Roughly how long do 2 12V batteries last?

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by markedman1132

If you are looking at a generator mostly for recharging your batteries, you might like one that Home Depot has on sale. It's a Ryobi 700W propane generator. It has a true sine inverter and is supposedly very quiet. It's on sale now for $249.

I suspect you could hook it to your 30AMP input using a dogbone adapter and charge your batteries. An added bonus is that you can carry a extra 20# propane tank to power or connect it to the propane on your trailer.

That generator will not run the microwave though.

[markedman1132]

Originally Posted by bikendan

That generator will not run the microwave though.

I thought the purpose of the generator in this case is to recharge his batteries. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any mention of him wanting to run his microwave.

[Bob_K]

Forest River Class C Motorhome Owner's Manual (2015 version), page 24, Leveling Jack Operation:
NOTE:
We recommend that your RV be plugged into a 120VAC receptacle or have the generator running, during jack
and slide out operation. This will help ensure the battery
maintains proper voltage during operation.



Again on page 26, Slide Room Operations, second paragraph:
NOTE:
We recommend that your RV be plugged into a 120VAC receptacle or have the generator running, during jack
and slide out operation. This will help ensure that the
battery maintains proper voltage during operation.

[timfromma]

Originally Posted by Bob_K

The instructions for my RV say to use the slide either under generator power, or under 30 amp plug in power. It indicates not under the house batteries only power. I would consider it under an emergency situation only, not a routine procedure.

I would not want an RV that needed 120VAC to run the slides. This would preclude using the camper anywhere that didn't have a power connection

[rlh1957]

I agree with the suggestion to try before you go. Hey what more fun than camping in your driveway or yard! The neighbors already know I'm nuts so it's not surprising to them. You get to test it out at home, see how well you conserve battery power and what you have to do without or can power. You can even try putting the slides out and then at the end taking them in. As long as you hear slide running normal it is ok. Slides do drain down the power for the long run, so bringing in the slide at the end might be hit or miss. You don't want to bring in the slide on power if it sounds under load or sluggish... that is putting to big of a load strain on the batteries and low voltage high amp draw will be heating up your motors. So if you find it that way... you'll be breaking out the hand crank to get those slides in... or you can crank them out as well.

[wa5tku]

One point about running my Dometic 2 wqy fridge on gas it still requires 12 volts at 2.5 amps for the control circuits to operate the fridge. Your may require or less but it is required to the fridge cold.

To reduce the load on lighting replace you incandescent lights with LED replacement bulbs. The bulbs used in my trailer each required about 2.6 amps per bulb. Some fixture had 2 bulbs. The LED replacements used about 0.2 amps that is one tenth the current.

I do a fair amount of boondocking so I acquired an 150 watt solar panel to charge the battery during the day time.

Having a volt meter to check the battery voltage is a good idea. If the battery voltage of a lead acid battery drops to 10.5 volts you can damage the battery and it may not recover when you try to charge it. It is a good idea to not to let the battery voltage drop much below 11.5 volts before recharging it. Your tow vehicle can be used recharge the battery but you will have to run it for hours to bring the trailer battery to full charge. I would recommend using jumper cable if you need to do this and not the 7 pin connector used when towing for lights and trickle charging the battery.

Good Camping,

Wes
WA5TKU

[rlh1957]

Even when your manufacturer or dealer tells you it is all LED... go and check each bulb to know what it is. My over stove light was incandescent power pulling hot bulb, porch light was found to have an incandescent bulb and my wife found a couple more somewhere. Just got the appropriate base LED and replaced them. Use a LED Backup Light for the Stove Hood to get a bulb bright enough to be useful.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Bob_K

Forest River Class C Motorhome Owner's Manual (2015 version), page 24, Leveling Jack Operation:
NOTE:
We recommend that your RV be plugged into a 120VAC receptacle or have the generator running, during jack
and slide out operation. This will help ensure the battery
maintains proper voltage during operation.



Again on page 26, Slide Room Operations, second paragraph:
NOTE:
We recommend that your RV be plugged into a 120VAC receptacle or have the generator running, during jack
and slide out operation. This will help ensure that the
battery maintains proper voltage during operation.

Bob, the OP has a Hybrid and this thread is in the Hybrid section of the Forum.

No hybrid has leveling jacks, plus the manual says "recommend" which is a corporate CYA term.

