Days with out electric hook up?

[marquette]

My wife and I are doing the trip to Alaska this year. I'm try to decide about batteries and solar for the trip. Part of the equation is how many days with out being in a campground with hook ups. For those that have made the trip were you hooked up every day, every other day. every 3-4 days, etc.? I will have a generator along so I would never be without power but peace and quiet is appreciated by everyone.

[EsoxLucius]

During our 2014 trip to Alaska we never really needed to plug in, but did at RV parks and public campgrounds with electric. With as much as the sun shined never had a problem using as much power as we wanted, including the inverter for TV and DVD player.

[Gjac]

Your profile doesn't state what kind of RV you have or how many batteries. I have 2 6v GC batteries, 60 gals of FW, and minimal electrical reqs, just water pump and lights no TV or stereo stuff. In 2006 I went to Alaska and dry camped for 3 mos stayed at 4-5 full hookups during that time. Never needed the genset other than MV and my electric chain saw, not for battery charging, had a 180 amp alternator and averaged 3 night stays in one place. If this is your first trip you probably want to see as much as possible so you will move often. The longest I ever dry camped in one spot was 7 days and still had 50% SOC on batteries but run out of FW. With 2 6v GC batteries you should be fine and will not need solar for this trip unless you want to watch TV, or special electrical reqs. Also what I learned from this trip and others over the years is every 7 days my wife needs do laundry anyways so an electric site with a laundry mat is convenient so you can fully charge your batteries, wash you clothes and bedding, dump and fill with FW and be on your way the next day to a more remote site.

[obgraham]

The pleasures of an energy-efficient Class B! (RoadTrek E-Trek)

We never plug in, and with 8 AGM's, an underhood generator, and a 5000 watt inverter we run all the appliances as much as we like. Keurig. Microwave. Hair dryer. Toaster. Have yet to turn on the TV but it is there. Coziness is required!

Match the rig to your type of traveling!

[pianotuna]

Hi marquette,

Since no inverter is in use, 300 watts of solar with a good controller will keep your battery bank in tip to shape and fully charged.

[marquette]

We don't use any 110v appliances so an inverter is not necessary.

[Veebyes]

IMO if money is to be spent on upgraded dry camping start with the battery bank & a decent sized pure sinewave inverter.

A solar system is useless in the dark & cloudy days. You already have a genny. Assuming it is a quiet inverter type. That will take care of battery charging no matter the cloud cover &do it faster.

[jnharley]

Denali generator hours are 8-10 am and 4-8 pm if I recall correctly. Other public campgrounds had more generous hours. We found that sufficient to keep our batteries topped off. Williwaw near Whittier had all day generator hours. By the way, if going to Denali, you can check in the day before your stay. You are registered and given your vehicle/post tags so you can show up early and start looking for a campsite as people leave in the morning. Sites are marked A, B, or C depending on the length of your unit and you reserve accordingly. We stayed at a campground in Cantwell the day before our Denali stay so we could pre register.

[marquette]

If you had to run a generator in Denali could you have for a couple of hours?

[vermilye]

While the longest stretch of dry camping on our recent Alaska trip was 4 days at Denali, I spent 95 days dry camping at Quartzsite, AZ this winter. A pair of 6V batteries, 195 watts of solar on the roof & a portable 160 watt panel. No generator, and I did make a pot of drip coffee each day.

As to Alaska, most of the commercial parks along the way have hookups with at least electric & water.

[marquette]

Still looking at an AGM battery. I have about $2-225 to spend on batteries and in that price range 2 GC batteries seem to be the best bang for the buck. AGM I can only get 1 battery. I can get 2 group 24's for $80 each and group 27 for $99 each.

[alaskan-rver]

marquette wrote:
I have an old single stage BW 6325 converter that I have already talked to Randy at Best converters about the best replacement... Battery height is the problem so even if I can't get 2 GC batteries in I might be able to get 2 group 27 batteries in.

Upgrading that converter is a must! As far as the fitment, have you looked into absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries? Odyssee and several other companies make them. They are expensive, but last a long time, don't off-gas, and can be mounted laying on their sides with no problems.

If you're careful, you can get away with not using a lot of battery power. In the summer it doesn't really get dark, so you can go easy on the lights. Run the fridge on propane, set the heater thermostat way down low so that it only runs if really necessary, turn off the TV and other entertainment electronics, and you'll get surprising time between charges.

[marquette]

I have an old single stage BW 6325 converter that I have already talked to Randy at Best converters about the best replacement. I've been trying to re-engineer the battery holder to allow 2 GC batteries but that idea is still touch and go. Our current trip plan has a couple of 4 night stretches we may be boon docking. Several 3 day stretches. I'm trying to plan for 5 day stretches just for a cushion. If I can't find room for 2 batteries I haven't decided what the best 1 battery plan will be. The plus side to 1 battery is that with the updated converter recharge time will be short so limited generator hours should not be a problem. Battery height is the problem so even if I can't get 2 GC batteries in I might be able to get 2 group 27 batteries in.

[jnharley]

The longest stretch of dry camping we did in Alaska was 6 nights at Denali Natl Park. They do have generator hours (8-10 am and 4-8 pm). There is a shower house at the Riley Campground but they were $5 per shower, a little steep for routine use. Denali Natl Park has the best dump/water fill station that we have encountered in all our years of camping. Not sure that solar would be beneficial since it rained quite a bit in Alaska while we were there. The best campgrounds (in my opinion) were the government ones. They also seemed to have the biggest sites. Another favorite of ours was the Yukon govt campground at Kluane Lake. It is dry camping right on the lake with free firewood. And we saw grizzlies right outside the campground.

[profdant139]

Soup, the radio on my trailer was also powered up at all times, which was tough on the battery. I installed an inline switch to kill the power to the radio, unless we really want it on (which is rare). (There are so many parasitic power users in a modern RV -- why do the manufacturers just add to the roster of parasites?)