Follow up to camping with no electicity/no water at site

[pwb01]

LED's are a huge power saver using 1/3 the power. You won't save money but power while dry camping. I installed a 2 gal accumulator tank in the water system. The water pump runs steady to put pressure back instead of on/off while running water. Electric motors draw max power starting so it eliminates most of the starting. We take navy showers and use one light at a time and have 4 batteries.

[Patches]

Just remember that you will not get the full amp hour rating of a battery, or batteries. When I boon dock I utilize a 500 amp hours bank of batteries. I subtract 30% of that which realistically gives me 350+/- amp hours for my use. It's my own safety margin. This 350 a/hr deteriorates even further the older my bank of batteries get, and/or the type of weather they are continually exposed to. Another thing I do for safety reasons, and to not damage my converter is when I am on shore power, I only let my on board charging unit charge one battery at a time. The others I isolate and charge with a separate charger as needed. Yeah, I am guilty of over kill with my boon docking stuff. Then again, I have never had any problems with my boon docking electrical equipment. Over the past 5 years, I have probably logged around 2.5 years worth of boon docking hours.

[Great Horned Owl]

The charging circuit in the converter is current limited. No matter how many batteries are connected to it, it will only put out as much current as it is designed for. You are better off keeping them all connected together. Otherwise, you will end up with some charged to a higher voltage. When you then reconnect them, the higher voltage ones will begin to discharge into the lower voltage ones.

Joel

[Patches]

You are right of course about the charging circuit. However when I am on shore power, I have usually been on the road prior to getting to a power pedestal. I take all but one battery off to travel with. The other batteries ride in the back of my truck on a wagon because they won't ride on the tongue of my TT. They stay on that wagon even when I need them. Just a few disconnects, and reconnects ( 5 minutes) and I have all 5 batteries at my disposal when with out shore power. It is also my way of thinking to let other (out side) equipment do the work of my RV's equipment to avoid an RV failure of some sort. RV item repairs/replacement are not cheap.
In this case the converter charging circuit is working with one battery instead of 5 when I am on shore power. Like I said I am guilty of over kill, but that's the way I roll.