Lithium 12v WalMart Battery

The evap cooler I saw on the Wynn's video was made something like this one in the video, only it was made using one of those big blue & white ice/water cooler. Here's the video:

https://youtu.be/aHbQYajfGqM

We plan to do a lot of boondocking, everywhere. Never done it before, but over the two vacation trips we've taken so far in our Sightseer we've learned that being in what is essentially a mobile home park is not what we had in mind. We're both looking forward to spending a lot of time on BLM public land and other remote unplugged, so to speak, locations. Having never done this before we're just trying to get as many bases covered as we can before we get started. Fortunately we have about 1 year to practice and make our mistakes before hitting the road for extended periods of time when I assume those mistakes could be more costly.

Ok, I get it, use the generator to run the AC.

Maybe I've found a solution. I was watching the Wynn's video of their trip to Burning Man out in the desert and saw a DIY swamp cooler made out of a round water cooler, maybe you've seen it? Using this idea the battery/solar system would only have to run a small submersible water pump and a small fan. I think I can wire up one of the fans like the main exhaust fan that's in the RV now, not the little one in the bathroom but the big one in the kitchen/living area.

What do you guys think about that idea? Also, thanks for all the help and insights. It's not easy being the new guy, thanks for taking it easy on me.

What are you planning on running with all that solar? With my 2 cheap batteries my 136 watt solar panel can charge them up by 10am or noon if I'm in the woods on a cloudy day and they are usually down to the 12.6 range after running the LED lights and 12 volt controlled fridge and heat plus charging the phones or tablets or whatever small draws over night. If I'd spent the extra money on the golf cart batteries I'd be using 15% of their capacity instead of the 25% capacity of the cheap batts I'm using. In my application, mostly dry camping with the wife and two kids with no computer or TV and I don't even bother bringing the generator anymore, I don't need the more expensive batteries.

They are set to one temp...below freezing
They don't cycle the way your a/c does,
An excerpt for inner city deliveries, the doors don't get opened

I've noticed that refrigerated semi trailers are cooled by propane powered coolers..isn't such a AC cooler available for RVs??

i can get away with 10 minutes for the coffee maker or 6 minutes to bake a potato
i have 8 AGM batteries, (4) 139 amphrs (4) 60ampHrs, and OH..700w of solar

but i would never try to run the A/C, my MW is a Brute.. GE 1150 cooking watts, 1675 input watts, thats a lot of inverter amps, more than the A/C, but its only used for "Minutes" at a time and i still prefer to use the generator instead of the inverter, just too damn hard on the batteries

Most of the time, if you are into boondocking, you are not near any neighbors - or at least not really close where a good generator would disturb them. The Honda eu3000is or a Yamaha EF3000iS would do the job for much less than you are spending on the solar stuff and they are also very quiet so they won't disturb either you or your wife. :) It is the way I would go in your situation. If your RV already has the generator built in then I would use it.

Solar is very nice but it is really not very good for high draw items like air conditioners or microwaves in RV's. Good luck. :)
Barney

One fellow on here just did a solar your test, running a 5000BTU window a/c in his trailer with 750w of solar
40 amps of solar charge at 14v , 560w of power
It did work as long as he had enough Sun
But that a/c uses half the power of a roof top unit
"The Professor" has a bed load of AGM batteries on his HDT And can power a window unit. Converted to roof top, on his 5ver for about six hours, but must run a generator the next day to recharge them
He doesn't post here very often any more, but he is still a member
I think he mainly sticks to the heavy duty tow forums

For that Winnie and anything more than 45 minutes,
I think you better stick to using the generator

M.A.Taylor wrote:
The manual for my Winnebago Sightseer 35N gives a range of load for RV AC units. It says they draw 1400 to 2000 watts at 13 to 19 amps. Why would a 3000 watt, with a 6000 watt surge capacity, converter not run it?

The problem is not necessarily with your Inverter. The power does not originate in the Inverter ... it comes from your batteries. For the sake of this discussion, let's say your AC only draws about 1500 Watts. ( You had better hope so! ) That will convert to about a 150 Amp draw off your battery bank. If you have four standard GC2 type Golf cart batteries such as the Interstate U2200, that is a 440AH battery bank. You do know, don't you, that repeatedly drawing your battery bank down below the 50% level will significantly reduce the life span of your batteries? ( Read - more $$ ). Now another big "IF" .... if your solar system is producing at max gain, which will likely be about 30A in your case, then you can substract that 30A from the 150A draw from your batteries .... leaving 120Amp draw from them. If you stick with strong recommendations of not drawing down your batteries below their 50% capacity, then you will have a bit less than two hours of Air Conditioning on a hot day before endangering your batteries.

Add to this I have not addressed what else your RV is drawing from the batteries..... refrigerator control circuitry is significant.... all the other little things that draw power .... entertainment...

Do you get the picture, now.

And further you have not addressed whether or not your Inverter is a MSW Inverter or a True Sine wave inverter. You may likely destroy your AC compressor motor if running on MSW Inverter.

M.A.Taylor wrote:
The manual for my Winnebago Sightseer 35N gives a range of load for RV AC units. It says they draw 1400 to 2000 watts at 13 to 19 amps. Why would a 3000 watt, with a 6000 watt surge capacity, converter not run it?

It's not the inverter, its getting enough power to run the inverter. 19 Amps at 120v equates to about 190 Amps at 12v. One hour of operation then is 190 Ampere Hours, 2 hours is 380 AH. 2 6v GC batteries have a capacity of about 220 AH of which 110 AH is available, then you have to recharge the batteries.