Boondocking and Phantom loads.

The OP said, "It really comes down to how serious the DW is about boondocking for more than a day or so."

So true!! The trick is to show her how wonderful boondocking is -- the utter privacy and silence. My wife was skeptical the first time we tried boondocking -- now she is very eager to find great places to go. And she is now very careful with the lights and the appliances.

And yes, we have solar -- a 120 watt portable panel tops up the batteries every day. We just spent a month of boondocking -- never ran the generator once.

But we have one, just in case there is a stretch of cloudy days. You never know, even in the sunny Far West.

troubledwaters wrote:

mike-s wrote:
I use solar, and don't worry about it.

What would you do if your site was fully shaded and it was going to be cloudy and on & off light rain for a week?

My converter has been off for nearly a year now. I rely on solar exclusively for my batteries. I park in the shade when available, and live in an area that gets plenty of cloud cover during those other three seasons. We go months at a time with no sun in the Winter, and my batteries stay topped off. With that in mind I'm also in the group that doesn't worry about phantom loads at all.

I once had a camper that had a gas fridge that required no power of any kind. It had a pilot light on it that ran all of the time. I loved it. But, I haven't seen one in years. And, quite honestly, on hot days it would not keep up. But, by then it was quite old and I now believe that it was not working as well as it should.

Lack of sun, bad generator gas, loss of CG power. Rare events but they do happen.

All you can do is take it in stride.

After over 30 years of mixing 18th century reenacting, wilderness canoeing, a pop-ups, tents and TTs in more types of weather than you can imagine; there in nothing that is going to happen RVing that is more than a giant pain in the rear.

troubledwaters wrote:

mike-s wrote:
I use solar, and don't worry about it.

What would you do if your site was fully shaded and it was going to be cloudy and on & off light rain for a week?

Move locations. Hope that helps.

mike-s wrote:
I use solar, and don't worry about it.

What would you do if your site was fully shaded and it was going to be cloudy and on & off light rain for a week?

rbpru wrote:
My frig is pretty bare bones. Plug it in it runs on 120 volt, unplug and it switches to LP automatically. No ice maker, no obvious climate switch.

Exactly my point - just because it doesn't have a switch to turn off the climate control heater doesn't mean it doesn't have one. If it doesn't, the solution is to add your own switch so you can disable this function when camping without shore power, just as I did with my own Dometic DM2652.

600 watts of solar, 696 amp hours of battery capacity and I'm golden as long as the sun shines once every 3 days.

Going to go up to 800 watts of solar power panels next Spring so that solar performs a little better on cloudy days. Right now I'm getting 7 amps/hour when it is cloudy outside and would like 10 amps minimum. When it is sunnny, I'm hitting 45 amps/hour easily.

Chuck and Di wrote:

mike-s wrote:

Chuck and Di wrote:

westend wrote:
I don't have any phantom loads. Engineering and ancient systems took care of that.
My alarms are battery operated. My "furnace" is a vented, stand-alone propane heater. The fridge operates on 120V. All lights are LED. The only other 12V devices that operate are fans and the water pump.

I have 235W of solar panel and 300AH of battery capacity. As long as the sun shines, I'm golden.

What powers your fridge?

I'm guessing "The fridge operates on 120V" and he uses ice and coolers when boondocking. Or perhaps it's low enough draw that his solar and an inverter handle it. In any case, a fridge isn't a phantom load - it can be turned off.

True, however he calls a furnace a phantom load so you can't have it both ways. Indeed, a 120 V fridge, when boondocking would be a brutal load, and since most have electronics or even defrost heaters, there is a lot of electricity used that does not directly result in keeping it cold - some would define these as phantom loads.

I have 300 AH of battery capacity and 235W of solar panels. The dorm fridge has no door seal heater and operates right around 80W. The whole 12V system, inverter, and solar charging is designed to power the little fridge. That it runs everything else, indefinitely, is a bonus.

As long as the sun shines, I'm golden. I haven't started a generator or used a battery charger since putting everything together.

My frig is pretty bare bones. Plug it in it runs on 120 volt, unplug and it switches to LP automatically. No ice maker, no obvious climate switch.

Boone docking for me is a chance to visit the unique. Concerts, archery shoots, rifle matches, wilderness areas to name a few. The vast majority of my camping is done with electricity simply because I like the convenience; but I certainly am no stranger to canoe and tent. :)