Dry camping recommendations

[garyemunson]

We have rarely 'dry camped' with our 2015 Winnebago class A because of the battery issues we have. It came with 2 12 volt deep cycle batteries in parallel and we have found that between some lights, TV watching (with satellite receiver), the electric draw from both the furnace fan and electrical needs of the fridge (on propane) that we run out of 110 from the inverter pretty quickly as the batteries run out of charge. This generally happens in less than 2 hours forcing an early bedtime as to preserve power for the heat and fridge. Hate waking up to a beeping reefer. Starting the generator later in the evening is not something I want to do and disturb others with. Is this to be expected? I've seen quite a few RVs that have 4 6 volt golf cart batteries and was hoping someone here with that setup could enlighten me as to whether that provides enough battery power to relieve the worry of not getting through the night. We have a 2K Magnum inverter and wonder if it's so inefficient making 110VAC that running the generator is just a necessity until quiet hour kicks in. I'd hate to spend a lot of money on batteries if it's not really going to help that much.

[Gjac]

If you have 2 12v batteries now I would just replace them with 2 6 v batteries to start with especially if you only want to dry camp for a few days. Once you start to dry camp more you will see what your energy needs really are and make simple changes to reduce your energy requirements. I use perked coffee on the propane stove, a Buddy heater for fall camping just to take the chill off, some battery operated lights and my 2 6 v batteries last 7 days before they need to be recharged. Your 12v batteries are probably the original batteries that came with the MH are probably not true deep cycle batteries. If original they are 5 years old now and if they run out as quickly as you described need to be replaced anyway. I had 2 12v batteries in my MH when I bought it and was surprised how much better the new 2 6v GC batteries were.

[wildmanbaker]

We do boondock quite a bit, We have 360 watts of solar, but in the summer, we park in the shade to keep cool, so not full output except in the morning or late evening. After the first night, the batteries need more current than the solar will furnish. We will run a 2,000 generator during the evening for TV/sat/DVD watching. If it is really hot, we will start the onboard generator to run the ACs and stay inside. You can add more batteries, but you will have to recharge them sometime, and the more you have, the longer it takes. At 12.0 volts, your batteries are essentially dead. Discharging batteries this far, over and over again will kill them pretty quickly. If you are going to boondock, you really should get some way to monitor your house battery voltage, and start recharging at not less than 12.3 volts, to help the batteries live longer.

[pianotuna]

For heavy inverter loads (2000 watts), 4 twelve volt jars will out perform 4 six volt jars. The nominal load per cell is 25 amps. The 12 volt bank has twice as many cells for the same amp-hour capacity, so the voltage drop under load is much lower.

[Bumpyroad]

if you have room for 4 batteries, put them in, either 6 v or 12 v. it is "silly" to compare 2 12 volters vs 4 6 volters.
bumpy

[jplante4]

We wanted to be able to do a few days dry camping so I replaced the 12V group 24 batteries with 4 Interstate GC2s. That gives you 450 aH of reserve and was plenty to run the night inverter loads. I have 200 watts of solar and I'm thinking I need to double that, especially since solar panel prices are dropping.

I ran the genny in the morning for about 45 minutes to top the jars off and the solar kept them up all day. All these upgrades bought me 3 days minimum off grid and we can stretch that if we go Navy on the water usage.

Having the option of just pulling off the road and stopping for a couple of days changes the RVing experience completely.

[DanNJanice]

The first thing you need to do is do an energy audit and find out where your losses are really coming from.
Go buy a clamp-on DC amp meter similar to this one:
Uni-T DC Amp Meter

Turn everything off on your trailer, then clamp onto one of the main wires coming out of your battery bank. Take a measurement, this will give you your parasitic draw. Then turn things on, one by one, and see what the current draw is.
In general, it is not good to connect anything that draws a lot of current (coffee maker, microwave, hair dryer, electric water heater, etc) to the inverter as there is a 10X increase in current from the batteries. For example, if a coffee maker draws 10amps (quite possible) it will draw 100 amps from you battery.
Good luck and have fun.

