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BobaFett's avatar
BobaFett
Explorer
Aug 19, 2019

Battery or no battery????????

I have a Jayco Hummingbird 17MBS. I realized that every campground we want to stay has full hookup. (Power, Water, Sewer). So im curious....do I HAVE TO HAVE a battery? We do not plug in to shore power a few days ahead to get the fridge going. Even in 100 degrees, the camper is so small that it only takes a few minutes to run the A/C to get the inside temp comfortable. Is there something i am not considering?
  • You should have a battery. As vermilye points out, the breakaway brake system requires a battery, and in many states this is required equipment so a battery must be present.

    Some converter designs, admittedly generally not ones that have been made too recently, require a battery to operate properly or to clean up their electrically noisy output.

    If you ever want to stop quickly when traveling to use the bathroom or make and eat lunch or similar, you'll need a battery to power the water pump etc.

    All that being said, you certainly don't need to have a big or expensive battery setup for the kind of camping you'll be doing.
  • Your lights are all 12V I'm not sure they will work w/o a battery even when hooked up. Plus you will eventually want to stop at a rest area or somesuch to make lunch or do something else.
  • And....if there ever is a power failure at the campground, it will be nice to have lights, etc. while the power is OFF.

    Also some charger/converters don't operate correctly without a battery present.
  • If you have electric brakes, the trailer battery powers them when you trip the breakaway switch.

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