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Old 05-25-2018, 04:58 PM   #1
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Another battery question

We are relatively new to driving a longer distance with our 2017 crusader 340 rst. It came with 2 deep cell marine batteries. We are driving from western Washington to South Dakota soon and will be staying at casino/Walmart for 3 nights before we get to camp. Question is we have a 12 volt tv with DVD player and plan on watching DVD in the evening. Will this deplete my batteries or will tow vehicle recharge them as we travel for 5-6 hours per day. I really like all the info from this forum and hopefully some one can help me out. Don't know if it matters or not but tow vehicle is 2008 chevy duramax. Thanks
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Old 05-25-2018, 06:03 PM   #2
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Tow vehicle wiring does not do a good job recharging the battery. The wiring is fairly thing which results in voltage losses.

I never count on my truck to charge my batteries while driving.

Your best bet is to get an inverter generator. If that is out of your budget, $89 will get you a small 800 watt 2 stroke generator which is sufficient to attach to your camper which will power your converter.
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Old 05-25-2018, 06:28 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by eldonj View Post
We are relatively new to driving a longer distance with our 2017 crusader 340 rst. It came with 2 deep cell marine batteries. We are driving from western Washington to South Dakota soon and will be staying at casino/Walmart for 3 nights before we get to camp. Question is we have a 12 volt tv with DVD player and plan on watching DVD in the evening. Will this deplete my batteries or will tow vehicle recharge them as we travel for 5-6 hours per day. I really like all the info from this forum and hopefully some one can help me out. Don't know if it matters or not but tow vehicle is 2008 chevy duramax. Thanks
Depends on other draws . if you do not use furnace , or other high load dc options . then yes you'll be fine the tv and dvd take very little power to operate . and yes the unit will charge while driving but not as well as it would if you were plugged in using
the converter
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Old 05-25-2018, 11:39 PM   #4
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Thanks for the ideas. Don't really feel right about running generator in a parking lot. I think I will just pretend I'm traveling in back yard, run the fantastic fan and watch a movie on D.C. Power and see what happens with the batteries. Thanks again
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Old 05-26-2018, 08:04 AM   #5
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don't let the batteries get fully discharged. they are needed to power the emergency brakes should they be needed (god forbid).
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