First Time Boondocking.....Need a few Questions Answered

[Glen1978]

We bought a 2005 Fleetwood Gearbox last month and are goin to take it to Taylor Park, Co next month. Ive tried to read as much as I can off here and have answered alot of my own questions. BIG thanks for that. Some mods we have already done include replacing wheels with 16" and swithing to 225/75-16 Firestone Transforce LT tires (load range E). Bought a Reese twin cam sway/weight distribution setup. Purchased a Honda 2000 watt Inverter/genny, Weber Q1200 grill, all LED lights for inside. And a HUGE AC Delco battery that sets on neck....think its 125 ah. My main concern is HEATING as it will be 30s to 40s at night. Read the furnace will suck alot of propane and eat at the battery.....dont plan to run genny all night, just top battery off in the AM. Do the Wave 3 or 6 heaters work at that altitude....10k'? I keep reading different reviews that say yes, then no. Pretty much everyone says the Buddy heaters wont. Need some ideas on this heating issue. Thanks VERY MUCH!!!!

[Opie431]

We have extra blankets to put on the bed, heavier PJs plus socks. We do not have to have the furnace or heater running.

[Adam_H]

Buy another 12v battery. I would not run 6v batteries unless I had a bank of 4. Problem with only having 1 pair is if 1 battery fails you are stuck without battery power. Your camper won't run on 6v. If you have 2 12v batteries and 1 fails you are still running on 12v. Don't ask me how I figured this out, only run multiple 12v batteries now.

[Muddydogs]

Dual 6 volt battery's will give you a little more AMP hours and 6 volt are said to last a little longer. But since you have a good 12 volt already I would go with another to save some costs. Another thing I like about the 12 volt battery is I can use it in the truck if needed. I have other ways to charge a battery but you just never know when a battery is going to give you problems especially going from 70 degree temps to below zero. Not the time I want to figure out my battery was weak and not have a backup. I also take a couple batteries out of my boats and gang them together when I am winter camping for any length of time so 12 volt works better for me.

[Naio]

Get a heated mattress pad! Use it to preheat the bed half an hour before you get in. Then switch it off, but keep the switch handy in case you get cold at 5am.

This will save you an enormous amount of heating time. Heat the people, not the air.

I use this method, and am toasty and comfortable in freezing nights, without propane.

[jaycocreek]

I wouldn't own an RV without a Catalytic heater in it.I have two Big Buddy heaters and they work okay but not near as well as the Wave catalytic heaters do.I have used them in motorhomes/pickup campers/trailers and fifth wheels for Idaho weather and boondocking.They are great for when your not hooked up, which I almost never am.

Like a fireplace(A real one) for getting warm in a hurry and warming the hands or feet..I can't say enough good about them for off road camping...My new pickup camper will have one also.

You can mount them which I usually do but in this particular trailer I decided to have it portable on it's legs to put where-ever I want.If your on a budget,the big buddies work but they put off more condensation but they have a fan which comes in handy also..To each there own.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Only the Platinum Cat has external venting.Platinum Cat

westend wrote:
I would pass on the auxiliary heater for the needs you state. It is just another piece of gear to haul, will need some type of propane plumbing, and some of them emit bad stuff into the cabin air. The Olympic heater that has an exterior vent (Platinum, IIRC) is the only one of these stand-alone heaters that is externally vented. They do make wall-mounted propane furnaces for the mobile home industry but I don't think there's any savings there and they require 120V AC.

An additional 12V 125 AH battery shouldn't cost $250, more in the neighborhood of $150. Having two of these would ensure you can operate all your 12V devices through the night and would ease your generator use. If it would mean an every-other-day generator use rather than every day, an additional battery would pay for itself very quick.

[Glen1978]

Muddydogs wrote:

profdant139 wrote:
We run the noisy furnace during shower time -- but otherwise we do without heat completely! We wear heavy clothing during the mornings and evenings -- DW puts a blanket on her lap during mealtime. At night, we use a down comforter and sleep like hibernating bears -- much better than we do at home. It does get into the 30s inside the trailer. That is not a problem -- it's a good thing!

Some people do this but I for one didn't spend all the money I did on a trailer to set around in my long johns and heavy coat. If I wanted to do this I would have stayed a tent camper. You haven't lived until you spend 2 weeks tent camping in feet of snow and subzero temps. I guess some people want the adventure of it all but anymore I like a little comfort with my adventure.

Where is the LIKE button????

[Glen1978]

Thanks guys. Im not dead set on anything. I have a side compartment that housed an onboard genny but was removed by PO for whatever reason. I could put a nice battery bank in there and get em off the tongue and out of the elements. Believe me Id much rather use what I have vs. adding another heater/plumbing and in general having to deal with another item. Is the dual 6V setup better than doubling what I have now? I understand elec alittle but not sure the ins/outs on whats best in a RV and boondocking situation. I work on a drilling rig and used to sleeping with 3 huge Cat V-12's running at all times.....not sure I can sleep in pure quietness....lol! BTW we wont be in a campground.

[Muddydogs]

profdant139 wrote:
We run the noisy furnace during shower time -- but otherwise we do without heat completely! We wear heavy clothing during the mornings and evenings -- DW puts a blanket on her lap during mealtime. At night, we use a down comforter and sleep like hibernating bears -- much better than we do at home. It does get into the 30s inside the trailer. That is not a problem -- it's a good thing!

Some people do this but I for one didn't spend all the money I did on a trailer to set around in my long johns and heavy coat. If I wanted to do this I would have stayed a tent camper. You haven't lived until you spend 2 weeks tent camping in feet of snow and subzero temps. I guess some people want the adventure of it all but anymore I like a little comfort with my adventure.

