Dry camping and power supply

Answer please
Type, size of TV?
Does the TV have a cord that looks similar to a lap top cord.

The simple explanation: Your electric devices have stickers on them which say how many amps they draw. Add the amps, multiply by hours you plan to use each device; total from use of all devices has to be less than about 50 percent of the amp-hours stored by your batteries. (Percentage varies with type of battery; most say don't draw down to below 50 percent.) These numbers give you a clue of what you can use and for how long. If your TV is not 12V, you will need an inverter to run it, and the inverter will waste some amp-hours.

Two 6 volt batteries should last 2 days if you are not running the furnace. Also a 150 watt inverter will charge your laptop or power your TV if it is a new flat panel TV. You can recharge the batteries with a set of jumper cables to your truck.

Get a digital voltmeter mounted somewhere convenient. Be sure the voltage is always above 12 volts. Some people will go lower but that's my basic rule. An led tv will use less power than lcd. My 40" vizio pulls about 5.5 amps and I power it off a Xantrex prowatt 600 with remote pendant. The inverter pulls less than 1/2 an amp if I recall. You can find that info about the inverter in their specifications. You want to mount the inverter close to the battery with large enough cables. You can isolate the 120 circuits that you want power on such as the bed room or living room where you will have televisions. You want to run as many of your gadgets straight off 12 volts vs inverting. Some power is lost during the inversion process.

When and how much you run the generator is part of your energy management plan. Without a monitor to tell you how many amp hours you used overnight you will have to go by your voltage. You can run your generator in the morning to charge and run the heavy morning appliances like microwave, coffee pot and hair dryers. You may also do an afternoon or evening charge while making dinner.

As you get the hang of how much power you are using vs your battery voltage you will develop an idea of how much generator time you will need. Keep an eye on your water levels. The more you push them up and down, the more water they may use. You also need to look at your converter voltage. If it's only 13.6 you will be listening to the generator a lot.

600 watt inverter is at least twice the size you need to watch tv and run a laptop.

Day trips to the beach should not be an issue if you start with a fully 100% charged battery. Long weekend may need some generator time. What converter do you have? Most give a slow trickle charge.

The 12 Volt Side of Life

I recommend wiring in a 150 to 300 watt inverter with a small transfer switch on one (or two) branch circuits for the convenience outlets. Converter would need to be off the circuit you connect.

Having become experienced dry campers, from camping in California State Parks for 30 years, we've been able to easily camp for 2 weeks with no hookups.

We prefer to use our Honda 2000i to recharge the batteries.

I hard-wired a 400w inverter to the batteries, to run the tv/dvd and recharge electronic devices.

I understand your confusion....
Inverters come in 2 by 2 by several types We will discuss only the two tows

True Sine/MSW.. You already made the proper choice, so short discussion here.

In-Line (Inverter/converter) Stand-alone (Does not charge)

I think your 600 Watt is of this type.. A Stand alone... If so let me describe a very expensive device I saw in an electronics store some time back.. A Power Line Conditioner.


Source power (Mains)---Converter---battery---Inverter---Protected loads

So use the inverter to power the TV.. Feed it off the battery, Let the converter feed the battery,, A very good set up

Works great.. I do that when I'm on flakey power sites with my setup.

You really need to do some research to get an understanding of what device does what, what is needed & understand power management.

The root of it all for drycamping is having an adequate battery bank.

Next is conserving that battery power. Turn the water heater OFF. Turn the 120VAC supply to the fridge OFF.

Connect the inverter to the battery bank &, since you are only talking about using wall outlet circuit, the output to the circuit breaker/s feeding those outlets.

VERY IMPORTANT: Before connecting to shore power disconnect inverter output from trailer 120VAC simply by pulling plug on the front of the inverter. Failure to do so will result in expensive backfeeding, an explosion, smoke & the destruction of the inverter. Don't worry about how I know this.

Even now, with a pure sinewave inverter/charger I operate my inverter manually rather than leave it to its automatic feature to make the switch.

With all this charging and using (discharing) of the batteries, what is the average life and replacement cost of such a battery. I realize that is a difficult question to answer, but say you use your system 16 weeks out of a year. Run down to 50% and recharge each time daily. Have your unit in storage the remainder of the year. Can I expect the battery(ies) to last more than one season?
Sorry if this is a silly question, but I know nothing about batteries, generators, not solar panels.
thanks