claim $200ish per battery. A quick look at other websites shows more like $180ish. Is that about how much I'd be looking at paying?

Along with the batteries, I'm probably looking for an inverter so I can run some other things in the trailer (fan, maybe heat/ac - but I know that's high amp draw so that might have to wait, charging doc for mp3 player, maybe my laptop). I know nothing about inverters, what brand should I be looking for and what damage is my pocketbook going to take?

What sort of run time am I looking at for a pair of batteries? For that matter, would I be better off looking at getting a small generator instead?

Well Back when i used to race motocross we had a trailer like your but i think it was like 15x10 or somthing like that. we had lights and a 110v power inverter we had it running off the f-150's battery. But IMHO i would go with one of those small generators ive seen a few that were small enough to carry around but still had enough power to run and inverter and lights. And to determine the size of inverter you need get a list of everything that you would/will be running and write down how many amps each of them draw. Add the numbers up and that will tell you how many amps the inverter needs to be. check out www.northerntool.com i know thats where we got ours.

Pete I can get you Yellow or Blue tops on base for $165 with no tax homie,I suggest running a generator though.Where are the logos for the trailer?

Cool DJ, then the next question is what generator should I be looking at. :)

Understood about the amps. I tend to err on the side of more is better, so I'm thinking I would end up getting a much larger generator than what I actually need.

Hrm, I also saw these batteries

http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-98a...l-battery.html

98AH for $150 plus whatever shipping would be (probably too much).

Edit: Looking at the link for portable generators, I wonder what the down side is to something like this. Watt/dollar it is a lot cheaper than the others. I'm wondering why.

If you were charging batteries, running a fan, and a laptop I think the batteries would maybe last a couple days. My dad's camper would run for a couple days with the heater running at night off of one battery.

My dad just had a solar cell added to the top of his popup pickup camper. It works great to run the fridge and keep the battery topped off.

If yer gonna run heat and/or AC I think you'd want a generator.

Hey dude lemme know if you need any help building up that trailer,I got a table saw,33 gallon compressor,nail guns etc.I get off on doing that stuff.Since you're a baller I would opt for the honda generator...those are awesome...and it will be more quiet than JIA's or was that Jason's? My ears still hurt...BRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBVRVRVVVRRRRBBR BR

A generator is the way to go... then just put a power supply in there for all of your DC needs...

you can get a 3500watt generator at pep boys for $279

http://pepboys.shoplocal.com/pepboys...PepBoys-070722

EDIT: Just saw CC's post and if you ARE a baller then a Honda generator is the ONLY way to go.. they are quiet and have REAL steady power with out being too surgy(not a word but conveys the thought)

Ideally I'd be taking out my vinyl cutter and a laptop or one of our little shuttle computers. I have no idea where I think I'm going to get all this time between competing, video taping and running this crap in the trailer. :lol:

a good honda would probably give you enough power, but if your gonna be running a lot of gadgets and tools id look for an Onan.

as for batteries id stick to the deep cycle marines or maybe a couple of semi truck batteries.

x2 for DJ. The Honda's are VERY quiet.

The Honda generators are the best I've seen. They are unbelievably quiet and very efficient, but they are pricey. Sparky's Honda generator was the one jason used at the nationals last year. Most people didn't even know it was there.

I was thinking of hitting you up with some helping building it up. My inability to cut a straight line doesn't carry over to 1:1s very well. hehe

One of the big design issues I'm dealing with is I'm going to need it capable of having open space for when we move, so I'm probably going to have to put a hinged table in there. That reminds me, I need to head down to hobbies n stuff and snag their peg board. They have a bunch of it for cheap out (at least they did last week).

Oh and about the generator, yeah I want a fairly quiet one. I'm just not sure I want to spend $500 on one.

Sparky started out with a cheap Briggs and Stratton. It was so loud and vibrated so bad it was unbearable to be around. He brought it back the next day.

if you get a less expensive generator... just make it so it can be seperate from the trailer and make a folding plywood cover that hide 3 sides of it.. it cuts down on the noise 5 fold.. that is what we used to do on construction job sites. "thumbsup"

Well the least you'd be looking at one for your application would be around $375-$500 (not Honda!) Check Checkers or Harbor Freight.I was going to do this last year but re-neg...$1500 for the trailer $1100 in parts,$350 for electronics.....

ROTFL!!!

The key here is to get somthing small quiet and powerfull. if its small enough you could mount it on the toung of the trailer. what i would do is get 1 0r 2 deep cycle batts and a small generator and run your gadgets off the batts then when there low run the generator to charge them so the generator isnt constantly running.

i helped my dad build a shroud for our big onan and it works great, we made the whole thing out of sound dampening foam board thats actually pretty tough. i can get some info on the stuff if you want.

This is exactly how I am. I'd go spend $500 today, hate it and return it and go spend $1500+ just because the first one pissed me off.

Time to keep an eye out on craigslist while I'm looking. I'll give you a call later DJ and we can see what's up with this trailer. You've not even seen it yet. Hell, you still need to see the Baja. :)

I've got a 6.3K generator but it's not quiet and I'm running lights, chargers, 13,500 BTU AC/Heat, etc.

I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for a Honda but the next one will be MUCH quieter than this one. :lol:

As for batteries...I'd also look at some Marine deep cycle batts.