We had our hybrid for 10 years in California. The California state parks have less than 1% of their campsites with electric hookups.
So dry camping is the norm and you have to rely on the batteries to operate the slideout.
And ours was a 12' slideout.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by wa5tku

One point about running my Dometic 2 wqy fridge on gas it still requires 12 volts at 2.5 amps for the control circuits to operate the fridge. Your may require or less but it is required to the fridge cold.

To reduce the load on lighting replace you incandescent lights with LED replacement bulbs. The bulbs used in my trailer each required about 2.6 amps per bulb. Some fixture had 2 bulbs. The LED replacements used about 0.2 amps that is one tenth the current.

I do a fair amount of boondocking so I acquired an 150 watt solar panel to charge the battery during the day time.

Having a volt meter to check the battery voltage is a good idea. If the battery voltage of a lead acid battery drops to 10.5 volts you can damage the battery and it may not recover when you try to charge it. It is a good idea to not to let the battery voltage drop much below 11.5 volts before recharging it. Your tow vehicle can be used recharge the battery but you will have to run it for hours to bring the trailer battery to full charge. I would recommend using jumper cable if you need to do this and not the 7 pin connector used when towing for lights and trickle charging the battery.

Good Camping,

Wes
WA5TKU

Some fridges have that dumb door heater that cant be switched off. I cut the power to mine, that is way to much wasted DC.

This thread is also why I plan on buying $850 lifpo4 batteries when my current ones die. Yeah $850 is high but their 100amp hour rating is a real 100 ah, you don't have to stop at 50% drain. Also they are good for up to 10 times as many charge cycles so long term they will pay for themselves. Now consider their low weight and the ability to move them inside.

[Radio7]

I have had 5 TT and this is our 3rd motor home. The last motor home I put 160 watt Zamp RV solar kit on it. No more battery problems. My new motor home a Sunseeker 2430S is going to be power hog. Every thing on it requires lots of amps. Auto leveling to awning, TV's ect. It has only two batteries in the step, and a 4KW generator. Generators and campgrounds don't mix all the time. I bought another Zamp RV solar kit. They come with everything but Dicore and screws to mount the panels to the roof. Different lengths are required for different roofs. This system will put out 420 watts, and I plan to add two more batteries. I would go solar with your TT. One Zamp panel will work great, 160 watts.

[Wprather]

Thanks again for all the great suggestions! I think I have enough good info to get us through our first adventure and will look into all the longer term suggestions when we return. Thanks again! Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

[bareftn]

To me dry camping is like staying in a motel with no air, BW tv and no pool

[pmsherman]

If your rig has a Dometic fridge, one boondocking trick is to disconnect the fridge interior light AND DOOR HEATER by disconnecting the power line for them at the fridge control box. This control box is located behind the outside access panel and is usually secured with a single Phillips screw. The power line for the light and heater is clearly labelled. Never access this control box when AC power is available in your rig. There's an AC fuse with exposed contacts very close to the DC connectors and it's easy to brush against it when getting to the light/power line. If AC power is available, this could be a shocking experience.

Phil

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by bareftn

To me dry camping is like staying in a motel with no air, BW tv and no pool

Dry camping is the only way to go. I really don't under the point of camping at a campground regardless of whether or not it has full hookups or not. Why blow all of that money for a camper and then pay $20-40/night to have neighbors to the left and right of you, kid noise, people noise, dog noise, light pollution (scare light left on all night),e tc..et..etc..

Why not just get a hotel room instead and you'll have the same experience?

Just don't get it. Did the campground thing several times over the past 10 years and just didn't care for it. But then again, my wife and I camp to get AWAY from other people.

With that said, if I want air conditioning I run my 3wk generator-EASY. As for TV, we do watch quite a bit of TV after darn when it is too cold for my wife to sit outside even by the campfire. We bring a lot of DVDs with us. As for swiming pool, we usually camp by ponds and lakes but we are more kayakers instead of swimmers.

ORIGINAL POSTER: Get yourself a cheap generator and you won't have to worry about batteries ever again.

[babock]

Originally Posted by jeffnick

The high tech guys will tell you that you should never run batteries down more than 50%. The low tech guys (like me) don't hesitate to run them flat

You can do that but you will be buying batteries very often. Go to a battery manufacturer site and see what the number of discharge cycles become when you discharge like that.

Here is an example of depth of discharge vs number of cycles. As you can tell from the graph, it's not linear.

[Dutchmen]

Yes it depends on how much you are running. We get 3 days from our 12 v. And that's with occasional lights, water pump, heater, stereo, but we always bring another fully charged 12v to replace it when it runs low. And don't forget the slide out and awning too. [emoji367]