[Muddydogs]

You seem set on a different heater so I'm probably wasting my time but I will reiterate what's already been said. Get another 12 volt battery and you will be fine. The heater that comes in most RV's are not that bad considering you are heating a big box with very little insulation and big square holes in the roof covered with thin plastic lids. If you plan on doing more dry camping your money would be better spent on a battery and some solar to keep the batteries up.
This time of year your heater will not run very much at night even if the temps do get down in the 30's as the trailer will probably get heated up during the day and take a while to cool down at night. Secret here is to manage air flow. When the outside temp warms up open up the trailer to let the warm air in so the trailer warms, as it starts to cool in the evening close the trailer up to hold the warm air. If needed before bed run the heater at 70 for a couple cycle to warm everything up then set the thermostat at 55 or 60 for the night.

2 12 volt batteries, 200 watts of solar in my 30 foot toy hauler keeps my batteries alive for 2 weeks of boondocking in temps ranging from 40 during the day to below zero at night.

[profdant139]

We have done a lot of boondocking in very cold weather -- right around the freezing mark, and often below freezing (but never below zero). We have thought seriously about the Mr. Buddy or Wave heaters -- they are safe if used properly -- but we just don't need it.

We run the noisy furnace during shower time -- but otherwise we do without heat completely! We wear heavy clothing during the mornings and evenings -- DW puts a blanket on her lap during mealtime. At night, we use a down comforter and sleep like hibernating bears -- much better than we do at home. It does get into the 30s inside the trailer. That is not a problem -- it's a good thing!

I know this seems extreme, but we go camping in order to get away from the noise of civilization, including the sound of a heater. And we also value the pure air when camping, so the fumes of a Mr. Buddy are not something we want in our air. (I know it is odorless, silent, and safe -- this is just our choice. There is nothing wrong with those heaters -- lots of people use them safely.)

I should add that we have two group 31 batteries at 110 amp/hours each. This is probably overkill, but that's what we have decided to do.

[RoyB]

Be sure to check with your camp ground what hours the generator is allowed to be used. Alot of COLO sites still have generator run time restrictions in place. Most public places do not allow generators after 10PM and before 8AM the next morning.

We use 255AH Battery setup and do rather well well making it through the one day/nite run off the batteries. This runs our battery bank down to around 50% charge state and require us to run our generator using smart mode charging for at least three hours at 8AM if allowed by the camp ground.

The VENTED TYPE CAT WAVE Heaters do pretty good mounted to a trailer cabinet door and vented to the outside. There are some photos on GOOGLE SEARCH showing one installed this way...


The general rule of thumb for the RV FURNACE setup is one night one battery. The killer is the loud 12VDC FAN which draws 6-8AMPS DC Current. We pretty much run the same things we run at electric sites except the Air Conditioner and our 255AH battery capacity does ok. This is usually not using the Rv FURNACE for heat however. My backup for heat when OFF-ROAD is a MR BUDDY Heater but you have to provide good venting which lets all your heat generated escape out...

Adding SOLAR PANELS to my setup would do great still requiring the generator use to get past the initial high current battery demand of around 53 AMPS DC CHARGE current. After an hour of generator use then the DC CURRENT demand will be around 6-8AMPS DC which would fall right into the solar panel DC CURRENT OUTPUTS during the high sun periods.

We like running the generator first thing in the mornings as this is when we get to make our good fresh ground bean coffee for the day.

All of it takes planning.

Roy Ken

[ADK_Camper]

Ivylog wrote:
Having to open a window decrease the efficiency of a Wave heater so use your TT's heater. You already have a second 12V battery... in your truck so buy a good 2/10/50 battery charger like this.. It's good to have a battery charger and jumper cables along anyway. While one battery will probably be enough, you do not want to pull it down more than 50%.
It's not going to be that cold so stop worrying about getting the most efficient way to heat.

Using a separate, stand-alone battery charger is good advice. Many on-board camper converters don't seem to operate as intended. Mine will never go to "boost" mode regardless of how depleted my battery is. It always operates in "absorption" mode which charges the battery very S-L-O-W-L-Y. It can literally take days to recharge a depleted battery. Almost any inexpensive 10 amp battery charger will work to recharge your battery. A fully automatic charger is nice, but if you are in a campground that limits generator use you won't be able to run the charger long enough for the automatic feature to be of much benefit.

[westend]

I would pass on the auxiliary heater for the needs you state. It is just another piece of gear to haul, will need some type of propane plumbing, and some of them emit bad stuff into the cabin air. The Olympic heater that has an exterior vent (Platinum, IIRC) is the only one of these stand-alone heaters that is externally vented. They do make wall-mounted propane furnaces for the mobile home industry but I don't think there's any savings there and they require 120V AC.

An additional 12V 125 AH battery shouldn't cost $250, more in the neighborhood of $150. Having two of these would ensure you can operate all your 12V devices through the night and would ease your generator use. If it would mean an every-other-day generator use rather than every day, an additional battery would pay for itself very quick.

At some point, you may tire from hauling generators and gas cans, listening to the noise, and being a slave to your batteries. That point is called "looking at solar". Many of us have installed solar and really like the seamless way it handles battery charging. It can also offer the opportunity to run 120V AC devices using an inverter. I have a small residential fridge and it is powered by a single solar module.

[Ivylog]

Having to open a window decrease the efficiency of a Wave heater so use your TT's heater. You already have a second 12V battery... in your truck so buy a good 2/10/50 battery charger like this.. It's good to have a battery charger and jumper cables along anyway. While one battery will probably be enough, you do not want to pull it down more than 50%.
It's not going to be that cold so stop worrying about getting the most efficient way to heat.