Bought An Expandable Shelter

[cogniz55]

Hello.
Did not know what Forum to put this in, so here we are.
I purchased an AAR expandable shelter. PDF brochure attached.
The plan is to hack the 3 Phase requirement so I can run the A/C and lights on regular single phase.
It will be used as a camping spot while I'm on my rural land clearing trees.

So any insight into the Power gymnastics would be appreciated.
And if anyone knows how to soften the soft (vinyl?) exterior material, please let me know. Its flexible still, but pretty tough and rigid. I believe this unit is 15 years old.

 

[M813rc]

That thing is cool!

I wasn't sure what it was until I got the PDF opened. Here are a couple of the pictures.

Cheers

 

[SCSG-G4]

From the pictures, it looks like the same 'box' that the Containerized Kitchen uses. In that case the vinyl tent type parts are going to be stiff because there are multiple layers to them. You may need to replace the ECU if you go from three phase to two phase. The CK has a built in 10 KW MEP-803 unit. If your power needs are not that great, putting an 802 unit in there would make sense, then you could leave it three phase. Military went with three phase because the wire sizes for motors did not need to be as large (also a reason to use 400 cycles vs 60) and the copper savings (weight and cost) was significant. HTH.

 

[Mullaney]

From the pictures, it looks like the same 'box' that the Containerized Kitchen uses. In that case the vinyl tent type parts are going to be stiff because there are multiple layers to them. You may need to replace the ECU if you go from three phase to two phase. The CK has a built in 10 KW MEP-803 unit. If your power needs are not that great, putting an 802 unit in there would make sense, then you could leave it three phase. Military went with three phase because the wire sizes for motors did not need to be as large (also a reason to use 400 cycles vs 60) and the copper savings (weight and cost) was significant. HTH.

.
Thanks Mike!

Sometimes understanding WHY really is useful.

 

[serpico760]

I'm not exactly an electrical wizard, but I believe for the air conditioner unit you will not be able to hack that to use anything other than its intended voltage and type that is hardwired into it. Specifically the motors use it. It is my understanding you would either have to just get a three-phase generator or three phase power supplied by your utility company, or replace the motors in the AC unit with those of the voltage you have available, and completely rewire the air conditioner, which is probably not practical at all. Or replace the AC unit with one that uses the voltage you have available.
I have an expandable habitat as well but a different type and I plan on just simply replacing the air conditioner.