Electrical outlets

[Youda97]

I have a 2015 Forest River Evo camper trailer. I am new to the camper trailer world. This weekend is my first week and dry camping. Do my electrical outlets only work when I have my generator running? I guess I assumed that the electrical outlets would run off the battery until the battery was dead. Thank you in advance for your answers.

[krobbe]

I just received this from Amazon. VicTec DC voltmeter
It's a low cost permanently mounted display for the battery voltage.
I mounted it above my Progressive Industries Electrical remote display.

[time2roll]

Youda97 wrote:
Thank you for the detailed response. It was very helpful. I have a 3250 w gen. Will 2 hours be enough charge the battery fully or about to what level? IE 25% ect.

Depends on charging voltage and amp rating. Some converters are excellent, most are weak, many are pathetic. Post what you have for best recommendations.

[BubbaChris]

Let's say you're going to be gone 1-2 nights, you might not need to run the generator at all.

This assumes the following:
You have the TT hooked up to 115V at home (or at storage) and the batteries are fully charged when you leave.
You have 2 batteries rather than just one.
You have LED lights, or will be careful with how much you use the lights
You don't need the furnace to run more than a few times through each night.
You will be hooking your TT back up to 115V when you get home.

I still take our generator with us on most dry camping weekends, but I rarely run it now that I know what we're capable of. It's similar to learning how well we can manage our fresh/gray/black tanks without hookups.

[time2roll]

Youda97 wrote:
I guess I assumed that the electrical outlets would run off the battery until the battery was dead.

You need to add an inverter to create 120v from battery power.
300w for small stuff is fairly easy. Laptop, phones, tv, dvd, satellite are good to go.

Coffee, microwave, hair dryer, compressor need 2000 watt inverter and at least four batteries. Install is a bit more complex also.

The 12 Volt Side of Life

[blt2ski]

Moving to travel trailer per request of OP.

Marty
TV moderator

[krobbe]

Since you are talking about boondocking, you'll want to bring the batteries back to 90% when running the genny. Letting the battery voltage drop below 12.00Vdc(50% charge state) will shorten the life of the battery.
Here is a 12v battery voltage State of Charge chart:
12.6+ = 100%
12.50 = 90%
12.42 = 80%
12.32 = 70%
12.20 = 60%
12.06 = 50%
11.90 = 40%
11.75 = 30%
11.58 = 20%
11.31 = 10%
10.5 = 0%
When using the batteries under these conditions, check the electrolyte levels frequently. Be sure to use distilled water to refill the levels. Minerals in tap/well water will shorten the life as well.
Check out this 12vdc Voltage Meter to keep an eye on your battery state of charge.

[Executive45]

Does the EVO have an INVERTER..? If so, the outlets will work if you turn it on. It will kill your batteries pretty quickly though, depending on your battery bank....Dennis

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Youda97 wrote:
I have a 2015 Forest River Evo camper trailer. I am new to the camper trailer world. This weekend is my first week and dry camping. Do my electrical outlets only work when I have my generator running? If you have a generator and you are not talking about the alternator on your tow vehicle then yes your 110 volt outlets will work. I guess I assumed that the electrical outlets would run off the battery until the battery was dead. Thank you in advance for your answers.

If you do not have a portable generator and you are going to be doing a lot of dry camping, I would go with two 6 volt golf cart batteries. You also may want to look into a solar panel. Ask the Mod to move this to the TT section for you.

Don

[Youda97]

Thank you for the detailed response. It was very helpful. I have a 3250 w gen. Will 2 hours be enough charge the battery fully or about to what level? IE 25% ect.

[shepstone]

Not unless you plug the umbilical into a 1,000 watt inverter and power the whole rig through it , I upgraded to 2- 6 volt crowns a couple of months back and tried it for a weekend , it kept up quite well I still had 2/3 power left although I only ran the tv and bluray for the most part and the microwave once , thing that sucked the power most was the lighting , so I have now installed leds throughout . Just remember to turn the rv's power converter off.

[mtofell1]

newman fulltimer wrote:
How will 110 outlets run off 12volts?

The OP openly admitted he's new.... how exactly does your post help at all?

To the OP, you are correct. The standard house type outlets in the TT will only work when plugged into shore power or a generator. Your interior lights and water pump will work off the battery so you can "survive." Your furnace would likely work as well but beware it will deplete the battery quickly due to the blower fan. A/C won't work unless on shore power or a beefy generator (don't try unless you have a 3000W or bigger generator).

The way I use my generator is to run it a couple hours during the day to charge the batteries and/or if I want to throw something in the microwave. That way I generally have enough juice to get through the night w/o running the generator (frowned upon during sleeping hours, for sure - unless you're really away from it all and no one can hear it)

Also, if you have a dual gas/electric water heater be sure to turn off the electric side of the water heater so it doesn't kick in and over work the generator when you turn it on. On most modern heaters there is a switch behind the panel accessed from the outside. If your water heater is only gas you have nothing to worry about.

[Youda97]

Ahhh. Ok. Outlets run off 110v and battery is only 12. Ok that makes sense. Thank you. Again, very new to this thing.

[newman_fulltime]

How will 110 outlets run off 12volts?