First time dry camping this weekend

[wbwood]

We are heading out tomorrow for a weekend of dry camping. This will be our first time doing it. To prepare for dry camping, I have switched out about half of our lighting to LED. I have enough to do all the lights, but figured that since the LED's are dimmer, that we would keep some of the lights with the regular bulbs for regular camping with hook ups. I also had 2 fantastic fans installed and another group 27 12volt battery. So with the 2 group 27 batteries, occasional possible use of the fantastic fans, and using LED's, how long can we figure on going before needing to crank up the genny to recharge the batteries? We also will be using the fridge on propane and water pump for showers for 3 of us, and I know that willl draw some as well. We will arrive around 6pm on friday and leave on Sunday around noon. We won't be watching any tv.

[time2roll]

wbwood wrote:
45 watt would be enough? It wouldn't due much good this weekend though. Was overcast and rained a good bit.

Better value to buy individual components. I think you can have 100w panel and basic controller for the price of that HF kit.

[profdant139]

Actually, you might have done better than 12.2 volts. I find that if I have been using my batteries and I check them with my voltmeter right after I have turned off a light or whatever, I get a lower reading than if I leave everything off for an hour or so, and then re-check. It's sort of like the battery needs to rest in order to give me an accurate reading. The difference can be pretty major -- I have seen it jump by two tenths of a volt. (I am not sure if this is true for everyone -- but I am sure it is true for my batteries.)

And here is why this glitch matters to me -- I try never to let my battery get below 12.1 volts. When it hits the magic number, it is time to run the generator (or to switch to my backup battery). But I find that I can go an extra day before recharging, if I wait an hour before checking voltage.

[wbwood]

Went camping last night to a local state park without hookups. Ran the two fantastic fans on the medium speed from about 8:30 pm until about 9 am or so. Watched some TV (12v) for an hour or two and had some water pump usage (couple of showers). When I checked it this morning, we were down to 12.20 volts (60%) Not too bad.

[wbwood]

RoyB wrote:
Glad you did some planning before going. I keep preaching the planning part. I also like to use the word SUCCESSFUL.... They go together...

Otherwise if you just show up and expect it all to work it will most definitely get dark on you around 10PM hehe... Then what are you gonna do...

We do great with my 255AHs battery capacity - Run all the 120VAC toys from an 600WATT PSW Inverter and all the 12VDC toys direct connected to the battery bank. We have all of this planed out to run all we want to run and drop our battery bank to 12.0VDC around 8AM the next morning. You have to keep a watchful eye on the battery monito panel... Then we can run the generator for just three hours to recharge then bank back up to its 90% SOC. I always start off with a 90% SOC otherwise the batteries drop real quick performance wise. If I just charge for an hour you think it is helping but it really isn't charge wise. It gets worse and worse only charging an hour each day... Three hours generator run time is great at 8AM in the morning. Then you can make up your fresh ground bean coffee and do some other generator required things making breakfast etc. Then you are good for the next day/night run off the batteries starting out with a 90% fresh charge. Works very successful for us at any rate. Our camping off the power grid way back in the woods is almost the same as we do at regular electric camp sites. Don't do without anything we want to have on except air conditioning. We watch HDTV every night if we want to... My camp site is lit up like we don't any good sense hehe...

Having my front deck on the OFF-ROAD POPUP really is my savings grace. Between that and the pickup truck bed we come pretty well stocked up for all of the PLAN Bs that need to be addressed.

I'm still hoping to do some more camping in the NC high country... Got to get the BRADDY Sequestor out of the way and should be back on the road again soon...

When way back in the woods having a couple of 5-gallon water containers and those 7.5 Gallon AQUA-TAINER totes to carry off the gray water really helps out. I always spot out the water holes before going into the woods. There is usually a designated rest room somewhere near by... Can carry out 15GALS of gray water and bring back 10GALS of fresh water haha.. Having a two wheeled folding cart helps too...

Roy Ken

For the weekend (two nights) we found that our fresh water/gray water set up to be adequate. I bought two of those 6 gallon Jerry cans from Walmart and filled them up before leaving home. I also have a 35 gallon tote that I can carry with us if for longer period of time. But where needs to be a dump station near by. If we are going to be in an area where we basically need to haul it out, I will either have to crank up the mh and drive her or I would get a couple of those aqua trainers you mentioned. Just have to find a cheap solution of getting the gray water into them. From the large port hole to a smaller one. There's gotta be some sort of reducer out there.

As far as power, I just gotta get more comfortable with it. We are going to a state park that is literally 5 minutes from the house on Labor Day weekend. There are no hookups. I will feel more comfortable testing it out more fully then. And I remembered to leave voltmeter in the camper. Might even try the tv at night for a couple hours. Lol

[fireman93514]

wbwood wrote:

fireman93514 wrote:
Glad you had a good time. We love dry camping and boondocking. If this is something you plan to do more of, we bought a 45 watt solar panel kit from harbor freight. It keeps our two group 27 batts at full charge. Cost was under $200.

.

45 watt would be enough? It wouldn't due much good this weekend though. Was overcast and rained a good bit.

So far this has worked for keeping the Batteries up. I have not had a cloudy day while we are out yet. We have just added this to our arsenal. They sell a hub to connect six of these units together. I need a to test these for longer than the four days we were out. If you were going to use multiple unit I would mount them on the roof. They are not light weight.

[RoyB]

Glad you did some planning before going. I keep preaching the planning part. I also like to use the word SUCCESSFUL.... They go together...

Otherwise if you just show up and expect it all to work it will most definitely get dark on you around 10PM hehe... Then what are you gonna do...

