Planning first trip in the new MH, weekend, close to home

[luberhill]

probably go to a park about an hour away...no hook ups...the furnace is gas but the blower runs off the coach batteries I presume.
Will two one year old deep cycle RV batteries run this all night ?
Or should I bring my Little Buddy heater ? The coach has two smoke detectors and a brand new CO detector

[phillyg]

I needed two batteries to keep the furnace going. One only lasted about six hours.

[Boomerweps]

For your maiden voyage, I strongly recommend a full hookup site. That way you can use all your systems to their full capability. You can run your water heater on gas to test, then use electric to save gas. Same for the fridge. You can have nicer showers and no concerns about filling water tanks.

[tenbear]

IMHO its far better to bundle up at night than try to keep the RV warm. In the morning you can warm up the RV in a pretty short time using the furnace.

[T18skyguy]

I've never owned an RV that the furnace didn't go on and off every few minutes, especially when it's really cold. Their just not insulated well enough. Plus the furnace is so loud; like a jet engine running. With it's noise, and how much propane it sucks up, I just use electric heaters and run the genny. A really cold night will really kill your propane. Be aware the little buddy heaters do put out carbon monoxide, and propane in the rig makes a lot of moisture, helps to crack a window or two.

[midnightsadie]

furnace pulls lot of power , so use it wisely, frig very little ,set up camp as level as the ground will let you. if you use a buddy heater leave a couple windows cracked open. also you could use the buddy till sleep time. P.S a furnace makes a lot of noise.its all a learning thing have fun and laugh off the ruff spots.

[DrewE]

A very rough rule of thumb, as much as you can have a rule of thumb, is that you get one night per battery if there's not a lot of other major loads involved. Obviously it depends a great deal on how cold it is (and hence how much the furnace needs to run), how warm you have the thermostat set, what sort of battery you have, what sort of furnace you have, and so on and so forth...but I would expect a pair of batteries to be okay for a single night in most any reasonable case.

There are people here who like to be prepared for most any contingency, and that's not necessarily a bad thing at all. There are also some who seem to like to be prepared for any contingency of any contingency, and for any contingency of any contingency of any contingency, and....

[SAR_Tracker]

Rather than going to a park with no hookups, stay in your driveway (or street). Especially with a new rig. That way, if you've forgotten anything, or the batteries go down, you have an "out" right at your fingertips.

[enblethen]

I would not use portable. Battery may last all night. If not start the coach engine and run it for a while. Shut it off and run on batteries.
Yes, I have a set of Hondas and on-board Onan. Boss didn't like genset running under bedroom.
I would never buy another set of Hondas. I would get the Harbor freight units. You could buy two sets there over one set of hondas

[luberhill]

Yea ive seen the youtube videos on Honda vs Predator...they are quiet. Someone posted here a way to put a T in the onboard gen to fill the portable gas tank.
Not sure if that's a good idea but probably better than carrying a gas can

[MDKMDK]

I'm not an expert, but I ran into a guy who had just bought a Predator 2000 at Harbor Freight, had it sitting on the tailgate of his pickup truck at a nearby boondocking location. We were maybe 20 feet away from it, and I could barely hear it running. It wasn't under load which would undoubtedly increase the dB's being produced, but it was quiet for a small portable. I'm thinking Honda-quiet. Think he said it was around $600.

[luberhill]

We have a small electric heater and we can always fire up the gen...I am also thinking of buying one of those Honda 2200 invertor gens to have just in case I want real quiet OR I ever run the batteries down so much I cant start the coach.
I know where I can buy a brand new one for 800

[MrWizard]

it won't run all night continuous

it will cycle on/off depending on the thermostat setting

(2) good batteries, should be enough

but for a first trip, i would take the buddy heater just for insurance

i have a little heater i carry, just in case.. having a backup is cheap easy way of preventing a problem from ruining a trip

[2gypsies1]

Bring the Buddy... just in case … but you should be fine with the batteries for one night. Do you really need to run it all night at this time of year? Have fun!

[Lwiddis]

Smoke is one concern...CO2 is more deadly. No buddy heater for me. What AHs do your batteries have? What is your propane heater’s AH use? Syracuse weather isn’t supposed to drop into the high forties until a week from next Tuesday.