Every year I go to a music festival where we boondock from Thursday morning until we pack up Monday. I always had my pop-up and never had an issue. Fridge ran off propane and there wasn't many lights. We would run the generator a little during the day to top off the battery and run some fans outdoors and music.Now I have this 28' bunk house and I am afraid it's gonna drain the battery pretty quickly. The fridge requires electricity to work off propane (or so I am told) unlike the pop up. The awning needs power to open and close (will close when leaving or if storm is coming). Water pump is much larger. I would pressurize the system on the PUP then turn it off so keep some juice. I am not sure what else is going to suck the power when the battery is connected. Radio seems to always be on and connects to my phone even when off and in my driveway. I did pick up some LED lamps to replace all the incandescent ones which will help tremendously. Will running the generator for a couple hours a day be enough to keep it charged? Whats the longest people can go with a single battery and larger trailer if they are trying to conserve?

It shouldn't be a problem. The fridge requires 12v when on propane not electricity and uses next to nothing. Pump doesn't need to run much. Are you going to shower in the TT? Then the pump will run but I don't think they use much power either. We can go 2 or 3 days on one battery without topping it off each day.

X2.You will be fine. The heater is the power hog, but I doubt you will be using it on this trip.

Two hours a day should be fine if you conserve. Going to depend a bit on your converter. Most just slow charge at 13.6 volts. Post the model for best answers. I would always recommend two batteries minimum for off grid camping.100 watt solar panel would really do you well.

There will be a big difference in how long it takes to charge your battery depending on the output voltage. If max is 13.6 or so it will take forever. You want a converter that can do 14.4 or more

You will get a faster charge if you use a battery charger instead of the converter only.

dry camping/boondocking question | Good Sam Community

RoyBell
Explorer
Jul 29, 2015
I do not have solar. I only camp without power this one time a year and make due with a generator. Luckily it was cool at night time.
PAAK
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
I use a generator to top off the battery if needed, or I use the solar power to charge. Do you have a solar power chrager on your roof?
Samsonsworld
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
Only time I've gotten in trouble is when I tried to run the heater off battery. Bad mistake. Otherwise, I've camped up to five days with no power. I always took some separate battery powered lights and used a campfire for light.
RoyBell
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
mchero wrote:
You running everything off of One "Battery"?
Can you tell us someting about this battery like type & what size?

Check my post a couple up. Only needed to charge the battery up a little each day when we ran the AC to cool off. Not sure what kind or size of battery since it's still new and I haven't checked yet.
mchero
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
You running everything off of One "Battery"?
Can you tell us someting about this battery like type & what size?
RoyBell
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
One LED depleted, not one lit. I think there are 5 LEDs, so 4 out of 5 were lit.
mbopp
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
If you went to one LED on the idiot lights your battery was well past the 50% discharge level. Yes, get a voltmeter.
RoyBell
Explorer
Jul 28, 2015
Trip went well. Battery lasted longer than I thought it would. Ran the radio most of the day without any issue. The last night we ran the radio all night, had some lights on, then in the AM, took two showers and had the radio going and the panel indicated battery was down one LED (whatever that is). I will be installing a digital volt meter soon so I can easily check it.

Topped off the battery every day with the generator and had no issues. The LED lights really helped. Even when I forgot one of the power vents running all day, it was at most down one led, even when running radio and other stuff. This trailer must be pretty efficient.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Jun 23, 2015
If you don't use the the radio often I would find the wire that feeds electricity to it and add a switch to shut it off when you don't need it.
69_Avion
Explorer
Jun 20, 2015
Propane refrigerators that have an electic ignigter use very little electricity. If you have converted to LED lights, you are probably going to use very little electricity. Two hours of using a genertor to run a quality battery charger should easily keep up with the load. As stated earlier, the heater fan is what usually uses the most power.