The 12vdc in your camper could be as simple as a battery operating a light.  My Scotty Gaucho apparently came that way as I have a battery box on the hitch and a wire running inside under the skin to the light above the dinette.  This is a good simple set-up as the battery is outside and is contained inside a metal box. Also, it would be very easy to run a charging  wire from your vehicle to keep it charged.  You could expand on this and run a heavy wire into the camper to feed a fuse or circuit breaker with some circuits to run inside the camper.  With a heavy duty marine battery you would have a simple 12vdc system.

Portable Power Supply - these are readily available at reasonable prices.  The price goes up as the amp hour rating goes up.  The amp hour rating basically tells you that theoretically you can draw one amp per one hour.  Meaning a 20 amp hour battery you could draw 1 amp for 20 hours or 4 amps for 5 hours continuos.  This is as I said theoretically and likely will be somewhat less than that, but a good guide if you are looking for portable power supply.  These normally use a sealed  acid type  battery.  The advantages are: can be used in different locations, relatively low price and they come with a charger and easy to use.  Some may even have a few other features like a light or an inverter for limited ac volts.  Here is a low price DC to AC car adapter, continuously supplies up to 150 watts of 120V alternating current power to a single outlet from any 12V battery or automotive direct current source. It uses cigarette lighter direct current input jack with 3-ft. cable provides a 1-step installation.  This is less than $50. You need to be aware that these can run your battery down if used for a long period of time and the battery isn't being charged!

The biggest  disadvantage is probably you aren't going to find one with a real high amp hour rating because they are made for portable use.  To get a high amp hour rating would require a bigger battery and higher price.  But, if you just need to power a couple lights and maybe a small tv/radio at times for a few days would work good.  This is a good site for more  battery information:  BATTERY INF 

Permanent 12 vdc System:  This would be similar to what I mention at the beginning where you would use a battery mounted somewhere to feed a fuse or circuit breaker that would be running various circuits inside the camper.  You could either charge the battery with a separate battery charger or have a charging wire from vehicle.  If you used a deep cycle marine type battery you could get more use time.  Then if you added an inverter like the one on the left you could also get limited ac volts.  The one on the left is a high end one that can provide 3000 watts of ac power. 

The 3000 watt xantrex inverter/converter will  provides AC Power with High Surge Capability, 3-Stage Charger. The 3000 watt xantrex inverter - converter uses filtered modified sine wave output to run virtually anything in a camper, from office equipment to household appliances and electronics. The temperature controlled multistage charging ensures your batteries are recharged safely and efficiently. Its integrated transfer switch allows for automatic change-over between times when you are hooked up or on inverter.

This would be a good commercial unit to interface with the 120 AC volt system in your camper.  This unit would charge your battery when you are using the AC volts and supply the dc volts and AC volts when not.  Your battery(s) would supply the 12 vdc and power for the inverter to provide limited  ac volts when you are not connected to a 120 vac supply.

SOME WIRING INFO LINKS:  WIRING1     WIRING2    RV INFO
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Web page created by Larry Bush:  Sept.17.2007 --- Edited:  5.28.2009
Serro Scotty ~ Vintage Campers ^©
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