Battery Questions
We bought a camper last year, mainly for winter, boondock camping at Mt Bachelor in Oregon. After a scary experience, where the batteries died at 3 am when it was 10 deg F outside, I wanted to get a ...
Forum Discussion
Looks like you should have enough capacity to last overnight, and good call getting the new converter for faster charging. I will add a couple of things from my and others' experience while dry camping in the cold.
Add insulation. If you can find spots in the RV to add insulation, do it. Those bins on the outside often have nothing more than a layer of plywood between the bin cavity and the coach interior. Reflectix it easy to install. any other insulation as long as it is contained will work too (airplane insulation is great if you can get it).
Drape a blanket down from the overhead to block of the cab. The truck cab has lousy insulation and lots of heat escapes out there. You will find with a good blanket or quilt the cab side will be subfreezing while the house is comfy. We have a fairly exotic snap up cab curtain as we have swivel seats.
Insulate the windows. Lots of folks make Reflectix window covers and put them on the inside. We actually have snap on window covers made of Warm Windows fabric.
You will need to charge for a long time to bring the batteries back....like 4 hours or more. Lots of folks I know (and me) with on board generators still use a little Honda for battery charging. During the day they are constantly running. They are much quieter and more fuel efficient than on board units. There are various solutions for keeping them out of the weather. Some folks make a doghouse from a tub. I have one of those silly umbrella hats that I mount to the top. Be sure to set the generator on a) pavement, or b) a platform. They will thaw the ground (or snow) and sink in it filling the inside with yuck. A Honda EU1000 works fine for me even when my AGM batteries are in bulk charge mode. If I need more current (like for the oven) I just fire up the main generator.
Catalytic heaters work. We use a portable one during waking hours.
As others have said, convert to LEDs. They use about 20% of the power of incandescent.
When you ultimately end up buying new batteries, I highly recommend going to true deep cycle batteries which if you buy flooded means going to 6 volt batteries. Golf cart batteries are a great bargain and are meant for this kind of abuse.
Add insulation. If you can find spots in the RV to add insulation, do it. Those bins on the outside often have nothing more than a layer of plywood between the bin cavity and the coach interior. Reflectix it easy to install. any other insulation as long as it is contained will work too (airplane insulation is great if you can get it).
Drape a blanket down from the overhead to block of the cab. The truck cab has lousy insulation and lots of heat escapes out there. You will find with a good blanket or quilt the cab side will be subfreezing while the house is comfy. We have a fairly exotic snap up cab curtain as we have swivel seats.
Insulate the windows. Lots of folks make Reflectix window covers and put them on the inside. We actually have snap on window covers made of Warm Windows fabric.
You will need to charge for a long time to bring the batteries back....like 4 hours or more. Lots of folks I know (and me) with on board generators still use a little Honda for battery charging. During the day they are constantly running. They are much quieter and more fuel efficient than on board units. There are various solutions for keeping them out of the weather. Some folks make a doghouse from a tub. I have one of those silly umbrella hats that I mount to the top. Be sure to set the generator on a) pavement, or b) a platform. They will thaw the ground (or snow) and sink in it filling the inside with yuck. A Honda EU1000 works fine for me even when my AGM batteries are in bulk charge mode. If I need more current (like for the oven) I just fire up the main generator.
Catalytic heaters work. We use a portable one during waking hours.
As others have said, convert to LEDs. They use about 20% of the power of incandescent.
When you ultimately end up buying new batteries, I highly recommend going to true deep cycle batteries which if you buy flooded means going to 6 volt batteries. Golf cart batteries are a great bargain and are meant for this kind of abuse.
