new to camp trailers, have battery drain issues

[Ken Geopro19fd]

Hello, Having never owned a camper of any sort we recently just dove in a bought a geopro19fd. It is advertised as a boondocking trailer. Sadly our experience as a genuine boindicking trailer has been poor. The batteries don't charge as we are driving but actually seem to drawn down. It's as if the current is reversed and the house batteries are actually feeding the tow vehicle until equalized. We ended up purchasing a generator to recharge since the 190 watt solar does not keep up. Unfortunately the generator takes several hours to recharge batteries. Another surprise to us. I am now thinking anyone that sells a "boondocking" trailer with a 12v fridge is simply dishonest. Does anyone else have similar issues or have any potential solutions for us? We are pretty darn frustrated with this experience. 2- gc 2 6 volt batteries, 190watt solar, 35 amp converter, 2800 watt generator, 2020 F150.

[wanderingbob]

Your tow vehicle certainly has the ability to place a charge in you trailer battery, the problem is probably that your truck needs a fuse under the dash . Easy fix !

[Trksr]

Sounds like there’s no power at the seven pin connector and the refrigerator is discharging the batteries

Found this on eTrailer about the ford computerized trailer plug.


https://www.etrailer.com/question-336052.html

Somewhere on you tube there was a better explanation but can’t find it.

[wanderingbob]

You will need to up you amp hours in you batteries and two six volts will probably do it ! Will need to double wattage in solar panels and then you will be set for life and all your children will be smart and beautiful .

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by wanderingbob

You will need to up you amp hours in you batteries and two six volts will probably do it ! Will need to double wattage in solar panels and then you will be set for life and all your children will be smart and beautiful .

You might have missed this phrase in the OP: "2- gc 2 6 volt batteries"

[trailerdude]

A DC to DC charger makes a huge difference when towing. I did it recently. You have to run heavy gauge cable from your truck batter to the charger. I used this one https://www.renogy.com/12v-20a-dc-to...ttery-charger/

[trailerdude]

I agree the 12v fridge is a terrible idea for boondocking, what if there's no sun?!

[tomkatb]

It's the math.

A 189 watt solar panel on its best day can produce about 50 ah dc. A bad day is almost 0.

Unfortunately an electric fridge can consume 100 or more ah dc per day. If you turn on the furnace then you can expect not to make the night.

The two gc2 batteries are good for over 100 ah dc.

Most tow vehicles are not designed to charge the battery of your trailer. So the addition of a dc/dc device is necessary to do any serious charging of the rv battery. Otherwise expect little and you will be happy. 2-3 amps maybe per hour. However the fridge will wipe it out.

Easy to test. Check the rv battery voltage while the tv is idling. A normal battery is 12.6 or less volts. 13, from the tv, does little.

You need about 800 watts of solar or a big battery. A 300 ah dc lithium would get you three days often.

[Ken Geopro19fd]

Thank you all for the responses. I have already gone through the process of finding the power from the tow vehicle. Power does not show on the seven way plug until plugged in and sensed by the computer. I believe the wire gage is just too small to provide any appreciable amperage transfer to the house battery. With the house battery at an initial voltage higher than the truck battery I'm sure it feeds in reverse anyway unless there is an electronic component that prevents. This. I considered adding solar panels but the current 190 watt panel doesn't seem to keep up much. Per calls it would take three or four panels to keep up with the fridge. I really don't understand how a DC to DC charger functions. It seems that simply running heavier gage wire alone would improve the charge. How does the dc/ DC charger help? Is it really just a diode that prevents current going in reverse?

[trailerdude]

I've read that modern alternators limit amperage to save fuel. I was shocked when we drove 6 hours and our batteries only gained like 3% before the charger. After install it's a big difference and I only got the 20 amp model, which is good for me.

[tomkatb]

Yes. folks often run a big wire from the battery of the tv to the rv battery.

Frankly, those using the rv a lot for short trips the motorhome might be a better deal.

We often travel 2-3 days and then park a while.

My solution was no holes in my roof and 4 gc2 batteries. About 230 dv amps available. Always gets us thru the night. sometimes two. I am going to put 400 ah dc lithium in mine one of these days. Maybe solar. Not so wonderful in the midwest. All those damned trees and clouds.

[NavyLCDR]

I would recommend you get a battery monitor:
https://www.amazon.com/CAMWAY-Voltme...dp/B088RG27LS/

I have that one and I simply cut a hole in the top of my plastic battery box and mounted it there. About 10 minutes to install (run a bead of silicone sealant around it). That will tell you if your battery is being discharged or charged and how fast it is charging. Or how fast it is being discharged.

[Ken Geopro19fd]

Thank you all again for responses. My camper has a battery monitor already installed so I don't know what I would gain by installing another.
I am considering the dc/dc charger, however we are considering a trip to alaska where we will be towed by another vehicle with camper on board so we can all travel together. I would need to wire a dc/dc charger into that vehicle as well. Another thought is to purchase a smart charger to plug directly into my portable generator and connect directly to the batteries. My onboard converter does not charge the battery very quickly. My experience has been that at 50% and 2 hours we only gained about 25% charge. My hope would be that we could charge the battery each evening in an hour or so. I don't really like running generators, but an hour I can handle. I realized after our last trip that I should have run the generator each night so we would not have gone down to 50%. Have any of you used a generator charger combination with direct connection to the batteries? From my reading I understand that charging amperage for flooded batteries should be limited to 10 to 15% of the battery Ah rating. Has anyone pushed that limit higher without significant damage to deep cycle batteries?

[bikendan]

This is why we prefer the more expensive 2-way fridge with an inverter generator, for dry camping or boondocking.

[NavyLCDR]

I should have realized you likely had a battery monitor with solar installed.

I upgraded two travel trailers to 2x 6-volt golf cart batteries with 220 Ah capacity. Wife and I use two cpap machines overnight, which I expect would be about the same load as 1 12-volt refrigerator. The installed WFCO converter that trailers came with just could not keep up. The first night we would be about 65% battery capacity. Run generator for 6 hours during day, and after the second night we would be at 50%.

First - troubleshoot your 7-pin connection power problems. I get about 10 amps of charging out of my previous 2008 Dodge Durango and my current 2015 GMC Yukon. That's just stock, no modification.

Second - replace that wimpy 35 amp WFCO converter. I replaced the converters in my two trailers with 55 amp Progressive Dynamics converters with 4 stage charge wizard and that cut my charging time in half. Now I run the generator for 4 hours and I get back to 100% battery and end up at the same state of charge after each night of CPAP usage.

Expecting to recharge in 1 hour is not realistic, no mattery how high amperage charger you attach to the batteries.

[Thomas ho]

pull pos. cable off of trailer battery, put volt meter in between cable and battery terminal, if 0 reading go turn on headlights. check voltage . if 12v + ,,you are ready to go. if still 0 google for trailer tow fuse " if" truck has tow package. if not go to U Haul dealer they can fix it for you. a U haul that sells hitches , not just a rental place.

[Ken Geopro19fd]

Thanks again. Looking into dc/dc charging while driving, ampmeter, and upgrade of converters.

[mmartin_tdc]

Side note: if you go Lifepo4 batteries, those can charge in a couple of hours. They recover way faster than any lead acid can.
I just converted to Lithium and installed a DC to DC charger.

[flyflotrtim]

Originally Posted by trailerdude

I agree the 12v fridge is a terrible idea for boondocking, what if there's no sun?!

2X In your position I would strongly consider replacing the 12v fridge.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by flyflotrtim

2X In your position I would strongly consider replacing the 12v fridge.

Problem is that RVs with 12v fridges don't have venting construction that 2-way fridges require.