First time in the RV

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:

bikendan wrote:
first, you should post what valve was shut and where is it? pics are always helpful.

second, the CO/propane alarm will sound when the battery is low, since it's hardwired. you need to recharge the battery. otherwise you have to cut the wires to it, which is not advised.

How do I attach or insert a picture? I have a few.

there are FAQs here for how to attach pics. you need a 3rd party photo hosting site to link the pics to.

Thanks for the response. I'll see if I can get my hands on a voltmeter and someone with knowledge of batteries to determine the charge. The battery is "brand new" according to the dealer.

If you don't mind me asking, how much was your solar panel project and was it worth it? Does it recharge your battery enough? I was told my trailer is already wired for solar but I don't have panels.

bikendan wrote:
first, you should post what valve was shut and where is it? pics are always helpful.

second, the CO/propane alarm will sound when the battery is low, since it's hardwired. you need to recharge the battery. otherwise you have to cut the wires to it, which is not advised.

How do I attach or insert a picture? I have a few.

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:

SpeakEasy wrote:
jaws,

Earlier this summer we also did a dry camping trip. Our campout was five days. Again - I have the same trailer as you. Your mileage will vary, but we got between 60 and 65 hours from our battery. (I had a second one on hand to swap out at that point, and if you can get your hands on one, that would really help ease your mind). I do not have the electric awning, so that is a factor that is different between yours and mine. If you have to raise and lower the awning several times, that will impact your battery life.

I only put about 25 or 30 gallons in my fresh water tank to start off with, and I did run out. I had to carry about 15 more gallons from a tap to my trailer to make it through our 5-day campout. Based on what you've said about your usage, I think you'll be fine on water if you start out with a full tank.

You do realize you won't be able to use air conditioning without a generator. Right? You also won't be able to use the microwave, and probably no hair dryer or coffee maker, unless you've got a pretty powerful inverter. If you do have an inverter that can handle these, you will run down the battery quickly.

-Speak

After discovering the issue with the water pump, I wanted to confirm that we'd be able to last significantly longer when there isn't an unwanted draw on power. I recreated the steps we took to go camping last weekend at home the past few days. See below:

1. Fully charged battery and let fridge completely cool down while plugged in.
2. Disconnected shore power and turned on propane for fridge.
3. Ran the water for a total of about 10 minutes (to use the pump).
4. Used the electric jack to raise/lower the trailer a few times.
5. Had a few LED lights on for a total of about 15 minutes.
6. Extended and retracted the electric awning


My battery gauge is 4 lights on the control panel (4 lights = 100%, 3 lights = 75%, etc.). After the above, I was down to 2 lights (50%) and the CO alarm started chirping because of low voltage. I don't quite understand what I'm missing if you were able to get 60 hours out of 1 battery. Our battery lasted 20 hours and then the CO alarm started beeping so we wouldn't be able to use anything anymore because I would have to disconnect the battery. Any advice would be appreciated.

A couple of thoughts. First, my battery (after 60 to 65 hours) had totally stopped supplying power to everything. No electric at all. (I know - that's a bad practice for long battery life, but it's what happened.) At no point in this process did my CO alarm start chirping. I need to explore why. Maybe mine is not hard-wired?

Second, I think you should get a voltmeter and use it to measure your battery's voltage. The 4-light gauges in the trailer are really not much help. Mine show three lights (75%) after only a little bit of usage. A meter will give you a lot more information, and you'll begin a learning process in terms of how many volts to expect when fully charged, how many volts you have left after a few hours, when to swap out the battery due to low charge, and so on.

Third - I don't have the electric awning nor the electric tongue jack. You used both of those, and you say you used the tongue jack "a few times." My guess is that both of those, being motors, have quite a bit of amperage draw.

But still, you don't seem to be getting as much out of your battery as you should. It sounds to me like your battery is old and should probably be replaced.

Long term, you might want to consider solar. I've added a 100-watt panel to keep my battery as fully-charged as possible (with a 100-watt panel) on 4 or 5 day boondocking trips.

