Help me hook up my battery/inverter wiring before I crack!

It is not easy to just go purchase an older RV setup and then jump right into so called street boondocking and be successful.

It took me a couple of years to get somewhat successful camping in my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer setup just living a week off of the batteries without shore power.

You have to decide what you want to run off the batteries and then have a big enough battery bank to sustain this. My plan ended up being camping off my batteries for one night with my 255AH Battery bank and then have a re-charge capability the next morning using my 2KW Honda Generator to run my trailer on-board PD9260C 60AMP Smart Mode converter/charger setup to get my batteries back up to a usable charge state again.

The batteries will want to not get discharged below the 50% charge state overnite which is roughly around 12.0VDC and then they need to be re-charged as soon as possible back up to their 90% charge state. Not following this routine will end doing harm to the batteries and they will need to be replaced.

In my setup I only had a 600WATT Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter and I would use around 300Watts of 12VDC Power mainly between 6PM and 11Pm watching TV and keeping a few working lights along with computers/tablets etc functional. No way can I even think of running the Air Conditioner or Microwave off my 255AH Battery setup...

Stovetop and outside grill would runoff of propane. Hot water for us was usually heated up on the stove top to wash dishes etc. Washups was standing in front of the kitchen sink - not much privacy here haha...

In your case your description of your CLASS C is vague in addition to your battery bank description. Most of us understand AH ratings not MA rating... I'm think your class C is 15-foot or so in length. Might look something like this...



In my opinion you are going to need a 2KW generator for sure to keep your battery bank charged up each day of use. The 2000WATT Power Inverter will want to see 12VDC @ 165AMPS DC current if loaded down to full load. Thats a long way from my 20AMPS draw on my 300WATT battery drain on my three 85AH 12V batteries in parallel. You are going to need a very large AH rated battery bank to support 165AMPS 'PLUS' DC Current drain.

If you make it through the one night then you will need to re-charge your battery system with something... Each battery in your system will want to see 17-20AMPS DC current when first hit with 14.4VDC Charge voltage if you want them charged in a three hour time frame. You can get from the 50% charge state to the 90% charge in a three hour generator run time doing this. Three batteries in your battery bank will be much like my setup whereas when I first hit my battery bank with 14.4VDC I immediately see a 53AMP DC Current demand from the batteries. After an hour of charging at 14.4VDC this current demand will have tapered back to around 8AMPS or so for the whole bank and will get to the 90% charge state in about three hours time. Then and only then can you use the batteries again and expect good performance for the next day/night off them. Also you can only do about 12-14 charge cycles from the 50% to 90% charge cycles before you have to fully charge your battery bank to 100% charge. If you don't do this then the batteries will will be harmed and eventually have to be replaced. A 100% charge on my three 85AH 12V Batteries in parallel will take a good 12-13 hours of charging starting out with 14.4VDC. That's a long time to be running a Generator non stop.

Here on the East side of the US we always run into generator run time restrictions at the public camp grounds. I guess where you will be doing your street boondocking it will be a hit and miss being able to run your generator... A typical truck start battery (90-100AHs) alternator setup would run a 2000WATT POWER Inverter full loaded for maybe 5-10 minutes before draining down the start battery. It may also damage your truck alternator as well.

Just passing all of this along to get your thinking going and what you might expect to overcome. IMO it's not going to be an easy task keeping your batteries charged-up without shore power, solar panels, or generator... Most folks will think heck I can just run the truck motor a hour or so each day and all will be fine...

Good luck with those thoughts...

Just my thoughts here - I'm sure others have their different plans to accomplish this...

Roy Ken

Hi,

Having the batteries is a good start. However, you have to have a way to recharge them. The cheapest way is shore power.

If you are full time and are fairly frugal with power use 600 watts of solar panels (which may cost say $1000.00 for parts) would be possible.

The most expensive way is to run a small generator.

Do you have to stay in California?

