Back up batteries for boon docking

It will help if you will bite the bullet and replace the lights in your RV with LEDs. They will hardly draw on your batteries.

If you take the rig home, besides having to change all your 120V electric and electronics over to 240 volts you will also have the entry and patio awning on the wrong side as well as water, sewer and electric connection points.

One possibility would to fit a good high power inverter or two say a couple of 2,000 watt pure sine wave inverters to run everything. Then all you would have to change out in Australia would be the battery chargers for 240V input. You would need good battery capacity though, at least 4, better 6 of the 6V golfcart type battery or the equivalent capacity in 12V batteries. If you were to go that route a large solar array would be worth considering (500-1000 watts). But: You still have the problem of everything being set up for the wrong side of the road. In pull through sites you could just drive in the wrong way but back ins would be awkward.

In your shoes I would seriously consider buying a unit and selling it before returning. AND that would be a used rig. New rigs ARE NOT ALWAYS TROUBLE FREE and you would not lose so much on depreciation.

Our older son is a solar engineer/designer/fabricator and our current rig is autonomous solar: 1.4 kW solar, 9.7 kW-hours of LFP and 4.0 kW PSW inverter. We have tossed the 50 amp cable and only have 1.5 kW (15 amp) battery chargers. We have a backup 1 kW Honda generator. We have had this system since June and have not used line power or generator except to test/monitor system. The forced air heater uses approximately 50 W (0.9 amps at 54 V) so we have enough actual power storage for 150 hours. We generally set the thermostat at 45 to 50 F when it is above freezing and at 60 F when it gets into the teens (worry about freezing holding tanks etc). We use a backup Olympian Wave 8 so the forced air heater is on for 5 to 10 minutes/hour, even last night when it got down to -4 F (-19 C).

The battery suite weighs a total of 160#. Son Cary noted that we had room and space for another 4500 W-hours but 1) we don't need it as we are probably over requirements and 2)and primarily, they are not inexpensive.

5000 kW-hours would have probably sufficed for all purposes by running the a/c on combination of solar/battery suite.

We never liked running the generator we had on last rig (2.5 kW Onan propane which was crushed in our wreck 60 miles east of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico) since it ran off the wildlife and did not endear ourselves to other dispersed camping boondockers.

Had 6" of snow on panels the last two days but we still had 60% of usable power (down -3500 W-hours out of 8200 W-hours availabe = 20% capacity). Sun is out today so I got on a ladder and swept the snow off panels. We were getting 14 amps at 54 v (63 amps at 12 V or about 700 W) before full afternoon insolation.

RV'ing is all about choices made to fit our own particular life style desires. LFP battery technology is greatly improving and the price per W-hours should go down dramatically. There is a lot of misinformation spread about on LFP. The lithium cobalt and lithium polymer have stability and over-hating problems. LFP with proper design and inclusion of Battery Management Systems (which all the fabricators utilize) makes ignition an unlikely proposition. As far as I know, all of the batteries are built in China (they control rare earth production) and the battery suites are fabricated in US and elsewhere = ganging 4 in series is normal to get 12.8 V suite.
Reed Cundiff

tenbear wrote:
X2 Sure the streets in Boston are narrower than in Salt Lake City, but the highways are the same, east or west. I try to avoid cities anyway.

Well ... the Interstate highways are the same ... but the State highways are not the same.

We've noticed that State highways vary in two important respects:

1) The lane WIDTHS are not all the same. This has no bearing on the LENGTH of your RV, but is real important if you have a WIDE (100 inch to 102 inch) RV - of which many are.

2) The SHOULDERS are missing or very narrow on many State highways. This is real important if you need to pull off - as is often more necessary in an RV than when traveling in passenger vehicle. Also, from a pure safety viewpoint - what if one was to have a slow flat or a blowout occur on their RV on one those shoulder-less State highways ... of which there are plenty in the East.

Slightly changing the subject: I recommend one having an RV navigation system with built-in flagging or warning on overpass heights of you plan on exploring/sight-seeing back East off the Interstate or State highway systems. There's a lot of low overpasses back there.

