Dry Camping question for the 233S

[Paints5150]

We waiting a bit to long to find a campground in the Mesa Verde area and most of the glamping sites are booked up. What's available is dry camping at the National Campground, Morefield, inside the Mesa Verde park.

They allow generators to run 7 am to 9 pm.

My question is will the stock batteries hold up for the night only running minimum lights and the fans?

The fridge can be switched to propane. No problem there. Just wanted to make sure there was enough juice for the fans to run 7-8 hours. LOL...nobody in my family can sleep in dead quiet.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Paints5150

We waiting a bit to long to find a campground in the Mesa Verde area and most of the glamping sites are booked up. What's available is dry camping at the National Campground, Morefield, inside the Mesa Verde park.

They allow generators to run 7 am to 9 pm.

My question is will the stock batteries hold up for the night only running minimum lights and the fans?

The fridge can be switched to propane. No problem there. Just wanted to make sure there was enough juice for the fans to run 7-8 hours. LOL...nobody in my family can sleep in dead quiet.

Won't you be running the furnace? If so, you'll run out of juice by morning, with a single battery. If it's only lights and fans, then probably.
And when you say stock batteries, there is no such things on towables. Batteries are dealer-installed items and vary from dealer to dealer.

[Chuck_S]

Some strange refrigerators being put in campers these days. If yours will run on propane it's the fuel of choice as it will run for weeks on that fuel. If it runs thru an inverter it may suck your battery dry quickly.

To expand on Dan's battery note: Batteries (plural) is usually an oxymoron on new trailers. unless you ordered a pair. Dealers rarely put anything other than a single cheap Group 24 battery in a box on the tongue. These have about 56 useful amp hours before they won't power anything but a LED ceiling light which draw about 1 amp each so it can add up.

My portable fans draw 0.13 - 0.36 amps depending on speed, and the light 0.91 amps so you should be able to generate some white noise without killing even a single battery. The furnace, though, pulls 3.5 amps. Lots of little electrical draws add up.

-- Chuck

[rsdata]

My question is will the stock batteries hold up for the night only running minimum lights and the fans?

Hard to answer that question without specific info on the battery you have.

You could answer it yourself if you could driveway camp for a night and reproduce that situation at home.

My best guess is that with the stock group 24 battery you have from the dealer is MAYBE... if stock 12 V fan is on low.

Pickup another group 27 battery marine/rv battery and swap out the smaller stock battery or some cheap jumper cables to attach it to the stock battery while at that camp site.

Also pickup a cheap under $10 Harbor Freight or hardware store voltmeter to be able to monitor the condition of the battery while on this trip. You don't need anything more expensive then that to be able to monitor battery health by checking the voltage throughout the day and evening.

[Thomas ho]

i use a renogy 100 watt Monocrystaline panel, 30 amp controller , nothing fancy , and i have 12v power all day and night inc. heater, no fancy deep cycle battery. just a regular $ 200.00 one. and sunshine .

[Tandemguy]

If you don’t really need fans running and just need some background noise to sleep, there are many “white noise” apps for cell phones that generate a huge variety of sounds that you can adjust for volume. Would use far less current than fans.

[Paints5150]

Thanks for all the replies!

Installed pugs today. Will see how long the battery powers the little fans one of these nights.

Very excited for Mesa Verde. It's been 40 years since I have been there. Can't wait to show my boys what roughing really is when they see the Cliff dwellings.

[HangDiver]

You might want to consider how many amps you have available in your batteries, and how many amps the fan will draw. The reason is, if you drain your batteries overnight you may not have enough power left by morning to spark the igniter for the fridge.

[Jim_74]

Our 233S came with two 24M batteries. About 130 ah Combined. Lasted us one day dry camping. Would recharge the next day before hitting 50%. Had no problems overnight. That is with moderate use of radio and lights. Fans running 24/7. Compare to your ah capacity and use for a very general estimate of use.

[Jim_74]

Almost forgot. The radio pulls power even in standby. If you really want to save power, you can pull the fuse for the radio.

[lablover]

Dont think it will be a problem for one night. You probably only need one fan on as they are very loud if you are talking about the overhead plug in light/fans. We have 2 parallel batteries plus solar so that we can dry camp for several nights. I use a cpap machine. Many of our best campsites were w/o hookups. ALWAYS stay IN the national parks if you can. We loved Mesa Verde. Be sure to book the individual tours within the cliff dwellings, especially if you are only there for a short time. Enjoy.

[REL]

In the past three years we have only camped with hook ups twice in about 90+day/nights of camping with a single battery. At night we flip the fridge to propane, use 2 12v fans to help circulate air or the furnace when cold. Fire up the generator in the morning for coffee and a battery charge. We have not had an issue in 3 years. I do plan on upgrading to two 6v batteries when our single 12v expires.