It might be simpler and cheaper in the long run to move somewhere with cheap campgrounds. We've come across campgrounds in the $200-400/month range. Then you have regular access to water & electric, you don't need to burn gas charging the batteries and you aren't always worried about being chased off for parking where you aren't supposed to.

Inverter & battery is just temporary power. You need to charge those batteries daily. Immediate solution is a generator or utility power or do without.

What do you expect to run on a daily basis? Typically for air conditioning you will need to run the 4000 watt generator continuously. Microwave will run on inverter for short periods however it takes 5x as long to recharge vs the power you pull out of the batteries. Best right now to just fire up the generator. Anything done in the microwave can be done on the stove top. Just takes more effort.

The rest runs on propane or 12v directly.

So what do you really expect to run?

Here is some general reading: The 12 Volt Side of Life

Moved from Forum Technical Support

Wonderful a 7'2" teenager and a 2cf apartment size refrigerator...

WHY in the world do you need a 2,000 watt inverter? Cables, switches and controls are WAY more expensive. Most importantly that 7'2" 15-year old needs feeding and you ain't seen EXPENSES until you get into big amperage chargers and alternators and control systems, never mind wire.

DOWNSIZE things to a more rational size. That motorhome came equipped with a 60-amp Chrysler round back alternator, and TEN GAUGE alternator wire. Oh wait! Were not finished! That 10-gauge wire passes through the bulkhead connector via a THIRTY AMP rated Delco Packard Faston terminal, goes to the amp gauge then to loads and back to the battery.

You need a savvy local mentor. Someone who can guide you through all this with a minimum of uproar and stacks of money being pitched on a blazing bonfire. That factory electrical system design screwup made me a LOT of money back in the 70s and 80's. It wasn't one of MoPar's "Better Ideas".

Find a local non-blowhard RV'er who will tame your ambitions so every cent counts. Sixty-amps in an alternator is like trying to power a generator with a WenMac 049 engine. The ENTIRE CHARGING SYSTEM needs to be ripped out by its roots and replaced with a sane system. For god's sake a Suzuki Samurai alternator has twice the power, and many RV's today have a minimum of two to four times the charging capacity. Into the scrap goes the isolator, voltage regulator, the pitifully small original wiring to the house batteries, the ammeter gets deep sixed - to be replaced with a volt meter. You can do almost all this stuff yourself - with proper guidance

for tv and cell phones etc.. a 300w inverter is enough power

a 2000w is for cooking using 120v electricity

with out a generator for powering a battery charger , you are going to use tremendous amounts of gasoline, running the engine to charge the batteries

you need to use the propane cook stove , and the propane heat as much as possible

the fridge needs propane and 12v battery power,
the water pump and lights are 12v
the water heater is propane

you need fully charged batteries,
turn off that 2000w inverter and start using the propane
goto harbor freight and buy a cheap generator, use that for to run power the RV and get the batteries charged up
the RV has a 'converter' for charging the batteries, a good 20-40amp battery charger from the auto parts store will do a better job

your batteries are NOT 600ma (aka milli-amps)
600 CCA, might be what you mean, when you said 600ma
deep cycle batteries do NOT have a cold cranking amps number (CCA)

they might be 60 Amp Hour each, they should be more
post brand model and grp size and maybe we can help you figure it out
batteries are marked by group size like group 24, or 27, or 29, or 31
also usually an RC number (reserve capacity) like 165 minutes

Wait, what???? Batteries need to be recharged.

What could possibly go wrong?


The information is out there, all you have to do is let it in.

I'm worried about those "600 ma" batteries.

A real Stalagg 13 diet is in the works for the batteries.

"Honey, where's the flashlight?"

"You just spent a fortune fixing that!"
"Sweetie Pie you're right, but it's still not enough!"

The endless-loop School of Hard Knocks. Most settle for a compromise despite sleeping on the couch and having nightmares about their VISA balance.

Like my neighbors - 400 sq ft house, 60" flat screen TV. Car out of gas.