We do great with my 255AHs battery capacity - Run all the 120VAC toys from an 600WATT PSW Inverter and all the 12VDC toys direct connected to the battery bank. We have all of this planed out to run all we want to run and drop our battery bank to 12.0VDC around 8AM the next morning. You have to keep a watchful eye on the battery monito panel... Then we can run the generator for just three hours to recharge then bank back up to its 90% SOC. I always start off with a 90% SOC otherwise the batteries drop real quick performance wise. If I just charge for an hour you think it is helping but it really isn't charge wise. It gets worse and worse only charging an hour each day... Three hours generator run time is great at 8AM in the morning. Then you can make up your fresh ground bean coffee and do some other generator required things making breakfast etc. Then you are good for the next day/night run off the batteries starting out with a 90% fresh charge. Works very successful for us at any rate. Our camping off the power grid way back in the woods is almost the same as we do at regular electric camp sites. Don't do without anything we want to have on except air conditioning. We watch HDTV every night if we want to... My camp site is lit up like we don't any good sense hehe...

Having my front deck on the OFF-ROAD POPUP really is my savings grace. Between that and the pickup truck bed we come pretty well stocked up for all of the PLAN Bs that need to be addressed.

I'm still hoping to do some more camping in the NC high country... Got to get the BRADDY Sequestor out of the way and should be back on the road again soon...

When way back in the woods having a couple of 5-gallon water containers and those 7.5 Gallon AQUA-TAINER totes to carry off the gray water really helps out. I always spot out the water holes before going into the woods. There is usually a designated rest room somewhere near by... Can carry out 15GALS of gray water and bring back 10GALS of fresh water haha.. Having a two wheeled folding cart helps too...

Roy Ken

[wbwood]

Tvov wrote:
I wouldn't worry too much about the battery power level dropping immediately... that just means it is not at "full" charge. When you think about it, it makes sense. With a fully charged battery, just turning on one light will quickly bring the battery under full charge, even if a little bit. When we dry camp, the battery "drops" to 2/3 charge on the first night, but then stays there for 2-3 days under normal dry camping use.

With more dry camping experience, you will learn how long your particular electrical system will last on battery.

That's what I figured out about it and the whole panel including water and tank level.

Since we were able to run the generator, we did just about an hour or so the entire trip. Made us feel better at least. Lol.

I didn't have the battery chart with the percentage levels on it while camping. I couldn't remember exactly what they were and we had no cell phone reception for me to pull it up. Saturday evening we were in town and got a reception. I pulled it up on my iPhone and copied it to my photo album. So now I have it all the time. My wife suggested we print it out and laminate it and keep in the camper which we will do as well.

[wbwood]

profdant139 wrote:
You are right that the radio is a problem. We installed an in-line switch to our radio, so that we can completely cut off the power -- no parasitic drain.

I might look into that. I think for e time being I will find the fuse the next time.

[wbwood]

fireman93514 wrote:
Glad you had a good time. We love dry camping and boondocking. If this is something you plan to do more of, we bought a 45 watt solar panel kit from harbor freight. It keeps our two group 27 batts at full charge. Cost was under $200.

.

45 watt would be enough? It wouldn't due much good this weekend though. Was overcast and rained a good bit.

[Tvov]

I wouldn't worry too much about the battery power level dropping immediately... that just means it is not at "full" charge. When you think about it, it makes sense. With a fully charged battery, just turning on one light will quickly bring the battery under full charge, even if a little bit. When we dry camp, the battery "drops" to 2/3 charge on the first night, but then stays there for 2-3 days under normal dry camping use.

With more dry camping experience, you will learn how long your particular electrical system will last on battery.

[profdant139]

You are right that the radio is a problem. We installed an in-line switch to our radio, so that we can completely cut off the power -- no parasitic drain.

[fireman93514]

Glad you had a good time. We love dry camping and boondocking. If this is something you plan to do more of, we bought a 45 watt solar panel kit from harbor freight. It keeps our two group 27 batts at full charge. Cost was under $200.

[wbwood]

We did it...no issues.. Did run the genny on Saturday for about an hour to make ourselves feel better. The control panel for the battery is marked in thirds. It dropped down to 2/3 and got me thinking to why it would go so fast. We only ran a couple lights for no more 30 minutes. The water pump was used a few times to wash hands and flush toilets and of course the fridge was running. Figured out the next day that while the TV was not on, that it was drawing a current. Unplugged it. Also, our in dash radio is connected to the house battery. We can turn off the radio, but it still has a current to it as its buttons still light up. I couldn't figure out how to get it to shut down completely. The manual to the RV is useless and is generic. I didn't think about it, but the only alternative I know of would be to pull a fuse to it while camping. Anyone with any other ideas? I know it has to be drawing a current. I finally remembered that I had a voltmeter in my tool box. Thought I left it at home. Checked it once on Saturday it was reading 12.39. Also, the more I thought about the panel, it was reading between 2/3 and full. Meaning we were above 2/3 and not at 2/3. Might eventually have to wire a battery meter to it and mount it so I don't have to keep lifting up the stairs and checking. lol

Water wise, we were more than good. Had a full fresh water tank. Took 2 full 6 gallon jugs with us. Added one on Saturday and the other on Sunday morning before leaving. Gray tank was up to 2/3 full and had to add some to the black tank to get it sufficient enough to dump.

Oh yeah...ran the fantastic fans a total of 2 hours maybe. Cut them off at night. Was more than cool enough with the windows open. Think it got into the upper 50's or low 60's. Didn't spend much of the day on Saturday in the camper. Kayaked, went for a ride and then of course shopping for my wife and daughter.

[korbe]

We spend most of the time outside. That is the key for us.