I thought I posted this, but it hasn't shown up, so we'll try again. Sorry if it's a duplicate...We had our first dry camping experience. It was nice, but could have been a lot better and now I have some questions.First, I thought we had an inverter. I don't know why I thought that, except that I have never seen a 12-volt outlet in the trailer, only AC outlets. How would I know if the trailer has an inverter that might not be working correctly?Second, I thought the batteries should last longer. We only used the battery to run 1 light during the day (we were in the forest). Despite that, after a few hours, the monitor (that shows gauges for battery, fresh water, etc) showed 2/3. By the next evening it was teetering between 2/3 and 1/3. We decided not to risk overusing the battery and came home. Shouldn't the batteries last longer than 24 hours if all you're using is a single light?Third, when we were leaving, I was in a bit of a hurry. I failed to realize that I had the stabilizer jacks still down as I jacked the trailer up to get above the hitch. I don't see any damage to the jacks. Any chance I did any damage to the frame or anything, or do the jacks just retract if enough pressure is applied to force them to retract?

Your battery was not just running that one light, it was powering the smoke detector, co detector, the monitor that you were looking at to see the power level of the battery, the water pump, the control board on your refrigerator (even if you were running the fridge on propane), etc.

Well yes, I understand that. Am I expecting too much for it to last more than a day if the only additional use was a single light?

Sounds like you only have a single 12v battery?Even if you have an inverter or converter or whatever it's called to make 120v power out of 12v power (unlikely, as those are only "standard" in higher end rigs), it would have died sooner than 24 hours, unless you have a whole bank of batteries, solar or some other source of power to recharge them.There is a lot of other draws on the battery. The propane detector, and now they also have the O2 detectors hard wired in. The fridge uses 12v, too. If you had that single light on all day, and it was your standard 12v bulb, it could drain quite a bit too.Live and learn your rig is all you can do.. The furnace would use a ton of 12v power if you used it at all.If it's not enough power, you have to upgrade the 12v system to accomodate your amp hour needs and go from there.Good luck!Mitch

The on-board monitor is near useless. You'll need a decent digital voltmeter to monitor the battery and shouldn't let it go below 50% charge (11.9 to 12.0 volts, depending on whose chart you use.) Another load is the electronics for the water heater. And the standard G24 battery is good for a day or 2 with the usual useage, people who camp w/o hookups on a semi-regular basis have 2 batteries, and solar or generator (or both.)

oy, you’ll learn like we have. I hardly ever don’t dry camp. So many more beautiful places!

First Dry Camping Experience | Good Sam Community

oyarsa
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
Jimlj, what are you using for solar? My trailer is supposedly pre-wired for solar, but it seems like I would need quite a bit of power, even if we didn't use the A/C.
oyarsa
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
Not sure on the lights. I'll have to look some other time. Pretty sure it's LED, though.
oyarsa
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
To give a bit more information. It's a 2017 Keystone Bullet 247BHSWE. Batteries are two Pape' material handling deep cycle batteries. Model no 24DC75. In the A.H. Capacity it says "75 (20HR)."

The refrigerator is a Dometic DM2652 that I had set in the Auto position. Maybe I should have had it set completely on gas...

We had the water heater purely on propane.

We did use the water pump, though we were fairly sparing in our use of water.

Didn't run anything at night, though my wife was up a few times to feed baby, so she would have used the light.

Sounds like I should just resign myself to not dry-camping unless I get a generator or solar.
time2roll
Nomad
Jul 15, 2018
Is the light LED or incandescent? LED uses ~90% less power.
toedtoes
Explorer III
Jul 15, 2018
First, you most likely do not have an inverter. 120v outlets are standard in RVs for when you're hooked up to shoe power. There may be a 12v "cigarette lighter" outlet in the RV.

Second, it sounds like you had the light on all day. That, in addition to the other pulls will run the battery down. How did you power your water heater - propane? What did you run in the evening/night? What type and size battery do you have?

You may need to check for parasitic draws also. Could be something is pulling power that you are unaware of.

I can't comment on your third question.
KD4UPL
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
It is extremely rare for a trailer to have an inverter from the factory. Most of the ones that do have it just to run a residential electric refrigerator. So the answer is almost certainly no, you don't have an inverter.
The little battery gauge you were looking at is useless. You may as well not even bother looking at it. You need at least a DC volt meter or better yet an actual battery gauge with a shunt to measure amp/hours in and amp/hours out of the battery.
If your refrigerator and other loads were on as I suspect they were and your 1 light was an incandescent and your battery was a group 24 then you likely got about normal use from your battery.
jimlj
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
You didn't mention if your battery was new and fully charged. You mention battery and batteries. Two batteries correctly wired will last longer than one. In my old camper (pre CO, smoke and propane detector, self igniting frig and water heater) I could go 2 or 3 days without having to charge the battery if I could get the grandkids to shut off the lights when not in use. My current camper with all the above a day or two is about it. I now have a solar panel and it keeps the battery charged to where I could go indefinitely if someone would bring me water and empty the holding tanks.
I doubt you did any damage to your jacks if you caught that before you drove off.
enblethen
Nomad
Jul 15, 2018
I group 24 should last more then one or two days. It is possible that the battery was not fully charged.
Check to see what model refer you have. Some rigs have a 12 volt DC heating element. This can drain a battery very quickly. Next check to see if it has humity switch(?). What is make and model of refer? Current eastern Washington hot weather can play havoc on refer!
Your rig most likely does not have an "inverter" but is equipped with a "converter".
Switching to LED lamps can save much battery power.
What part of central Washington?
Yosemite_Sam1
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
I don't know what model of RV you have. Mine is the newer 2018 with mostly LED lights and we lasted 5 days without having to recharge battery with the alternator from the car (I don't have a generator then).

We even have to do everything inside the RV and be inside early evenings since it's very cold outside and snow and all. I only have one battery. Thinking of adding one but did not with the generator serving better purpose.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Jul 15, 2018
oyarsa wrote:
Second, I thought the batteries should last longer. We only used the battery to run 1 light during the day (we were in the forest).

No way anyone here can answer why your battery reserve doesn't last longer when you haven't provided any details at all about your battery (or batteries) nor exactly what you're running and for how long. And you're not running just 1 light, at the very least your propane / CO detector is running 24/7 as long as the battery is connected. Since you were dry camping you presumably were using the fridge and if it's a DSI fridge then it would be drawing power as well. Use the water pump? - there's more draw down on the battery. You need to provide more specific details.

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