Rat,
I basically bought a sears diehard marine battery, a solar controller, tripplite 750w inverter, and 55w solar panel from siemens. With the exception of the battery, everything else was sourced from craigslist or ebay. If you need specifics on how I hooked it all together, shoot me a PM. I tested the edgestar fridge I picked up with the setup in full sun...and it was able to run it without any battery discharge. I still need to make sure it will work off the battery all night, but I plan on packing some frozen water bottles and observe good cooler discipline to help it. In the works:
1. Build a battery box. I thought of using a tongue box, but I think it might put too much weight on the front of the trailer. Right now, I can maneuver the trailer fully loaded with tent and gear easily by myself. I want to try and keep it that way if possible. I may end up using a bundu box if I can ever find one in stock.
2. Rig wiring from the jeep system to allow charging of the secondary battery using the alternator. I will rig a nice female/male connection for easy disconnect.
3. Fuse / switch box to allow control of other electrical components.
4. LED lighting around the trailer for area illumination.
Mark,
The maker of the tent is african outback...it is the aluminum base model shown here:
http://www.africanoutback.co.za/product.htm?productID=300
It is a really high quality tent with thick canvas as the material. It even has a sunroof, which I thought to be a cool extra feature. Anyone notice the zebra print on the mattress? Superfly...
Don,
There were mutliple lessons learned....second being: Make sure you have the rear stabilizers in place before moving around the inside of the tent. My brother is never gonna let me live it down...haha. Have you got your tent setup yet?