[Trackrig]

garyemunson wrote:
Thanks, AZ! My inverter/charger is a 2K watt 2015 Magnum which I guess is a pretty good unit capable of maintaining 4 GC-2s. As I've started looking around, there are quite a few things on the Winnebago that are silently stealing 12 volts non-stop. I think I will start by replacing the 12 volt batteries with 2 GC-2s in series and see if that delivers what I want, adding 2 more if necessary. As long as I get through one night, I don't mind running the generator in the daytime to recharge for the next night. Hadn't thought about a small genny just for battery recharging. Great idea!

If you only go to two new batteries for the moment and then run them down too often you will be pre-maturely replacing them again, but then with four batteries. Spend a few more dollars and go to four batteries now - if you have room.

Bill

[Rick_Jay]

azrving wrote:
You battery bank is your savings account.
Your overnight use is your withdrawals.
Your charging sources are your income.
While charging you also have to pay extra because of system resistance.

I like this analogy. I'd make one slight addition. "Resistance is like the IRS!"

Because it acts when you charge the battery (income), when you discharge the battery (spending) and even when it just sits there waiting to be used due to internal losses. LOL 🙂

~Rick

[FIRE_UP]

garyemunson,
Well Sir, I've done exactly what you're thinking of. Our coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT, came with (3) 12V "supposed" deep cycle batteries for house batteries. Well, for reasons not necessary to repeat here, I decided to change the (3) 12V for (4) 6V G/C batteries. It's very easy to wire them for this kind of service. I used the original cables from the batteries to the coach and made my own "link" cables that go between them.

We do "dry camp" on an often basis and, having that arrangement of batteries, sure works well for us in terms of duration. They do last quite a bit longer than the 12v units did, in the same given operational scenarios. You of course have to determine if you have the room for four of them. Speaking of that, if I were you, I wouldn't mess around with just changing to TWO 6 volters. If you're going to change, then do it with FOUR, not two. Get it done the right way, right off the bat. You'll thank yourself for it.
Scott

I'd post pics of the before and after the change but, on RV.net, it's a pain to do so.
Scott

[Ivylog]

If you have room for 4 GC batteries do that...why worry when $200 will solve the problem??? Using the generator whenever you have a high amp draw will make your batteries last longer.

[ppine]

Golf cart batteries are a good idea.
Run your generator during the day or dry camp with no neighbors and run your gen all you want.
Use LED bulbs, run the furnace when you wake up, minimize tv time. Teach your family to value juice and learn to conserve it.
I dry camp for many days at a time and often use battery operated lantern, headlamps for reading and would never want a TV in an Rv.

[azrving]

garyemunson wrote:
Piano... I think it's set up right. That thing came with a War and Peace size manual. Guess it's just GC-2 time.

I dont know how heavily you invert with things like micro or coffee pots etc. If you want to invert to heavy loads I would consider four GC2 minimum and many on here might suggest AGM. Search Peukert effect on battery discharging. You have a great inverter but absolutely nothing for batteries compared to it. A friend had a professional install with a Magnum $2500 2800 watt inverter/charger and three cheap AGM and 160 watts of solar!!! Duuuhhh.

Two GC2 is a good start and then look at how you are using power. Get leb bulbs, charge laptops, phones while on genny, cook coffee and evening meals on genny. With two gc2 I'd stay away from inverting heavy. My toaster is a smaller 120 load and it pulls 90 amps DC, you cant do that to two GC2, NO way.

[garyemunson]

Piano... I think it's set up right. That thing came with a War and Peace size manual. Guess it's just GC-2 time.

[garyemunson]

Thanks, AZ! My inverter/charger is a 2K watt 2015 Magnum which I guess is a pretty good unit capable of maintaining 4 GC-2s. As I've started looking around, there are quite a few things on the Winnebago that are silently stealing 12 volts non-stop. I think I will start by replacing the 12 volt batteries with 2 GC-2s in series and see if that delivers what I want, adding 2 more if necessary. As long as I get through one night, I don't mind running the generator in the daytime to recharge for the next night. Hadn't thought about a small genny just for battery recharging. Great idea!