First Time Boondocking

corvettekent wrote:
Take a digital volt meter with you so you know the state of charge on your batteries.

The downside being that many don't understand how to properly use a DVM to determine battery SOC nor appreciate the effects of surface charge. I'd suspect that someone who doesn't even know what converter they have and has to even ask the questions posed in the OP's original post is a likely candidate.

If you have a fully charged battery and are careful with electrical usage, you should not need to use the generator to charge the batteries on a short trip. For us, the whole point of boondocking is the utter silence, unlike any other form of camping.

Take a digital volt meter with you so you know the state of charge on your batteries.

You can use both. If the battery isn't discharged below 50%, battery acceptance rate will fall quickly with just one battery. One or both of the charging devices will taper it's charge so that it becomes moot if you are using one or two chargers. The standalone charger, if rated at 40 amps or above, will tend to charge faster than the built-in converter in your RV. If the stand-alone charger is rated at 10 amps or lower, keep it stored so that you can use it in the event your converter goes South, Most newer RV's have a converter that is rated at higher than 40 amps.

There is no need to disconnect the battery cables but you will want to know that your stand-alone charger doesn't exceed 15.5 V, the threshold of most RV fridge, water heater, and thermostat devices. That would be the loaded voltage not the open circuit voltage of charger disconnected from the battery.

Kylesmith3021 wrote:
Its a 2015 Starcraft 26bh..no idea what size or brand of converter

Look on the converter ... chances are it's an ubiquitous WFCO 8955, the same one I have ... not the best but it is a 3-stage charger and as such I'd just plug the trailer into the genset and let it do it's job. You'll be able to restore a typical deep cycle battery discharged to ~ 50% (or about 12 volts) to ~ 90% with about 3 hrs of genset run time but getting that last 10% will take forever ... don't bother, get it to 90%, and worry about a full recharge later when you're back home and have shore power available to run the converter and it's charging system.

Good idea to include your trailer details in your SIG and make sure it displays in future posts so when you ask a question we won't have to ask for those details. ;)

BTW, unless you NEED to use the air conditioner or NEED to use the microwave, A good battery could easily last a couple of days on it's own (without the use of a generator) without major discharge, if you watch what you are doing, electrically, IMHO.
We use about 18ah per 24-hours when we dry camp in conserve mode.

Its a 2015 Starcraft 26bh..no idea what size or brand of converter

Kylesmith3021 wrote:
When running the genny do I plug in both the 30amp cord from camper and fast charge battery charger or just one at a time.

No one can intelligently answer your questions until you tell us the make / model / year of trailer you have, therefore what converter might be in it, and what type of charging system that converter might have. :R If it's a 3-stage charger I'd just plug the trailer's main service cable into the genset and let it do it's job, if it's a simple single stage charger I'd be awfully cautious as it would be all too easy to overcharge the battery and destroy it. :E

Just re-read your post. Bring your separate fast charger with you, but try just using the camper's system to keep the batteries charged. It may work just fine. If it doesn't, then you can use the separate charger. I would disconnect the camper cables from the battery before hooking up a separate charger.

Post your camper brand and model, and any info you have on its electrical system.

My camper charges fine with just plugging in the camper - I don't know all the details about the electrical system / inverter, but the battery seems to charge quickly.