Charging while dry camping.

[dkazzed]

formerFR posted this solar generator on another thread, it’s a lithium ion battery, solar controller, and 1500W pure sine wave inverter with 30A outlet all in one.

https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/fu...e-systems.html

[Chuck_S]

Don't make off-grid "dry" camping your first trip unless you prefer to learn your lessons the hard way. Cold, wet, and dark is not the place to start. Go to a nice state park with at at least electricity on site and pretend you're off grid. That's a smiley but the suggestion is serious.

This way you can plug into the 120vAC power pole at 0200 when you've depleted your little 12v battery. You can run your genset during the day and see how that works. I consider a pair of high capacity batteries to be the minimum for this and despite our infrequent "dry" trips they're on the trailer all the time.

Same with water -- and waste. We have 30 gallons on board and I carry a 35 gallon water tank in the back of my truck to refill our fresh water tank on water-less sites. Best to find out how long your 56 gallons lasts when you can just refill rather than hook up and drive to somewhere there's water. Pretend and take notes.

Generator noise is obnoxious and even my uber-quiet Honda EU3000is can be heard at the opposite end of my house when she's powering my house during occasional but very cold and dark winter snow storm outages. Construction gensets rank with dirt bikes and chain saws on the annoyance scale day or night.

The two separate power systems have been nicely described. I'll only add that an inverter consumes massive amounts of 12v power. Hopefully they didn't stick a "residential" refrigerator in your unit. The LP type will run a month or more on a single propane cylinder.

-- Chuck

[Maxwell D Pratt]

solar panels keep battery’s charged sitting I driveway and helps while dry camping. They are the HF ones have been on camper for about Three years.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by bareftn

wow seems to me why go dry camping if your worried about the cold and using all of you batt? wait till its warmer or go someplace and plugin.

Dry camping to me would be like staying in a motel with black and white tv no air and no pool.

The OP lives in California, Less than 1% of California State Parks campsites have any hookups. The few that do are mostly only W/E.
So if you want to camp in California State Parks, dry camping is the norm.

[hiinthesky]

Originally Posted by bareftn

wow seems to me why go dry camping if your worried about the cold and using all of you batt? wait till its warmer or go someplace and plugin.

Dry camping to me would be like staying in a motel with black and white tv no air and no pool.

Thank You very much..... The above was very helpful.

[babock]

Originally Posted by bareftn

wow seems to me why go dry camping if your worried about the cold and using all of you batt? wait till its warmer or go someplace and plugin.

Dry camping to me would be like staying in a motel with black and white tv no air and no pool.

LOL....I would much rather be dry camping than be in an RV park.

[Herk7769]

I have found when boondocking for weeks at our no hookups campground in FL to use a dedicated battery charger plugged into our Honda generator.

As long as you monitor the water levels in the battery (keep the battery topped off to the "fill rings" with distilled water), the faster charge will get you to 85-90 % charged in 4-5 hours of generator.

The "most" on board converters will cut back to trickle too early and you will not get much more than 75% charge before it is idling.

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by hiinthesky

I hope my question doesn't hi-jack the thread. Would I be gaining anything by plugging the trailer into the generator and a battery charger to the batteries and generator???

Solar and the shore power converter run in parallel with no problems. But running a stand-alone 12-volt battery charger in parallel with your converter is pumping a lot of juice at the battery...especially when it's heavily discharged.

Probably wouldn't hurt, but I think the converter/charger is more than up to the job, and it does a good job of managing the battery.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

I have found when boondocking for weeks at our no hookups campground in FL to use a dedicated battery charger plugged into our Honda generator.

As long as you monitor the water levels in the battery (keep the battery topped off to the "fill rings" with distilled water), the faster charge will get you to 85-90 % charged in 4-5 hours of generator.

The "most" on board converters will cut back to trickle too early and you will not get much more than 75% charge before it is idling.

Only if the wire connecting converter to battery is undersized for the distance between bat and conv. If what you describe is happening it's rarely the fault of the converter but rather the excessive voltage drop in the main wire.

I upgraded this wire to #4 Awg from #8 Awg and the batteries charge as fast as any stand alone charger (unless you have one over 60 amp).

