It probably would be very beneficial for you contacting another POPUP user in your local area. You have a very old POPUP series and will need some local hands on help to get to point where you can depend on your resources to camp off the battery for extended days.
Taking on this older POPUP without any pre-knowledge of how the POPUP systems work may be a challenge for you but is doable...
This is a simplified block diagram of how 30AMP RV Trailer are configured just to give you some sort of idea what you may start looking for... All of your 12VDC items in the the trailer are fed by a 12VC Distribution Panel which is fed by both the shown converter or your battery in order to be functional when you are on shore power or running directly off the battery.
Sounds like a fun project to me but I have been around these things for many years and sort of know what makes it work. You really need to find someone locally that can get your started in the right direction....
There is alot of new items on the markets now on using the trailers with batteries and backed up by small 2KW type generators. We camp on the idea to run all the things we want to run off our batteries in a one day-one night battery run and then recharge the charge the batteries the next morning when allowed to run our 2KW Generator. We can go a good 12-14 days days doing this procedure and not do harm to the deep cycle batteries. One really needs to have at least 220AH capacity batteries to start out with if you want to camp off the power grid alot. My battery bank consists of three GP24 12VDC 85AH Interstate batteries in parallel. My converter unit is a Progressive dynamics model P9260C 60 AMP DC output and uses smart mode charging. This will re-charge my battery bank back to a 90% charge state in a quick three hour run off my 2KW generator each morning. We can run just about all of the items shown in the diagram above with the exception of high wattage items like the Air Conditioner and Microwave.
You have to do some serious planning on what you want to run camping off the power grid and build up your 12VDC Battery system to run these items which may also include a small 120VAC Inverter. Once you can do all of your wants over a one day/night run off the batteries then you are good to go.
Just showing up in the woods with a battery will most likely end up in getting dark on you real soon hehe... Thats fun as well letting you gain valuable experience on what you need to do to be successful.
Have fun - We would rather camp off the power grid verses the standard electric camp grounds but both camping styles are very nice for us...
Roy Ken
