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Old 05-03-2019, 05:06 PM   #41
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If the dual fuel is not needed a pair of Champion Inverter Gens hooked together would do better for noise and output.
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Old 05-03-2019, 10:35 PM   #42
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I have data on our full size Whirlpool fridge with freezer on the bottom. On average it uses 110 AHr in 24 hours. That is averaged over 10 days AND with the icemaker turned off. The icemaker and defroster will eat up a huge amount of AHrs so turn off whatever you can.
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Old 05-05-2019, 08:19 AM   #43
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My Dad tried the residential fridge. To make it overnight with no hookups, or even a long day of towing, he had to increase his battery bank, tried two, then went to four. He had to upgrade his pickup to increase the capacity of the charging loop so the batteries would at least maintain.
Then the refrigerator crapped out and had to be replaced. Only way to get it done was to remove a slide. Don't know how true it was, but the tech said the residential fridges don't like the jarring dirt roads we use to get to our boondocking sites.
After all that, he got fed up and traded the RV for another that had a propane/electric fridge.
So yes, if you have a residential fridge and only use full hookups and less than 8 hour tow days, it might be the cat's meow. But for us boondocking folks, it's just a silly option.......


Hate to say but the tech that said bad roads kill a residential refrigerator didn’t know what he was talking about. I have a Cedar Creek that has a Whirlpool residential refrigerator top freezer that has at least 40,000 miles on the camper and the refrigerator still works great. We took the Creek to Alaska in 17, I am not a slow driver. I have four T-105 Trojans in Creek. I did a test on my residential before we went to Alaska, I shut off power to the camper. I ran the refrigerator for four days or until the battery dropped down to 60%. I didn’t open the refrigerator or have any lights on or use the water pump. I have all LED lights in the Creek. The little bit of charging you get from your truck will not charge up your battery or batteries, it’s at best a trickle charge. I went to Yellowstone once and a idiot told me that I could run a line from the cigarette lighter to my bank of batteries to charge them up, WRONG. If you want to charge up your battery or batteries on the road buy yourself a generator and charge the batteries up when you are on the road, I did. DW loves her residential refrigerator and I do too, ice cream actually freezes in it. It has a ice maker in the refrigerator. You don’t really have to take a slide off, you can take a window out. I wouldn’t be able to take our couch out the door on my Creek. If you boondock a lot then a rv refrigerator is best for you, DW does not like to boondock, she likes full hookups. I am set up to dry camp if I want, I have two Honda’s, 2,000i that I parallel together. I think Forest River installed the residential refrigerator to save money as they cost a lot less, with the rv industry it’s all about saving money.
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Old 05-05-2019, 09:34 AM   #44
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Originally Posted by CincyGus View Post
For those that think the trucks alternator will charge your camper batteries during a full day of driving, Please quit posting that.



Your alternator will keep your TV's battery fully charged while driving but the little wires running from the TV to the camper will not carry the same amperage to the trailer. We are talking 14 gauge wire vs. 4 or 2 gauge battery cables running to your TV battery. To expect the same performance and tell people this non-sense is a disservice to those that don't know better.



Your camper batteries will not recharge just because you're hooked to your truck for a full day of driving. You will need to plug into shore power, a generator or have a significant amount of solar on your RV roof to recharge your batteries.


I can see you might be right... one time I let my battery get low(forgot to plug to SP). I went to finish getting stuff out and discovered it. I plugged it in and went inside. Holy (whatever Robin says) Batman my EMS was at 10 amps just for the converter. I am sure it isn’t an efficient charger, but 10 amps? Crappolla
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Old 05-05-2019, 09:37 AM   #45
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Originally Posted by Logcabiny View Post
I have data on our full size Whirlpool fridge with freezer on the bottom. On average it uses 110 AHr in 24 hours. That is averaged over 10 days AND with the icemaker turned off. The icemaker and defroster will eat up a huge amount of AHrs so turn off whatever you can.


X2. Also turn off the “humidity control” or turn on the “energy saver” as these kill the door heaters in the fridge.
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Old 05-17-2019, 12:23 AM   #46
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Yes once you connect to shore power they will recharge. You most likely will not make it two days without shore power as the TV will not help even while driving.
I’ve been reading this forum for quite a while and I always see this statement about TV not recharging the RV battery. I had no measured data but only knew that I could drive 12+ hours and never have an issue with my residential fridge or have any issue using the hydraulic slides and leveling system before connecting to shore power.

I installed a Victron Battery monitor and a few days ago we stopped at a Harvest Host for the night and had to run the generator. I turned my generator off a little after 10PM. It was used to operated the residential fridge/inverter and my CPAP. In the morning I did not restart my generator and before hitching up I took a screen shot of the Victron monitor SOC status (attached). The SOC was 79 %.