It's real easy to tell if you have undersized wiring between converter and battery(s). When batteries need charging plug into shore power or start generator. Measure voltage at converter output. Then measure voltage at batteries. Divide battery voltage by converter output voltage. That will tell you what percentage of your charging current is being lost in the wire run. Ideally you will calculate 97% or more. Even better if you get 99%.

[babock]

Originally Posted by jimmoore13

But running a stand-alone 12-volt battery charger in parallel with your converter is pumping a lot of juice at the battery...especially when it's heavily discharged.

The battery is going to accept what a battery is going to accept. Putting even 100 chargers in parallel is not going to change that.

[Steveboe]

I have never used a charger other than the on board equipment. Your generator will boost the battery in the morning.
As far as tv and electric blankets, I would have a campfire to watch instead.

[dkazzed]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

I set the furnace on my TT for lowest setting (55 degrees) overnight and if it gets really cold I pull out my queen sized sleeping bag and use it instead of the regular bedding. Sleeping bag is good for down to 40 degrees so I'm more than warm enough. BTW, queen sized sleeping bag even though I am alone. Otherwise the dog hogs all the room.

My home thermostat is set down to 55 at night, helps us sleep better. I’ve been tenting for 15 years though and had a pop up trailer last year with a furnace that didn’t fire up so to keep the trailer at 55 overnight will feel like luxury.

I second the sleeping bag idea.

[garbonz]

Very entertaining. Best advice would be to get another PDI, sort of, by a mobile mechanic that can explain all this and make it specific to your rig. AND do it soon.

So much information on here is specific to individual posters and likely will not be relevant to your situation. All the silly stuff on chargers and wire is rife with inaccuracy which may be correct for individual situations but is not actually correct for your rig, or many others.

Good luck.

[Denny.L]

Originally Posted by bareftn

wow seems to me why go dry camping if your worried about the cold and using all of you batt? wait till its warmer or go someplace and plugin.

Dry camping to me would be like staying in a motel with black and white tv no air and no pool.

#1. I love camping. Even in cold, rainy weather. We don't plan on staying in the camper all day. We're going to fish. Yes we are going to build a fire in the pit and possibly cook over it. I have a heated jacket so I'm good with the cold.

#2. Electric blanket is for bedtime only. ......having "some" kind of warmth in bed overnight will help with the PAINFUL Arthritis in my back in the mornings.

[dkazzed]

What about a hot water bladder?

If you need your electric blanket, you’ll need a beefed up batteries and inverters which will be $$$ or you’ll need a power hookup, and I highly suggest the latter.

[Denny.L]

Originally Posted by dkazzed

What about a hot water bladder?

If you need your electric blanket, you’ll need a beefed up batteries and inverters which will be $$$ or you’ll need a power hookup, and I highly suggest the latter.

Wow! I haven't seen one of those in YEARS! I'll try that! Thank you.

[dkazzed]

Originally Posted by Denny.L

Wow! I haven't seen one of those in YEARS! I'll try that! Thank you.

No problem! Hopefully it works, if it needs to be on your back and you sleep on your back then that might be an issue.

Another thing as well, is your bed sitting on top of a passthrough storage? It might be worthwhile to get that insulated underneath just so you retain more of the heat you produce. It may not be completely necessary as your mattress also works as an insulator but it may help keep your back warmer.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by FFred

A 12V electric sheet is far more efficient than a house electric blanket.

It uses 1/4 the electric and warms better as the blankets etc on top hold in the heat.

Even better is the so-called Space Blanket. It's a sheet of aluminized plastic you put under the bed pad. The aluminum coating reflects your body heat back to you, instead of letting it be absorbed by the mattress below.

These sheets use ZERO AH no matter how long they are on the bed. When we lived in Minnesota in a half-finished house with no heat in the bedrooms we were comfortable even when the temperature when well below zero.

Before investing in expensive solutions, try these.

Larry

[Larry-NC]

[QUOTE=dkazzed;2024394]What about a hot water bladder?[QUOTE]
Good for the first hour or two. Then what do you do?

Larry

[Dirt Sifter]

garbonz gets my gold star for best response so far. IMO