camperizing a 22' cabin cruiser

[thebrain]

Couple ?s boat is a 1977 22' StarCraft Chieftain
1.will a Harbor freight solar panel be sturdie enough mounted to the hardtop?
2. I plan to camperize the Chief how big of a DC/AC voltage inverter will be required to power the following AC stuff.
Small bedroom refrigerator always powered
27? flat panel TV
Latop PC w/ WIFI range extender w/ PC type speakers inside cuddy
Hot plate and fry Daddy fryer

I?ll probabely use 6V golf cart batterys deep cycle for house power.
3.did the Chief come standard w/ a refrigerator under the helm seat, (if yes then there is probablley a inverter builtin) SC refers to this as a icebox. The Chief did have this ice box /frieg the PO said it was trashed and removed it.

I?m thinking yachts have 3way type frieg 12DCV/120ACV and propane I?m hoping I can get away w/ a household small bedroom type refrigerator.

Engine, small Hummingbird fish finder, bilge pump,nav lights, interior LED light stripes for cabin and under hardtop, Fog lights attached to hardtop, Ship to shore radio, Anchor winch, 3D GPS/fish finder will be powered w/ one Marine battery 800 cold crank amps.

I?m interested in a switch so when the Mercury engine is running it?s alternator will charge both starting and house batteries.




Any suggestions on camperizing project is appreciated.
TB

 

[alldodge]

This should be the electrical section for more comments.
I would give up on using a hot plate and fry daddy (about 750 watts each), there is a lot of watts needed for those items. While 6V cart batteries will provide more reserve, your boat is not that big. Would be less weight to go get a 3K watt gen.

The HF solar panel is not going to provide much

 

[GA_Boater]

In electrical now.

You don't need a range extender. for the PC. If you aren't in range of WiFi, there is nothing to extend.

The operative word on the icebox is ice. No power was used.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... As noted above,.... Yer expectations are Waayyy outa line with reality,....

 

[sphelps]

Why not use LP gas for the cooking ?

 

[ondarvr]

A 10' X 10' solar panel should almost keep up......with the TV, but only on a sunny day a noon.

 

[JoLin]

I'd never try to use my electric cooktop from an inverter. The power draw is very high. Carry a 2-burner propane or butane camp stove with you instead. While a dorm-type refrigerator isn't out of the question, a good cooler should meet your needs. We've been using a Coleman Extreme cooler for about 5 years and it works great. When we anchor out I turn the fridge way down and we basically live out of the cooler.

My .02

 

[Scott Danforth]

I would cook on a bulwark mounted propane grill. give up the idea of a 27" TV, way too big for a 22' boat. use the laptop for both TV and computing. the HF solar panels are not that high of quality, so you may actually need 2 10' x 10' panels at noon on a sunny day to keep up with the TV or PC.

your WIFI range extender will at best reach from a house to the end of the dock at the house. if you think of going more than 300', forget about it. not going to happen. if your more than 3-5 miles out, celular modems are out, and your looking at satelite

for reference, many friends live on boats year round. on a particular 37' sail boat, the biggest TV is a 16" that fits anywhere. the same boat has propane 2 burner stove, 6 solar panels (2' x 3.5'), and a wind generator to keep the battery bank charged. onboard is a small freezer and propane fridgerator, LED lighting, and they use a small PC when in port only. the sat phone is used for emergencies only, celular only works within 5 miles of the towers. Fixed solar panels really suck because they are optimum only by chance, and on a perfect day for about 20 minutes. at anchor, they run the generator most of the time to keep up with demand.

yes, on most cruisers, and sailboats there are 3-way fridges (just like small RV's). on yachts, they have just 120 or 240 volt AC refridgerators and run off of a bank of generators. the typical 70' or larger yacht has 2-3 generators with paralleling switch gear.

on my 24' boat, I have 2 55 quart coolers I built into the floor. they will keep ice for up to 5 days, or 3 days with the lid being open every few hours, or less if we are in there all the time for beers. one cooler for drinks, one for items in containers, and we bring along an extra 30 quart cooler for ice or fruit. a few times, we brought along the 12 volt cooler, however it does kill the battery in a very quick time. so we simply rely on ice. No TV, however we do have the PC set up for aux input on the stereo to play songs from the 165 gig song collection. we watch movies that we save on the HD of the lap top.