Ran out of 12 DC @ 3 AM 1st night.

Gundog wrote:
Our first boon dock night in our new to us MH and the 12V DC went dead. When I bought the coach they told me the batteries were fairly new I need to see if they have dates on them. Now for the use maybe I am expecting too much.

The coach was plugged in for several weeks before we left on the trip so the batteries should have been fully charged. We drove around 2 hours to our destination. While driving we had the inverter on to play the stereo system. When we arrived we left the inverter on plus a few lights all LED. We watched a couple movies and it was fairly cold with the heater coming on and off very frequently. I also sleep with a CPAP machine so I need the inverter on for that machine.

At 3 AM I woke up to an alarm beeping. I checked the battery voltage and it was down to around 9 volts. I had to start the coach and let it run for a couple minutes to start the generator. I let the generator run until about 6 AM.

I can run my CPAP machine off 12 volts but I would need to wire a 12 volt receptacle next to my bed. Do the inverters draw a lot of power if they don't have a large load on them?

Had I run the generator before going to bed we would have probably been OK but it seems it should have lasted longer than it did. YUP - run it late - most coaches are good maybe 8 hours of full use - JMHO

I have a large solar panel on top and I know that does nothing at night but I am just giving all the particulars of my system. My battery bank for the house is 4 - 6 volt golf cart type batteries.

This is our first RV with an inverter so I don't know what to expect.