Another battery question

Hi,

I went for 14 years with only solar, as far as camping goes. I mostly boondock. I did have a genny--but it was to run the block heater in winter time. I left it behind when camping. It failed and the replacement was no good. (mea culpa)

Then I switched to full time and I thought a genny was needed. Turns out I would have been better to do more solar. The new genny has run less than fifty hours in 10 months. Over 1/4 the run time is exercising it. (I.E. running it for no good reason).

Since I started full timing in Oct, I've not run the generator *once* except to exercise it.

RJsfishin wrote:
Can't believe you solar guys ! Like solar is the answer to everyone's problem.
Seems ya all forget that solar needs sun ! Buy a small quiet generator first, then you don't have to worry what each little thing in your rig is using.
Go camping, then you will find out how much your daily AH requirements are.

Here's a poor many battery monitor,.......
If you have the sat tv playing, and a couple lites on, and the water pump comes on, and you don't notice any noticeable lite dimming, or the sat tv skippin a beat, you are well over 50% yet, and good till morning.
I couldn't care less what each dc item is drawing, I just care how often I need to recharge !
And I dint just start dry campin yesterday.
But yep, I got ammeters and voltmeters all over the place, but I know how often I need to recharge, and that doesn't change by much.
And yep, my solar works fine, when the sun is shining, but that hasn't happened in a week now.