Getting ready for our 1st boondock weekend

If I may piggy-back a quick question here: As suggested above, if using a portable charger, is it okay to hook it directly to the battery and plug the trailer in too?

I've been disconnecting my battery completely from the trailer and charging with my 40amp portable. Is there no need for the unhooking?

There is definitely room to "upgrade" your equipment, but I certainly would not be concerned about it for a weekend. As matter of fact, you are probably good for many weekend excursions.

Probably the first upgrade would be a better battery charger, either stand alone or built into a converter or inverter.

you can always get an automotive type 15 amp or larger, charger and use it to fast charge your batteries.

WFCO notoriously charges at 13.6 trickle volts instead of the claimed 14.4 boost voltage. 3 to 6+ hours to get close to 90% charged. Bring your voltmeter to verify what is actually happening. Couple hours in the morning, again at noon for an hour and then a couple hours into the evening might serve better than an extended morning charge.

Any chance you have a portable 10+ amp charger to bring along? Or borrow one?
Just put it direct on the battery and get it started. Then plug in the main cord to get some from the WFCO too. No need to disconnect anything.

If voltage does steadily climb to 14.2+ volts on the battery... continue one more hour and call it done.

Post a trip report ;)

GordonThree wrote:
Don't worry about the numbers on your first few outings. Looks like you're as best prepared as possible.

There's plenty of folks that obsess over numbers and have lots of monitoring gadgets. Getting hung up on numbers just adds stress, you'll be worrying about how much is this or that going to cost energy wise.

You bought a generator, use it when you want, don't try to limit yourself too much.

I will say with a wfco you'll need much more than 3 hours to recharge dead batteries.

Have fun. Boondocking is the best IMHO!

Some people like myself enjoy gadgets and looking at the numbers. Its a hobby. But I also have a genny and with that there really is no concern. But those are some fairly small batteries.

But I do agree he seems to be more than ready to go have some fun. As long as you don't let your batteries drain to far down you will be just fine recharging in the am. Your charger should bring them back up fairly high in a couple hours but to top them off would take quite a while. They charge a lot slower when topping off. I would try not to go lower than 12.1 volts. Any deeper on a lead acid battery and you really start shortening their life.

If you want to figure the numbers you have to figure out how many watts what every you are running uses. Then how long each of them will be running. Figure you have have about 80 usable amps at 12 volts which is 960 watts. After that you will be draining your battery bank to low for sure. JMHO

Don't worry about the numbers on your first few outings. Looks like you're as best prepared as possible.

There's plenty of folks that obsess over numbers and have lots of monitoring gadgets. Getting hung up on numbers just adds stress, you'll be worrying about how much is this or that going to cost energy wise.

You bought a generator, use it when you want, don't try to limit yourself too much.

I will say with a wfco you'll need much more than 3 hours to recharge dead batteries.

Have fun. Boondocking is the best IMHO!

“What does everyone else think ?”

For that usage, no ac or microwave, a solar system would serve you better without any noise, maintenance or gasoline. 12.0 is too low IMO...close to 40% SOC. Well, runnng your generator in the A.M. at least won’t spoil cocktail hour if I’m next to you. Testing gravity is a PIA IMO. Volts is enough for me.