It does take planning to be successful. We get by just fine with our 255AHs battery bank setup and run just about everything we would normally run at a electric camp site with the exception of the high wattage items like the air Conditioner or microwave.
Our concept of run all the things we want to have using an INVERTER for the 120VAC items and Direct connected to the batteries for the 12DC items. All was planned out to drop my batteries down to around 12.0VDC (approximately 50% charge state) by 8AM the next morning.
Then when allowed to run our gnerator i would re-charge my battery back to its 90% charge state by connecting my trailer directly to my 2KW Honda generator using a RV30A-15A adapter(WALMART). Using smart mode charging techniques this takes around three hours of generator run time.
We can do a good 12-14 cycles of the 50% to 90% charge states on our 255AH battery bank but after that we will need to do a full 100% charge state re-charge which of course takes over twelve hours to do. The camps never let us run our generator that long here on the East side of the US so this is usually when we head for the house.
Been doing this method of camping off the power grids since 2009 and can say we are pretty much successful now doing it. It is all second nature now.
Now I am just considering adding some solar panels to my off-road POPUP to cut back some on running my generator. Our high use of the 255AH battery bank would last alot longer if we only used flashlights and candles when camping but we are lit up like we didn't have good sense and in the evening enjoy our HDTV TV and home entertainment items just like we do at regular electric camp sites... My number one rule is to always start my evening run from the batteries with at least a 90% charge state otherwise i will not be able to make it to 8AM the next morning with a 50% charge state system. Getting to that point every evening could be a chore running solar panels if you consider a single 120WATT Solar panel will only produce 14.4VDC BOOST charging DC voltages at 5-6 amps for a few hours during high sun. We all know it takes 14.4VDC at around 20AMPS of DC current to re-charge each depleted 12VDC battery in your battery bank if you want it to be done in a three hour time frame.
It does take planning for sure to be able to do this...
We use around 300WATTS from our 255AH battery bank each day/night it seems that has to be re-charged back to their 90% charge state before dark. This relates to drawing around 20AMP DC current from 8PM to 11PM in addition to drawing around 1-2 amps for the whole day/night period for the parasitic drain items.
My success is to keep a watchful eye on the DC Monitor panel when camping off the power grids.
Just my experiences here
Roy Ken
