tips for 1st timer

If I were to recommend something... I'd buy a Big Buddy heater and a six pack of 16 ounce Coleman propane bottles. Make sure you have some ventilation in your rig, keep the Buddy heater away from anything flammable, and note that burning propane does add water into the air... but it can come in handy, because it may not be as nice as the RV's furnace... but it is nicer than getting sick due to cold.

Long term, you really need two batteries. One battery won't last the night, and if it does, it will be below 50% SoC and take damage. A few weekends of this, the battery will be completely trashed and only useful for a core charge refund.

After that, check your converter. If it is not a multi-stage converter, replace it for a good multi-stage unit (preferably a five-stage with a pendant, so you can equalize the batteries.)

From there, a generator. Two Honda eu2000i units and a parallel cable is a setup which offers the most flexibility. A 3000 watt unit is also an alternative, but requires to people to heave around.

After that, solar. Solar panels and a decent charger (I always recommend MPPT controllers, since they can feed the battery the charge it needs at the state of charge, be it float, bulk, absorption, or desulfation.) This will also ensure that while your rig is in storage, the batteries will be always topped off and ready to go.

After that, it really goes to personal preference.

Your refrig on propane and the CO alarm and radio will drain 24 amps out of that 75 amp battery in 24 hours. You should never go below 50% SOC on your battery So you will need to recharge the battery first thing in the morning, for an hour and in the evening, for an hour, Saturday night. Get yourself a real 14.8V capable manual battery charger that is 30 amp capable if you only want to run the gen for an hour.


Run it again for a half hour before attaching to hitch. Also while running your jack at the tongue. Once jack tongue is on the hitch, shut off the generator and disconnect the 30 amp charger. Take 2 walks around your trailer, look at roof, antenna, everything inside and outside, that things are in place, can't move while driving, and that all lights and fans and heaters, propane, etc, are shut off. Battery needs to stay connected while driving to run the electric brakes on the trailer.

I have a power jack and only using it to unhook and hook-up is the only power drain for the jack. We have two batteries, wired in parallel(12v), and use the jenny about every 2-3 days to charge them up. I check the batteries with my multi-meter everyday to monitor our usage. I don't let them get below 60%. DW's only complaint is no hair dryer without generator.

Water: we do the extra water jugs with transfer pump. We use one of the jugs out doors for washing up, filling dog dish, etc. Works great.

On you first trip monitor your usage, water and battery, and the following trips you will be able to adjust to make your camping "just the way you want it"...

scout dad wrote:
... My only concern was the tongue jack, the power it needs to hook and un hook.
...

I don't have a power tongue jack, so I don't know exactly how much power they use - but, if you leave the camper plugged into the truck while using the power tongue jack, won't that mostly use the power from the truck?

scout dad wrote:
thanks for the tips everyone. This is what I was looking for. My only concern was the tongue jack, the power it needs to hook and un hook.
I do not keep TT at house. I did put a disconnect switch on so won't drain battery when in storage. I could try to get spare battery but don't know how much I would use it? Already have genny. I am looking to switch to LED which would help. The most of trips are at CG with FHU so this is little different. Like I said have lots camping items that will help me .

Thanks

Get a 12 volt water transfer pump (one with alligator clips) and take a couple containers of water from home with you. I imagine your black and gray tanks combined are larger than your 40 gallon fresh water. That way you can refill the fresh water tank as needed. I used to just lift the containers and pour them in, but the pump makes it a lot easier. I agree about a second battery, especially if you decide you guys like it. Also, get a oxygenics body spa shower head and do the navy shower thing. Also you can get a low flow faucet aerator. Will reduce your water from the faucet.

Check out this video.

my first tip for anyone trying it to the first time is to try it at a campground with full hook ups. Just don't plug in or hook up any hoses....give it a try and see how long you can go without recharging or without refilling water and dumping. Then recharge, refill, dump and try it again. See if you will like it. It will make for a bad camping trip, if you are out in the middle of nowhere and your wife hates it. It could ruin RVing for you.

thanks for the tips everyone. This is what I was looking for. My only concern was the tongue jack, the power it needs to hook and un hook.
I do not keep TT at house. I did put a disconnect switch on so won't drain battery when in storage. I could try to get spare battery but don't know how much I would use it? Already have genny. I am looking to switch to LED which would help. The most of trips are at CG with FHU so this is little different. Like I said have lots camping items that will help me .

Thanks

I would add a second battery. Turn off lights that aren't needed. Get some of the newer flash lights and lanterns that are battery operated and have LED bulbs.

As mentioned in a couple of the above posts, the key is to enjoy the outdoors and use the trailer as the sleeping quarters. We prefer dry camping in the Forest Service campgrounds around here and all of our awake time is outside, including the meals.

One of the problems I see is where RVers will attempt to continue the "at home" experience out in the wild. Generators, microwaves, electronic gadgets and televisions aren't the way to "camp", IMHO

Oh, for water while dry camping, in addition to making sure the camper's fresh water tank is full, I bring a 5 gallon water cooler - one of those big orange ones. Use that for drinking water, save the camper water for cleaning / bathroom use. We avoid making things like pasta for meals, as that uses up a lot of water.