battery charging when boon docking

rvexodus wrote:
It starts with having enough battery capacity to easily make it through a night of running your furnace and any other loads. A good battery charger and small generator is the next best investment. The generator is more reliable running anytime you need it. 2am solar doesn’t cut it. With a 600w solar array, at best you are going to get 6 solar hours which means you will produce 3600wh (watt hours) during the day. Most likely you will produce around 3000wh in ideal conditions. That means for a 12v system that you will add 25ah back into your batteries. A Honda eu2000i can do the same thing in about 2hrs with a good charger. And the Honda will do it in the dark, when there are clouds, even when it’s raining if the generator is covered.

I have over 2500 watts of solar on my RV and a massive lithium bank coupled with two inverters in parallel capable of producing 60a of AC power. I can run my 4 door fridge, air conditioners, microwaves, kuerigs of course. But I wouldnt be caught without my generator (I have two Honda’s in parallel).

General theme. Start with good baterries with good capacity. Add a good battery charger and generator. Then add some solar to keep you from having to run the generator as much. Do more than 200w of solar. 200w doesn’t buy you much. 600w or more starts to make a difference. The goal should be to not have to run the generator every day. Boondocking with my fridge on propane I can go in definately. Running the fridge on electric I have to kick on my generators every 3-4 days.

Kirk