Quote:
Originally Posted by Landscapephoto
I have 2 12 volt rv marine batteries group 24. Also the fridge was in auto. From reading the manual it says it should switch to propane when it does not detect a 110 volts ac.
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You have a pair of 70amp hour Group24 DUALPURPOSE batteries. This lets you use 70 amp hours before your batteries are at 50% and need recharging...if new and undamaged. Yours obviously have less.
FORGET voltage readings in use...they tell you nothing about battery state of charge...ditto the little red lights.
It is also not clear to me that you understand the charging process.
1. Rolling down the road with the RV connected to the TV does not charge the batteries...at best it maintains them.
2. Once the batteries are at 50% then it will take at LEAST 4-6 hours on a generator or plugged into electric with your converter/charger before they are fully charged again.
If you are going to be boondocking...you're gonna need more and bigger batteries if you're typical...true deep cycle ones.
The other thing you need to do is figure out how much electric you use when boondocking OR merely sitting there without being plugged in.
I strongly recommend getting a $150 true battery monitor now...before you buy more batteries and installing it so you know how much you use daily and where all those amps are going! If you can't afford the real monitor at least get a clamp ac/dc amp meter ($50) and clamp it on your positive battery wire when nothing is running.
This will show you your parasitic loads and if anything is amiss and draining your batteries.
Next turn things on that you normally use...like the fridge, overhead lights, etc. and take readings so you know how much they draw. Then...in use you can tell how long you can use those things without killing your batteries.
Don't know what kind of charger you have but it should be a 3 or 4 stage with the capability of 25% of your battery amp hours....right now that would be 35amps ...but if you upsize your battery banks...you'll want a bigger one. It is absolutely NOT true that slow is better than fast...you want as much as the battery can take in bulk mode which is 25% of Capacity in wet cells. Then...after you are 80% full...that will taper gradually down during the absorbtion phase and then go down to just a few maintenance amps...that's the 3 mode charger. Helpful to have a 4 mode charged with an Equalization phase to help prevent battery sulphation over time.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.