Soooo,I'm gonna be up a June/silver lake in October, the man crew wants the smoker.... It's a 5 day dry camp. I will be running my generator in the morning, I need to power my traeger with an inverter. I bought a decent cobra 400w inverter.. That's the easy part. Sooo, what's the best way to charge this thing. Should I just plug it into the rigs batt bank, when I run the genny. Or should I tie my other bank to the rig and run the whole thing off the rig, ( 2 banks of 2 grp 24 12v) I generrally only run 2 batts.Or get a cheapo solar kit and let it charge the standalone battery?Hmmm the dilema.

The more batteries you have together will give the best electrical power consumption. Only you will know the details of how your smoker uses power and the discipline needed to keep everything charged.

Hmmm... One guy on another forum is getting 30plus hrs on a grp 24...300w for 5mins at startup then about 60w to run the auger and fan.... My batt is a grp 27... Dammit. Gonna run a test. Lol. Off for a pork shoulder I go!

bigcitypopo wrote:Hmmm... One guy on another forum is getting 30plus hrs on a grp 24...300w for 5mins at startup then about 60w to run the auger and fan.... My batt is a grp 27... Dammit. Gonna run a test. Lol. Off for a pork shoulder I go!If you need taste testers be sure to post on this forum only.

What Genny do you now own ?Also, you've indicated that you already own a total of 4-12 volt batteries. You've already purchased the inverter & may consider purchasing a solar panel, depending. Is that correct ?

You can get a pretty good idea by just looking at the spec sheets of your GP27 battery.This is TROJAN GP27 model 27TMX specs.This shows the battery will produce 12VDC @ 25AMPS for 175 minutes or 2.9 hours. This will run the battery down to 0% charge however which you do not want to do so you actually will only get 1.5 HOURS at the 50% charge state.Of course your 400WATT Inverter loaded down fully will draw around 32 AMPS plus some loses from your batteries so your time going to 50% charge will be some what less.You will have to know what your power drain is going to be from your 400WATT Inverter.Your best deal is to run a home test and see exactly how long one battery will last.I would not go anywhere off the power grid unless I have at least two working batteries. This will get you in the ball park thinking.Two of the 6VDC GOLF CART Batteries will produce 12VDC @ 25AMPS load for around 447 minutes or 7.45 hours. That is alot more power than two of GP27 12VDC batteries will produce. Two of these 6VDC golf cart batteries will be a bunch less cost than two of the GP27 12VDC batteries...If you run down your batteries to 50% charge state then you will need to run your generator connected directly to your trailer shore power cable for three hours the next morning using smart mode converter/charger to get them back up to at least 90% charge state if you want to do this all of this all over again the next day...Roy Ken

traeger Jr., a grp 27, an inverter. What's the best recharge

12 Replies

bigcitypopo
Explorer II
Sep 29, 2014
My plan wasn't to run the grill off of my house batts... Just one grp27 for the grill. But... Now I'm gonna rig something up.. Lol
westend
Explorer
Sep 28, 2014
If you had a 100W solar panel on the smoker and battery, it would most likely cruise all day. You know you want one, tee hee.

The other way to look at this is: a five man crew having to wait on dinner or no dinner at all with battery issues.
bigcitypopo
Explorer II
Sep 28, 2014
Rog.. In just swapped the converter for a 75amp boon docker too.. Mex is getting my old 55amp WFCO board here in a few days... Lol

I'll runn all 4 batts....

Oh... I have a boliy 3300w remote start genny. It's been bullet proof for me. Runs great.. It has a 12v charge adapter. Never used it though
Dakota98
Explorer
Sep 28, 2014
I agree with Mexico, take all 4-batteries, it's better to have them & not need them, rather than need them & not have them, (but, I'm pretty sure you will). Depending upon the size of your Generator & as you stated, running it each morning. I think I'd connect the Genny to the converter, charging the coach batteries & separately at the same time, connect the Black & Decker to the grp 27 batteries.
Canadian_Rainbi
Explorer
Sep 28, 2014
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Definitely do the four battery bank up at the loop. Easier to stuff amp hours back in and a week at 80% upper charged capacity won't hurt a darned thing.

Listen to Mexicowanderer. He is THE man when it comes to the care and feeding of lead acid batteries.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Sep 28, 2014
Definitely do the four battery bank up at the loop. Easier to stuff amp hours back in and a week at 80% upper charged capacity won't hurt a darned thing.
bigcitypopo
Explorer II
Sep 28, 2014
I did a 4 hr test tonight... Starting voltage was 13.0/12.9.... On the startup it drew down to 12.6. Then recovered to 12.7... At the end of the burn my volt meter read 12.5.... After a 3hr break of no draw. The batter read 12.6v

I'm gonna run a charge in the morning with my Black/Decker 1093.... See how long it takes to charge... I don't think I wanna drag all 4 batteries out. Might just take the grp27 and see how it shakes out.
RoyB
Explorer II
Sep 27, 2014
You can get a pretty good idea by just looking at the spec sheets of your GP27 battery.

This is TROJAN GP27 model 27TMX specs.

This shows the battery will produce 12VDC @ 25AMPS for 175 minutes or 2.9 hours. This will run the battery down to 0% charge however which you do not want to do so you actually will only get 1.5 HOURS at the 50% charge state.

Of course your 400WATT Inverter loaded down fully will draw around 32 AMPS plus some loses from your batteries so your time going to 50% charge will be some what less.

You will have to know what your power drain is going to be from your 400WATT Inverter.

Your best deal is to run a home test and see exactly how long one battery will last.

I would not go anywhere off the power grid unless I have at least two working batteries.

This will get you in the ball park thinking.

Two of the 6VDC GOLF CART Batteries will produce 12VDC @ 25AMPS load for around 447 minutes or 7.45 hours. That is alot more power than two of GP27 12VDC batteries will produce. Two of these 6VDC golf cart batteries will be a bunch less cost than two of the GP27 12VDC batteries...

If you run down your batteries to 50% charge state then you will need to run your generator connected directly to your trailer shore power cable for three hours the next morning using smart mode converter/charger to get them back up to at least 90% charge state if you want to do this all of this all over again the next day...

Roy Ken
Dakota98
Explorer
Sep 27, 2014
What Genny do you now own ?

Also, you've indicated that you already own a total of 4-12 volt batteries. You've already purchased the inverter & may consider purchasing a solar panel, depending. Is that correct ?
darsben
Explorer II
Sep 27, 2014
bigcitypopo wrote:
Hmmm... One guy on another forum is getting 30plus hrs on a grp 24...

300w for 5mins at startup then about 60w to run the auger and fan.... My batt is a grp 27... Dammit. Gonna run a test. Lol. Off for a pork shoulder I go!

If you need taste testers be sure to post on this forum only.