Camping In Snow
Hi All, My family and I are looking ahead to next year and planning a ski trip. We are from the South (Houston Area) and we were thinking about going to Ruidoso, NM because we have never camped in...
Forum Discussion
A couple of questions. Are you going to be camping off your batteries or being plugged into shore power somewhere.
If it is going to be batteries then I suggest you do some dry runs at home to find out how many batteries you are going to need for what you plan on using. Adding more batteries also means adding a beefed up converter/charger system as well. Then you also have to add a way to re-charge your batteries. Most of us plan our battery system to be large enough to run all we want to run in a one day/night run off the batteries and then using a small generator the next morning connected to the trailer to re-charge the batteries in a three hour generator run time using smart mode charging. If you are just going to use flashlights and candles then the battery might hold up a couple of days. I'd rather use more things than flashlights and candles when we camp off the power grid.
If you are planning on being plugged into shore power each day/night then things get easier electrical wise. In both cases however you have to worry about how much propane you are going to need to run heat. The furnace takes alot of propane and the furnace blower eats up alot of battery power if you not plugged into shore power. Logistics is another problem keeping all these thing available to use especially when located in a new to you place and not knowing where to go to get the supplies you need.
Being a stranger to area can get you into big trouble if you get snowed in somewhere and no way to dig your self out. Could even be life threatening...
One has to build on PLAN Bs which you can only learn by experience sometimes...
Making DRY runs from your driveway just like you want to be camping will provide you with alot of learning what you will need to plan for.
For us it is alot of fun camping off the power grid but it does take good planning - We found out real quick you just can't go there and expect to last very long without alot of planning and beefed up battery system changes. Now for us it is almost second nature. Took a couple of years for us to get to this point and not have to worry about running out of resources when we go off the power grid.
We did alot of camping in the back yard at first or at our local Westmoreland State Park just 25 miles away.... Being close to home makes it great adjusting your new systems to work out for you.
We do quite well using our 255AH battery bank and 2KW Honda Generator to connect to our trailer setup to run the 60AMP Converter/charger to re-charge our batteries each day.
We normally draw around 20AMPs or so from 6PM to 11PM from our battery bank in addition to the normal 1-2 parasitic 24/7 drains. This is using a small INVERTER for some of the 120VAC items and 12VDC direct connected to the battery bank. This will deplete our battery bank down to it 50% charge state by 8AM the next morning when we can re-charge it back up to its 90% charge state when we are usually allowed to run our generator at the camp grounds. Most places we go to here on the East side of the US all have generator run time restrictions in place - even the Natl Forest sites.
Its all in the planning...
Roy and Carolyn
If it is going to be batteries then I suggest you do some dry runs at home to find out how many batteries you are going to need for what you plan on using. Adding more batteries also means adding a beefed up converter/charger system as well. Then you also have to add a way to re-charge your batteries. Most of us plan our battery system to be large enough to run all we want to run in a one day/night run off the batteries and then using a small generator the next morning connected to the trailer to re-charge the batteries in a three hour generator run time using smart mode charging. If you are just going to use flashlights and candles then the battery might hold up a couple of days. I'd rather use more things than flashlights and candles when we camp off the power grid.
If you are planning on being plugged into shore power each day/night then things get easier electrical wise. In both cases however you have to worry about how much propane you are going to need to run heat. The furnace takes alot of propane and the furnace blower eats up alot of battery power if you not plugged into shore power. Logistics is another problem keeping all these thing available to use especially when located in a new to you place and not knowing where to go to get the supplies you need.
Being a stranger to area can get you into big trouble if you get snowed in somewhere and no way to dig your self out. Could even be life threatening...
One has to build on PLAN Bs which you can only learn by experience sometimes...
Making DRY runs from your driveway just like you want to be camping will provide you with alot of learning what you will need to plan for.
For us it is alot of fun camping off the power grid but it does take good planning - We found out real quick you just can't go there and expect to last very long without alot of planning and beefed up battery system changes. Now for us it is almost second nature. Took a couple of years for us to get to this point and not have to worry about running out of resources when we go off the power grid.
We did alot of camping in the back yard at first or at our local Westmoreland State Park just 25 miles away.... Being close to home makes it great adjusting your new systems to work out for you.
We do quite well using our 255AH battery bank and 2KW Honda Generator to connect to our trailer setup to run the 60AMP Converter/charger to re-charge our batteries each day.
We normally draw around 20AMPs or so from 6PM to 11PM from our battery bank in addition to the normal 1-2 parasitic 24/7 drains. This is using a small INVERTER for some of the 120VAC items and 12VDC direct connected to the battery bank. This will deplete our battery bank down to it 50% charge state by 8AM the next morning when we can re-charge it back up to its 90% charge state when we are usually allowed to run our generator at the camp grounds. Most places we go to here on the East side of the US all have generator run time restrictions in place - even the Natl Forest sites.
Its all in the planning...
Roy and Carolyn