-Speak

SpeakEasy wrote:
jaws,

Earlier this summer we also did a dry camping trip. Our campout was five days. Again - I have the same trailer as you. Your mileage will vary, but we got between 60 and 65 hours from our battery. (I had a second one on hand to swap out at that point, and if you can get your hands on one, that would really help ease your mind). I do not have the electric awning, so that is a factor that is different between yours and mine. If you have to raise and lower the awning several times, that will impact your battery life.

I only put about 25 or 30 gallons in my fresh water tank to start off with, and I did run out. I had to carry about 15 more gallons from a tap to my trailer to make it through our 5-day campout. Based on what you've said about your usage, I think you'll be fine on water if you start out with a full tank.

You do realize you won't be able to use air conditioning without a generator. Right? You also won't be able to use the microwave, and probably no hair dryer or coffee maker, unless you've got a pretty powerful inverter. If you do have an inverter that can handle these, you will run down the battery quickly.

-Speak

After discovering the issue with the water pump, I wanted to confirm that we'd be able to last significantly longer when there isn't an unwanted draw on power. I recreated the steps we took to go camping last weekend at home the past few days. See below:

1. Fully charged battery and let fridge completely cool down while plugged in.
2. Disconnected shore power and turned on propane for fridge.
3. Ran the water for a total of about 10 minutes (to use the pump).
4. Used the electric jack to raise/lower the trailer a few times.
5. Had a few LED lights on for a total of about 15 minutes.
6. Extended and retracted the electric awning


My battery gauge is 4 lights on the control panel (4 lights = 100%, 3 lights = 75%, etc.). After the above, I was down to 2 lights (50%) and the CO alarm started chirping because of low voltage. I don't quite understand what I'm missing if you were able to get 60 hours out of 1 battery. Our battery lasted 20 hours and then the CO alarm started beeping so we wouldn't be able to use anything anymore because I would have to disconnect the battery. Any advice would be appreciated.

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:

lc0338 wrote:
You must have forgotten those jumper cables that were suggested?

No, I just wasn't sure about it. When I was at the dealer, they said it's a bad idea to charge your battery via the car. I don't know too much about that type of thing.

Should be no problem to use tow vehicle to charge RV battery.

1.start the truck first and leave it running
2.Carefully attach the jumper cables in this order: first the cables to the RV batteries, then the positive cable to the truck + post, then the negative cable to a solid metal piece of the engine, away from the battery, for a good ground.
3. Monitor your RV meter to determine the charge on RV battery.

I'm sure the dealer was giving guarded advice due to warranty or problems with people who don't know what they are doing... hook up cables incorrectly, etc...
It's true that there are better way's to keep batteries charged but what we are talking about here is a dead battery with no other option, so using jumper cables is a stop gap method to keep momma happy. Remember, if momma's not happy.. nobody is happy.

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:

lc0338 wrote:
You must have forgotten those jumper cables that were suggested?

No, I just wasn't sure about it. When I was at the dealer, they said it's a bad idea to charge your battery via the car. I don't know too much about that type of thing.

You need to forget most of what the dealer told you. Very few provide valid info.

Yes, you can recharge the battery with jumper cables.
If you aren't going to use a dual battery setup and a generator or solar panels for recharging, then jumper cables are your best option.

Dry camping or boondocking takes some planning and setup.

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:


We had no water coming out of the faucets and couldn't figure out why. The pump was on, and it worked before. After going crazy trying to figure it out, my stepdad figured out that for some reason there was a valve closed and no water was getting to the pump. So, the pump had been running nonstop the whole time. I'm thinking that's what drained the battery so much.



Thanks again.

So you didn't hear the pump running and never looked for the problem? Pumps are usually rather loud

SoundGuy wrote:

jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:
What do people use to level front to back?

The tongue jack, 'though I do also use a 4x stack under the tongue jack for reasonably level and tongue high campsites in order to reduce tongue jack extension.

Sorry, I was unclear. I know to use the tongue jack but the site I was on was very sloped. With the tongue jack fully extended, it was still not level. I put a few pieces of wood under it to give it more height. I'm just wondering what else people use other than wood to raise the jack even more when needed.

lc0338 wrote:
You must have forgotten those jumper cables that were suggested?

No, I just wasn't sure about it. When I was at the dealer, they said it's a bad idea to charge your battery via the car. I don't know too much about that type of thing.