update to questions on first boondocking trip

[dockmasterdave]

We went to a festival last weekend and did our first 3 day boondocking trip. I had lots of questions on here about battery charging/reserve power, water consumption and tank capacity.
With 2 new Walmart "deep cycle" the first night, had to run a 20" box fan all night, only got down to high 60's from mid 80's.
Both batteries were at @12.0v. I used the built in WFCO and supplemented with an 8 amp charger, ran off genny 2 hours, back to full charge.
Second morning, batteries a little lower but not bad, tried the WFCO only for 3 hours. Not as good of a charge. added another hour later in the day, and 3rd morning batteries were @ 11.8 VOLTS.
Note to self, use both chargers.
30 gal fresh water was just starting to suck air as we were pulling out.
27 gal black and grey were fine @1/2 full.
Thanks for everyone's advice. We now have a much better idea of what OUR capabilities are.
Thanks for all the advice.

[azrving]

I pull water from my 5 gal jugs or 60 gal bladder with the winterizing port. No extra pump needed. When I was installing a pressure tank and filters I put a tee in the fresh tank fill hose with a ball valve to the pressure side of the pump hose. Open that ball valve and water goes to the fresh tank. Leave that ball valve closed and winterize side pulls from bladder and feeds rig.

I replaced my 17 year old pump last year. Today I replaced the 1 1/2 in Bristol gray tank valve. It only lasted 18 years.

[lawrosa]

Manual does not state the voltages it charges at.... Sheesh...

file:///C:/Users/lawro_000/Downloads/0099001860-R0.pdf

Water?

I have a 46 gallon water tank. And 40 gallon grey. 30 gallon black.

we can go the weekend with showers on that if we get wet. Lather, then rinse. Maybe 3 gallons or so per person. Family of 4.

I have 15 gallon water jugs . I usually only bring one. I fill up one and put in back of truck. They put near front of camper.

If I need more water I pump it into my fresh tank.

I bought a 12 volt harbor freight transfer pump. Made a bargman connector that plugs into the 7 pin to run it. We can go 7-9 days without filling the black.

I estimate black as we were one week, at a stay. I was 3/4 after the 7 days. Only pulled the black handle when we left.

Grey water here in NJ its tongue in check that grey can be pours on vegetation, planters and such for watering. I usually water a few trees or flowerbeds to help lower the level of the grey.

[toedtoes]

Regarding the water bladder:

You used approximately 30gal of fresh water. You filled approximately 2 - 13 gallons of dump tanks (1/2 of 27gal grey and 1/2 of 27gal black).

If you fill the water bladder with 45 gallons, you will only have enough grey/black tank left to hold another 26 gallons. And that is if your monitor is correctly reading 1/2 tank on each and reaching "full" won't be a bit overfilled (you should always plan on dumping while you can still get a few flushes in case of emergency).

So you'll get a few more days out of it, but you'll need to watch the dump tanks more closely and use those to judge your length of stay.

[dockmasterdave]

On board is WFCO 8945. Stand alone is a schumacher 8 amp, model SC 1279.

[lawrosa]

dockmasterdave wrote:
Battery voltage during charging with both chargers running was 13.9v.
I definitely do need to run both chargers for a quick charge.

LWiddis I only plan on filling the bladder if needed, when my tank is almost dry, and as for payload, yeah I have plenty left.
@ 500lb tongue weigh, 100 or so for the hitch head, 400 for momma, the dog and few miscellaneous things in the bed.
1700 payload. 700 lbs to spare.

Kudos to the man who set up this bladder. It's the best thought out, cleanest package I've ever seen. I just tried it, works perfect, and I don't even need a single adapter for anything. Wire connections are waterproofed, caps for all water openings, a shut off valve to rework hoses, even a waterproof fuse holder in the plus wire. This guy is good.

What battery charger do you have? make model?

[dockmasterdave]

Battery voltage during charging with both chargers running was 13.9v.
I definitely do need to run both chargers for a quick charge.

LWiddis I only plan on filling the bladder if needed, when my tank is almost dry, and as for payload, yeah I have plenty left.
@ 500lb tongue weigh, 100 or so for the hitch head, 400 for momma, the dog and few miscellaneous things in the bed.
1700 payload. 700 lbs to spare.

