How many amp-hours?

maria_bettina wrote:

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
Just to keep it simple. Over the years with two of us and all our toys, laptops running till midnight and furnace till morning. We currently have 210 AH of AGM and 240 watts solar which gets me by for half of the needs I have. To do it right, we need a minimum of 300 AH AGM and 400 watts solar, I also connected 4AWG wire via a constant duty solenoid for no voltage drop, from the alternator to the TC batteries. I also have an AGM vehicle battery so all batteries have similar load, charge characteristics. We do not have a generator. The solar and truck engine alternator handle the charging nicely.

That sounds similar to where we are headed. The factory unfortunately ran a 12AWG wire (maybe it was 10AWG) from the alternator to the TC battery :\ It seems to be the minimum gauge used for the truck battery we have and from what I read online. We won't rerun the wire now though, so we got what we got.

We ran the swamp cooler over the weekend in the TC; nope, it makes it way too humid and it feels warmer than it actually is. Ugh. Back to the drawing board on how to cool down the TC. (We camp in places where they don't allow generators or only allow them at certain times, and never overnight; so even if we brought a gennie we wouldn't be able to use it overnight, to plug in an air conditioner for example, which is really what we'd need it for - to cool or heat the TC while sleeping.)

What electric stuff do you run in your TC (for comparison's sake)?

So we have right now:
--Electric fridge (about 1-1.5Ah or about 30-35Ah per day we think)
--Lights
--Fantastic Fan
--Misc chargeable items (phone, camera, etc)

I am also curious what other gadgets we can buy to make camping nicer (like a DC-powered coffee maker or stuff like that). It would be great if there were a low-power-consumption electric heater :) As it is, we use a Little Buddy heater (LP) to take the bite off the cold, turn off the heater, and then try to go to sleep really fast. :Z

We have two fantastic fans which do a great job of moving air in the TC on windless days/nights. We swapped all lighting for LED bulbs. 600 watt pure sine inverter for laptops and 120 volt appliances like coffee grinder, chargers, Box fan for outdoor bug and campfire smoke control, also to take the edge off on hot days. We do rely on propane a lot for cooking, water heating, fridge, furnace at 60 degrees for night.
I watched the video of the couple in the popup TC. They are in agreement with me, their 160 watts solar isn't enough. One thing I consider my best modification is the 4 gauge wire off the alternator to the TC batteries for charging. The existing 12 gauge wire will never fully charge due to line loss from length and size of the wire. For a long term situation, alternator charging is a must have. I would recommend a minimum of three biggest batteries like group 31 or 27 you can fit and deep cycle. 3 - 12_volt parallel or 4 - 6_Volt series parallel, whichever you can best fit. I would also have 20 percent more watts solar than amp hours battery the reason being cloudy days and winter summer seasons. You will need more solar in winter with tilting of panels if feasible.
There are lots of things you can do to extend your limited resources of power, water, waste. Instant coffee, baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, towel baths, Flannel sheets in winter are wonderful. Keep an eye on gray and black tank levels. You can dump sink water on ground if dispersed camping or into black tank if it has more room.
Use your imagination to figure out ways of doing things that make your experience better. It adds to the fun and adventure.