Yeah, pitch & tenbear -- What I was getting at is that you are more likely to find yourself in heavy traffic and tight parking situations and campgrounds/RV parks with small sites back east than out west.

If you survey the RVs you see on the interstates on both sides of the country, you'll see a lot more 40' diesel pushers and 35' fifth wheels on the west side of the country than the east side.

Cities are congested everywhere. We are currently in San Diego, which can be very challenging in a long bed truck, never mind pulling a 36' fifth wheel, both in town and on some of the tiny country roads in the hills nearby, so you can definitely find tough driving situations on both coasts.

No biggie, it's just that my hubby won't drive our 52' long rig in the eastern states (and neither will I!), and we're both from there so we know the roads and have lots of reasons to go visit. When we go we will be traveling in a truck camper.

pitch wrote:
Road less traveled said "I'm not sure if you are aware that the roads are smaller on the eastern side of the US than out west, and that driving a big rig there can be a bit of a white knuckle ride."

That is just silly. Sure if you get into some of the 18th century towns and villages the streets are narrow, but then one normally wouldn't be taking his rig into such areas. There is no portion of this country that is not serviced daily by tractor trailers, which are at least as long as the OP's rig will be.

X2 Sure the streets in Boston are narrower than in Salt Lake City, but the highways are the same, east or west. I try to avoid cities anyway.

Summer camping should not consume much battery power - just lights, water pump and fridge controls. With LED lights we get three days on two 12 V batteries, then take a drive for an hour or two and they charge up to at least 70% again. The only problem is the temptation to run down the batteries below 50% charge, which shortens their lifetime. If it gets cold and we run the furnace in the evening, we have to take a drive every day.

Recommend you try it without a generator unless you watch a lot of TV while camping. Enjoy the quiet and lack of fumes/carbon monoxide. If you must have more power then get a generator. You and your neighbours will appreciate you spending extra for the quieter Honda.

Road less traveled said "I'm not sure if you are aware that the roads are smaller on the eastern side of the US than out west, and that driving a big rig there can be a bit of a white knuckle ride."

That is just silly. Sure if you get into some of the 18th century towns and villages the streets are narrow, but then one normally wouldn't be taking his rig into such areas. There is no portion of this country that is not serviced daily by tractor trailers, which are at least as long as the OP's rig will be.

Mik68 wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Mik,

In Canada we use C.

To convert C to f, double the number (30 x 2 = 60) subtract 10% (60-6 = 54) and add 32 (54 + 32 = 86)
Now that I'm never gonna remember!
Why not just sell the fifth wheel when your tour is over?
The main reason is, because we have a much bigger plan in mind when we get back to Oz, one I may share with you over a beer one day. The other reason is, we, being my wife & I, are the type that when people say "you can't/shouldn't do that" we want to do it more. And I know you're just asking why? But there's a few that have said otherwise.
So you were the couple that passed me on your bikes as I was trundling along at 78 kph eh? LOL!
And that was on the up hill stretch. :W

Sorry! Didn't know how to separate the questions from the answers.:S

Hi Mik,

In Canada we use C.

To convert C to f, double the number (30 x 2 = 60) subtract 10% (60-6 = 54) and add 32 (54 + 32 = 86)

Why not just sell the fifth wheel when your tour is over?

So you were the couple that passed me on your bikes as I was trundling along at 78 kph eh? LOL!

Mik68 wrote:

Hello again Pianotuna, I knew you guys use Fahrenheit but couldn't think what 30c converted to at the time. :h
Yes we have a route planned, starting in Dallas, April 1st over 6 months, heading South East to Florida & continuing on anti clockwise up the East coast into parts of Canada, down West coast & back to LA with a loop out to Grand Canyon etc.
My wife & I cycled across the prairies in Canada in your summer against strong head winds. Now that was an experience! Also through Death Valley, it was around 50c at the time, a Coyote looked at us a little strange.:W
We are going to have 3 summers in a row, 2 here in Oz and yours.