Battery Question
Does it hurt anything to plug into shore power with the battery disconnected? I have a travel trailer 30 amp system.
Forum Discussion
As an added bonus, since you are new to this electrical management shindig... If you dry camp, instead of at campsites with full hookups, and really need to start managing your power consumption off the battery, here's a couple of pointers.
1. If you have a stock WFCO 9855 charge controller, it works fine with full time hook ups. It does not work well charging off the grid. Alternatives include Iota chargers, and Progressive Dynamics 92XX chargers. Both of these are smart chargers and 3 stage. They will do a good job of getting your batteries quickly to a 90% state of charge. Of course, dry camping, what you save in not paying $35 to $60-70 a night, initially, will go towards acquiring a small portable QUIET generator, and the etiquette to operate it in an unobtrusive noise pollution manner. Honda and Yamaha, and for others on a smaller budget, Champions in 1000 to 2000 watt persuasions are quite popular around here. Think Red, Blue and Yellow colors for the corresponding brands. Do a search here for more info.
2. Consider a generator and suggested charge controllers above, and a 2 hour run in the morning to top the batteries up early in the day. You don't want to leave the batteries sitting deeply discharged, it causes sulfation of the cells, so the sooner you can get the batteries out of a deep discharge state, 50% considered tops, the better.
3. Dry camping can really be done better with true deep cycle batteries, think Golf Cart Batteries, with 5% antimony in the lead plates.
4. A solar panel, even portable... 120W to 160W, is a great, non intrusive way to top off the charge on your batteries after the generator run in the morning, if given sunny days to work with.
5. If you do dry camp, first order of business is to replace all your incandescent bulbs in your rig with LED lights. Do a search here to find out more.
1. If you have a stock WFCO 9855 charge controller, it works fine with full time hook ups. It does not work well charging off the grid. Alternatives include Iota chargers, and Progressive Dynamics 92XX chargers. Both of these are smart chargers and 3 stage. They will do a good job of getting your batteries quickly to a 90% state of charge. Of course, dry camping, what you save in not paying $35 to $60-70 a night, initially, will go towards acquiring a small portable QUIET generator, and the etiquette to operate it in an unobtrusive noise pollution manner. Honda and Yamaha, and for others on a smaller budget, Champions in 1000 to 2000 watt persuasions are quite popular around here. Think Red, Blue and Yellow colors for the corresponding brands. Do a search here for more info.
2. Consider a generator and suggested charge controllers above, and a 2 hour run in the morning to top the batteries up early in the day. You don't want to leave the batteries sitting deeply discharged, it causes sulfation of the cells, so the sooner you can get the batteries out of a deep discharge state, 50% considered tops, the better.
3. Dry camping can really be done better with true deep cycle batteries, think Golf Cart Batteries, with 5% antimony in the lead plates.
4. A solar panel, even portable... 120W to 160W, is a great, non intrusive way to top off the charge on your batteries after the generator run in the morning, if given sunny days to work with.
5. If you do dry camp, first order of business is to replace all your incandescent bulbs in your rig with LED lights. Do a search here to find out more.
