dry camping with no generator

we do it all the time.i have an inexpensive 1000 watt inverter that i clip to the truck battery and run an extension cord to a smart charger,clip to the battery bank and charge away.this spring i got a winch quick connect that i use.i unplug the winch and plug in the inverter now. it also charges the boat batteries.its not efficient gas wise,but waaay cheaper than a generator.we also picked up a go power portable solar charger 2 weeks ago.haven't used it yet.i should have hard wired the inverter,but i have nowhere to mount it.

We have only done it once and it was suppose to be for 3 days. Then we decided to extend it for a week and the single grp 27 was already down to 12.3v. I turned the truck around and slapped on the jumper cables, ran the truck for a hour and all was well again. We did that nightly for the rest of the week with night time temps in the mid 20's.

I had fairly good luck with charging by booster cables and also a thick charging cable permanently run to inside the SUV storage area. We would drive around charging a second battery while doing errands or sightseeing. Enough that I did not have to idle it to charge all that often. AGM will charge up noticeably faster. Switched the batteries once a day.
This is not too practical with big 6 volt wet cell batteries, and with the low voltage of most vehicles alternators it takes a long time to get much charge in. It worked better for me than most as I also switched in a diode to the alternator sense line, which would boost the voltage by 0.6 volts (may not sound like much, but it better than doubled the charging current)

After a while I decided to put up with some noise and got a generator, it really depends on how many days and how often. Once we got past about 3 weeks of dry camping per season the generator was worth it. I recently got a quieter generator too.

LEDs are an easy and cheap way to save power, esp in the summer they can be a fair fraction of your usage.

Terryallan wrote:
Been dry camping for 30 years. NEVER needed a Generator, and NEVER wanted one. My single battery can run the fridge mother board for 3 days easy. We use little to no inside lights, We cook outside, and we stay outside, After all. That is why we are there.

When hooking back up. No problem. Just hookup the seven pin turn on the truck, and you have full use of your 12V system. Good to go.

Did I mention we don't need or want a Genny? Useless noisy things in a NP.

X2, but then we also have 360 watts of solar.

Note: depending on the manufacturer 12.2 volts may be a dead battery; 11.5 volts is for sure.

Been dry camping for 30 years. NEVER needed a Generator, and NEVER wanted one. My single battery can run the fridge mother board for 3 days easy. We use little to no inside lights, We cook outside, and we stay outside, After all. That is why we are there.

When hooking back up. No problem. Just hookup the seven pin turn on the truck, and you have full use of your 12V system. Good to go.

Did I mention we don't need or want a Genny? Useless noisy things in a NP.

kampinguru wrote:
It still takes 6-8 hours of charger and genny to fully charge the two batteries.

Popular theory says that while getting from 50% to 90% with a genset is easy within a reasonable amount of time getting that last 10% to "fully" recharge the batteries takes forever and is best left to when you once again have shore power available. My own experience re-charging our single G27 with an EU2000i would bear that out.

ksg5000 wrote:
Having been stuck in the boonies with dead batteries - I would advise you to do a test run at home to determine the capacity of your rigs batteries. Other peoples experience are helpful but each rig is different.

mlts22 wrote:
x2. Waking up at 2am freezing bunions off thanks to no batteries isn't fun.

Really shouldn't be a problem, just plug the truck into the trailer for awhile, run the truck and run the furnace. Perhaps a bit inconvenient but at least it'll get you through a cold night. :D

Fully charged pair of 6 volt batteries in good operating condition should last at least 2 days, longer if you are frugal with your power demands. Yes, you certainly could hook up to your truck and give a little boost to your battery and help bring in slides or powering jacks, although not an ideal or efficient way to recharge battery bank it will work in a pinch. Converting to LED lighting is a great way to reduce overall power consumption.

If you decide dry camping is something you want to do more of in the future adding a bit of solar could keep you from investing in a generator right away. If it amounts to just a couple outings a year you could get a Renogy 100 watt portable suitcase solar panel (under $300) that includes a charge controller and readily connects to your battery. With good sun it can easily extend your dry camping and even allow light TV and furnace usage. Happy Dry Camping!!!

ksg5000 wrote:
Having been stuck in the boonies with dead batteries - I would advise you to do a test run at home to determine the capacity of your rigs batteries. Other peoples experience are helpful but each rig is different.

x2. Waking up at 2am freezing bunions off thanks to no batteries isn't fun.

We also dry camp without a generator and also have two 6-volt batteries. When we are in conserve mode, we can camp for about 7 days without the batteries discharging to below 50%. For us that is about 18 AH per day. LED lights & no furnace use. First thing I did was to get an understanding of my 12-volt system and how much juice each appliance used.

When I really want to stretch the length of stay, I will keep the truck running while plugged in and drop the landing gear and open the slide before I disconnect the cord from the truck. This style of camping works well for us because we will spend most all of our time outside (including cooking) and only use the rig for the bathroom and sleeping.