Congratulations on your new-to-you TM! You will love it.
As to your questions, I first need to ask if there is some reason behind these specific questions. Are you having some problems? Has someone suggested a problem?
The TM's built-in converter contains a battery charger that is very good at charging your battery. There should be no reason to consider replacing or augmenting it. It is a smart charger, which will keep your battery up very well under normal conditions. Where it fails, in my opinion, is in keeping your battery properly charged during long periods of non-use. If you put your TM in storage for a couple weeks, and leave the converter/charger powered up, it may tend to overcharge the battery a bit. For that reason, it is often suggested that if you put the trailer in storage for more than a few days, you should unplug shore power, disconnect the battery from the entire trailer, and just let the battery sit there. Some people disconnect the negative terminal - I disconnect the positive terminal. Either will work.
The real reason for disconnecting is to prevent the trailer's "phantom loads" from discharging the battery. Phantom loads can pull your battery down in only a few days, so if you plan to leave the trailer for more than that, it is a good idea to simply disconnect the battery. On the other hand, if you plan to leave the trailer in storage for a really long time - more than a couple months, say - it is a good idea to keep a "battery maintainer" on the battery. You can use the forum's Search tool to find discussion of the Battery Tender, for example.
As for powering the converter from shore power vs generator power, they are absolutely the same. No reason to do one over the other.
Bill
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