Battery question

[dhaas]

Ive been reading a lot about solar, generators, converters ad inverters and its making my head hurt. We are leaving for a dry camp trip next week. I had my 2 batteries tested for my TT, and both tested good. I purchased a single portable solar panel from costco with a presumably lousy converter. I also have a 3000 generator, but dont really want to listen to it if I can avoid.

My main question is this. My small TV pulls 28 watts, and the dvd player supposedly less than that. I used a small 300 watt inverter I have, and it powered the TV and dvd player fine, but took my batteries from 12.7 to 12.3 volts in about 10 minutes, with the solar panel wired up. Now its foggy today, but the panel was charging the batts before I turned the tv on.

Are the batteries bad? Shouldnt I be able to run the TV for a bit as it doesnt pull much power? Thanks

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Testing with a handheld cheese grater is about as useless as sticking a thermometer in a room temperature corpse. I have caught batteries beyond count that were declared GOOD by a cheese grater only to find them thoroughly bad.

Our motor dynomometer goes to 50 horsepower. It will check your 400 horsepower V8 and see if there is a problem?

ABSURD does not quite fit the scenario.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Try to keep this in mind,

Few places know how or have the equipment to test a battery. Your local Interstate Battery DISTRIBUTOR, the guy with the Interstate Battery Trucks parked in his yard will have the tools and knowledge to correctly check batteries.

Cheese grater handheld load testers are a joke. Electronic impedance testers are better.

A correct hydrometer test followed by a full-on adjustable carbon pile load test is the must revealing. By far. No question. And it is worth the bother because it will reveal a battery that is growing weaker than it should.

This is an utterly useless cheese grater tester



These are images of a genuine variable carbon pile load tester

[2oldman]

dhaas wrote:
batteries are from 2014 when I got the trailer. Group 27s.

That's getting up there in age. I'd replace them. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the better performance.

[dhaas]

batteries are from 2014 when I got the trailer. Group 27s.

solar panel is 100w from Costco
https://www.costco.com/Coleman-100W-Solar-Panel-With-8.5-AMP-Charge-Controller.product.100389117.html

Genny is a Champion dual fuel 2800 watt. Its a nice gen and fairly quiet
https://www.costco.com/Champion-DUAL-FUEL-2800wt-Running-/-3100wt-Peak-Digital-Inverter-Generator,-Electric-Start,-RV-Ready,-Parallel-Capable,-CARB-&-EPA-Certified,-Low-Decibels.product.100284958.html

Ill check them with a hydrometer

Thanks all for the help

[MrWizard]

Slide "out and back in" using battery power while inverter is powering the tele
Not valid test

Duh.. That used a lot more power than the tv,

That is your problem, in this situation

Do your test again
Charge your battery to full, ( like you have been driving)

Put out the slide while hooked to your vehicle with engine running
(Out..not back In)
Then test inverter and tv

[2oldman]

How old are your batteries?

[wa8yxm]

There are solar panels and solar panels.. Some as small as 5 watts or less some over 200 watts per panel.. How big is your panel


DO you have a proper solar charge controller

You said "2 batteries" but Group # (What number) or GC-2 or something liek a 4D
(Likely not the latter)

Scrap the ear busting 3500 watt generator and get a new 2000 watt (or 3000 watt) Inverter generator from Costco. they are on sale just now I think.

[azrving]

EZ

[time2roll]

If by chance you have a portable battery charger of 10+ amps I would be bringing that along to run along with the WFCO trickle charger. Or barrow one.

[azrving]

Check them with a hydrometer. It's never going to work if you have a low fuel tank or a tank that won't fill properly. More batteries die of under charging vs over charging.

You don't need a $60 model. I think ezread is a common brand in auto stores etc

[dhaas]

checked the water levels, full in both batts. I did not use a hygrometer or whatever its called. Neither batt has ever been low on distilled water tho.

[azrving]

Have you checked the battery electrolyte level? Has it always been kept covering the plates?

[dhaas]

I gotcha now. That makes sense. Ill look into that, thank you. I think the wires to the converter are only like 8 or 6 gauge, but better than 14 for sure.

[BFL13]

Your problem was all about your inverter to battery wiring. The batteries had enough juice to run the inverter running the TV/DVD.

You can do the extension cord--except the cord has to go inside to where the tv is. Leave the door or a window open? Freeze to death, or have mosquitoes inside?_

Lucky you, there is already a cord you can use and it goes inside called the shore power cord. 🙂 See my earlier post on that.

To avoid the thin wire cig plug (8 amp limit) with the small inverter, you can use short wires from the inverter clamped to the "battery lugs" at the 12v fuse panel. Those wires from the panel to the battery are fatter than the ones to the 12v socket at the tv panel, and will do much better.

Problem there is tripping over the inverter on the floor and the power bar in it that the TV and DVD are plugged into, when you or the kids get up during the movie to get something from the fridge. Plus when the inverter fan comes on you have to turn the Tv sound way up. So back to the shore power cable method. Lots of people do that.