I then drove for 4 hours with the fridge inverter on and after disconnecting the RV from the TV I took another screen shot of the Victron monitor SOC status (attached). The SOC was 89%. So in 4 hours the TV recharged the battery by 10%. Obviously this is not as fast if hooked to shore power but defiantly not just a trickle charge, it was charging. Now, my battery wasn’t completely discharged but it was recharging.

This is my experience. I have a F350.
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Old 05-18-2019, 07:51 AM   #47
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As a enginer that always addressed issues like this I have to tell you there are a lot of other details.

Outside temperatures make a big difference on residental fridges. South Texas is different than Minnesota.

People often look at these meters and read surface charge.

One guy on the site has 600 watts of solar panels and $3000 worth of fancy batteries and a great inverter. While I respect what he says, this ain’t common.

There are more efficient fridges. We start all trips with two gallons of ice, drinking water to limit fridge use. Plus all cold food.

There are better inverters than the standard ones.

Some folks have their truck wires changed to carry more electricity to the trailer than normal.

There are lots of variables.

The person asking the question has a small trailer with one small battery. Barely enough to power a cpap one night if it is 12 volt. Likely not a night with a cheap inverter. The same battery will power the furnace, if there is one a night. Not with the cpap. Lord knows how much power the fridge uses. Is there a fantastic fan. It all counts up.

So boondocking two nights will not work likely. Maybe not even one.

I would recommend two six volt batteries(or a big 12volt), a voltmeter to monitor, and a portable generator if you want to boondock. A single solar panel will not provide enough juice to recharge one battery in days. A 100 watt panel typically can supply 25 amps per day on a good day. The fancy battery pack things are just not enough. You need 200 amps of battery. The yeti is a small battery with convenient built in features for a lot of money.

My Bluetooth voltmeter has a recording feature. Interesting to follow what is going on. My truck supplies a trickle charge to the battery. Compared to the lowest charge by my converter. Yes it helps. Since I have a gas fridge my batteries do get charged somewhat while driving. I can monitor them from the truck.
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Old 05-18-2019, 08:56 AM   #48
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Originally Posted by dalford View Post
I’ve been reading this forum for quite a while and I always see this statement about TV not recharging the RV battery. I had no measured data but only knew that I could drive 12+ hours and never have an issue with my residential fridge or have any issue using the hydraulic slides and leveling system before connecting to shore power.

I installed a Victron Battery monitor and a few days ago we stopped at a Harvest Host for the night and had to run the generator. I turned my generator off a little after 10PM. It was used to operated the residential fridge/inverter and my CPAP. In the morning I did not restart my generator and before hitching up I took a screen shot of the Victron monitor SOC status (attached). The SOC was 79 %.

I then drove for 4 hours with the fridge inverter on and after disconnecting the RV from the TV I took another screen shot of the Victron monitor SOC status (attached). The SOC was 89%. So in 4 hours the TV recharged the battery by 10%. Obviously this is not as fast if hooked to shore power but defiantly not just a trickle charge, it was charging. Now, my battery wasn’t completely discharged but it was recharging.

This is my experience. I have a F350.
Good luck getting anyone here to believe your findings. Most here will tell you you'll get as much charge from your tow vehicle with the umbilical cord DISCONNECTED, as you will with it hooked up.

I try to stay out of the "will the TV charge the battery while driving" discussions as my experience over the last 40+ years has been different than some want you to think, especially on newer vehicles where using the tow/haul button (or lights) ramps up alternator output.

Is this method the most efficient way to charge your battery?... no... does it charge?... yes.
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Old 05-18-2019, 06:00 PM   #49
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Good luck getting anyone here to believe your findings. Most here will tell you you'll get as much charge from your tow vehicle with the umbilical cord DISCONNECTED, as you will with it hooked up.

I try to stay out of the "will the TV charge the battery while driving" discussions as my experience over the last 40+ years has been different than some want you to think, especially on newer vehicles where using the tow/haul button (or lights) ramps up alternator output.

Is this method the most efficient way to charge your battery?... no... does it charge?... yes.
5picker, yea, I know. I guess I’m not trying to convince anyone but since I talked my kids into buying me the fancy Victron battery monitor for Christmas I thought I would get some empirical data and share it with the forum. You’re right, not the most efficient way to charge but the TV (at least my F350) does definitely charge the RV battery. Thanks for the warning..
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Old 05-18-2019, 06:06 PM   #50
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Buy a DC to DC converter and you will actually get a decent charge from the tow vehicle.

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-12v-dc...ttery-charger/
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Old 05-18-2019, 06:30 PM   #51
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People often look at these meters and read surface charge.
Which meters are you referring to? If you are talking about the ones that only read voltage, you are completely correct which is why I have a true battery monitor that measures the current to/from the battery.