Kudos to the man who set up this bladder. It's the best thought out, cleanest package I've ever seen. I just tried it, works perfect, and I don't even need a single adapter for anything. Wire connections are waterproofed, caps for all water openings, a shut off valve to rework hoses, even a waterproof fuse holder in the plus wire. This guy is good.

[lawrosa]

Here is the long wfco thread and testing. I had the wfco 55 amp model. If you have the 45 then get the 55 ...

https://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29448369.cfm

Just an FYI. I did upgrade to the PD with charge wizard. I did because I wanted to use the same space of the bottom unit and did not want to relocate a separate stand alone unit.


This one..

http://www.bestconverter.com/PD4655MBA-WildKat-55-Amp-Main-Board-Assembly-for-WFCO-8955-or-Parallax-...

But if I was to relocate , which I should of, I would be looking at the 14.8 model here. 14.4 as in the above unit to - 14.8 in this unit makes a huge difference IMO

http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9280C-148-80-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger_p_620.html#.WoS8rajwaUk


The gents on here taught me so much. I have learned that probably 90% of rv batts die a slow death of being undercharged.

When I finally learned that my manual charger bubbling the electrolyte @ 15.3 volts 10 amps was the best thing my batts have seen. I rejuvenated then.

In a sense I learned there is no such thing as overcharging per se, when batts are being used.

Get that high voltage into them and as many amps as you can.

My test will come this summer. I also have 560 watts of solar and an 40 amp controller.

two 6 volt may be the way to go. But I am not sure of that just yet. I fear severe voltage drop underload, but cant prove that therory...

[time2roll]

Would be helpful to measure battery voltage while charging.
Maybe once per hour and at shut down.

[lawrosa]

2oldman wrote:

dockmasterdave wrote:
After 2 hours and an hour to rest with just parasitic load they both tested 13.0 v..

That's something I've never experienced. It should rest at around 12.7. Perhaps your VOM is not real accurate.

For your next set of batteries I'd shy away from Walmart.

Well your wfco could of went to bulk.. we will never know. And it depends on the wire gauge and how far your converter is to the batts..

Even when I did get my WFCO to bulk with the one 6 gauge wire some 20 ft I never got over 30 amps.

When I added another wire in parallel I got a full 64 amps out of that thing..

Now if it stayed in absorb mode it will charge at the 13.6 volt rate.

But ironically at the 13.6 rate the wfco held there for some time @24 amps on the one wire system. It was constant and did not taper right away. Ill have to look at my test data.

So two walmart batts @ 50% you need maybe 70 ah put back. Two hours @ 25-30 amps is say 50 ah's back in. Plus two hours with the 8 amp charger.

Hey thats about 66 ah's..

Sounds plausible you got them back to 90%...

[Lwiddis]

45 gallon bladder weighs 360+ pounds full. You have that much unused payload?

[2oldman]

dockmasterdave wrote:
After 2 hours and an hour to rest with just parasitic load they both tested 13.0 v..

That's something I've never experienced. It should rest at around 12.7. Perhaps your VOM is not real accurate.

For your next set of batteries I'd shy away from Walmart.

[dockmasterdave]

The first night the batteries went down to 12.2 v. I used the 45 amp WFCO along with a stand alone 8 amp charger. After 2 hours and an hour to rest with just parasitic load they both tested 13.0 v.

As far as the fresh water capacity goes, I had my eye on a lightly used 45 gallon bladder with a 5.7 gph flow sureflo pump and all fittings to hook them up for $60. I bought it on our way home.

I'll keep trying to pick up more info and knowledge here, and test it a few more times. If the 2 chargers combined can't keep up, I already talked to Randy at best converter about the progressive dynamics.

[Lwiddis]

No, Mandalay. Trojan says for T105s that you can expect 1,200 cycles with 50% discharges but 1,500 at a 40% for instance. A sliding scale. Depends on how many batteries you want to carry, your usage and your tolerance for buying new batteries. See http://www.trojanbattery.com/products/deep-cycle-flooded/signature-line-flooded-2/

[Tom_N]

As to water capacity. Don't forget the capacity (6-10 gal) of your water heater.

-Tom, W3TLN