Battery monitors that measure only voltage are only accurate in determining SOC if there is no charge occurring for at least an hour and no loads on the battery.
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Old 05-18-2019, 07:49 PM   #52
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Buy a DC to DC converter and you will actually get a decent charge from the tow vehicle.

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-12v-dc...ttery-charger/


Currently have an inverter (12 VDC to 120 VAC) for residential frig.
Thanks for suggestion anyways.
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Old 05-18-2019, 07:58 PM   #53
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Currently have an inverter (12 VDC to 120 VAC) for residential frig.
Thanks for suggestion anyways.
You don't understand what this is for. This allows your vehicle to charge the batteries in your trailer while towing. It basically removes all the voltage drop between your alternator and your 7 pin connector and boosts the voltage so that you trailer batteries can actually charge.
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Old 05-18-2019, 08:07 PM   #54
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You don't understand what this is for. This allows your vehicle to charge the batteries in your trailer while towing. It basically removes all the voltage drop between your alternator and your 7 pin connector and boosts the voltage so that you trailer batteries can actually charge.

What??

Maybe I'm all wet.....but my inverter is used to change the DC voltage to AC and (in my case) is only used to power the refrigerator..........and it does that when I turn it on, whether the trailer is plugged up to truck or not.
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Old 05-18-2019, 08:11 PM   #55
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What??

Maybe I'm all wet.....but my inverter is used to change the DC voltage to AC and (in my case) is only used to power the refrigerator..........and it does that when I turn it on, whether the trailer is plugged up to truck or not.
We were discussing charging batteries from the trailer a few posts ago. This device takes a voltage that is low at the 7 pin trailer connector(because of voltage drops) and does a DC to DC conversion(hence the name converter) and brings the voltage higher to charge the trailer battery. This device is a 20A 3 stage battery charger so you can actually get 20A to your battery from the tow vehicle.
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Old 06-23-2019, 06:28 PM   #56
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I will make one statement referring to an early post “that you need to disconnect your trailer form your tow vehicle so as to not drain your tv batteries”. This is not true, the wire on the tv that feeds power to your trailer is only on when the tv key is in the on position. As long as your tv key is off you cannot drain your tv batteries.
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Old 06-23-2019, 06:33 PM   #57
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I will make one statement referring to an early post “that you need to disconnect your trailer form your tow vehicle so as to not drain your tv batteries”. This is not true, the wire on the tv that feeds power to your trailer is only on when the tv key is in the on position. As long as your tv key is off you cannot drain your tv batteries.
This was NOT the case on the Toyota Sienna minivan I owned. The first night out, I forgot to unplug the trailer cord from the minivan. Next morning, the minivan battery was dead.
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Old 06-23-2019, 06:34 PM   #58
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I will make one statement referring to an early post “that you need to disconnect your trailer form your tow vehicle so as to not drain your tv batteries”. This is not true, the wire on the tv that feeds power to your trailer is only on when the tv key is in the on position. As long as your tv key is off you cannot drain your tv batteries.
This depends on who the YOU is. My charge wire is always hot in my 7-pin connection..... key on or off.
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Old 06-23-2019, 06:43 PM   #59
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I will make one statement referring to an early post “that you need to disconnect your trailer form your tow vehicle so as to not drain your tv batteries”. This is not true, the wire on the tv that feeds power to your trailer is only on when the tv key is in the on position. As long as your tv key is off you cannot drain your tv batteries.
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This was NOT the case on the Toyota Sienna minivan I owned. The first night out, I forgot to unplug the trailer cord from the minivan. Next morning, the minivan battery was dead.
Not true on my 2009 Silverado, either. I installed my own relay so I could turn it on/off myself. I strongly suspect my 2016 Silverado is the same, but since I didn't use the switch much in the 2009, I didn't even bother to check it on the 2016.

The only way to KNOW for sure is to check YOUR tow vehicle.
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Old 06-23-2019, 07:14 PM   #60
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For those that think the trucks alternator will charge your camper batteries during a full day of driving, Please quit posting that.

Your alternator will keep your TV's battery fully charged while driving but the little wires running from the TV to the camper will not carry the same amperage to the trailer. We are talking 14 gauge wire vs. 4 or 2 gauge battery cables running to your TV battery. To expect the same performance and tell people this non-sense is a disservice to those that don't know better.

Your camper batteries will not recharge just because you're hooked to your truck for a full day of driving. You will need to plug into shore power, a generator or have a significant amount of solar on your RV roof to recharge your batteries.

This is not thinking or speculation but my real experiences.

I have a totally different experience on a test I ran this Friday for our first trip with this rig.


My new rig with Everchill fridge and new deep cell Interstate on a test was ran on batt from 1600 Thur until 1000 Fri, my batt was down just a tad above half. Hooked up drove 2 hours and batt was 90% when I arrived.


As far as trucks charging camper batts, I too have different experiences. I have had my truck charge dead batt to full, not just once but many times.



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