Moving into my rig for 6-7 months for work.

Gonna try doing Uber eats, delivery in town using my electric bike, using the solar and yamaha genny in the camper
to charge her up.

It went well, temp dipped into the lower 20's, but the mr buddy heater kept the place toasty till I turned on the furnace and electric heater (on low). Ran the Yamaha 2000 genny on eco mode around 10-12 hours a day for three nights. Only burning about 4 gallons of gas. 3 gallon boat tank hookup worked great on genny as long as the genny was on the ground, and the tank slightly elevated two feet above ground. Still have propane left in 5 gallon tank.

chuckklr04 wrote:
Been back to the grind. Used the Tc to boondock several times in parking lot for 4 days working as a casualty role player, helping the National guard train. Going back again tomorrow for 4 days/nights with the wife. Both of us working. Staying the parking lot of a Youth correctional center. Second time there. LOL!

In some sense, that is a safe place to boondock. No juvis are going to be sticking around in the parking lot there.

Been back to the grind. Used the Tc to boondock several times in parking lot for 4 days working as a casualty role player, helping the National guard train. Going back again tomorrow for 4 days/nights with the wife. Both of us working. Staying the parking lot of a Youth correctional center. Second time there. LOL!

jefe 4x4 wrote:
So, Chuck, how did your 6 month show campout go? It's been since 2014 since you last posted.

It went alright, worked two seasons as a core extra, they wanted me back for a third, but I was burnt out on the drive every week.

So, Chuck, how did your 6 month show campout go? It's been since 2014 since you last posted.

Looks like I'm moving back in for a few months to gut houses in Baton Rouge area hit by the flooding/

As I stated before, I will be at work for long hours, with access to a shower. will only be using power for lights,furnace while sleeping. Maybe actually in the thing only 9 hours a day, 7 while sleeping.

Pretty up on battery,amps, solar usage. Already boondocked a 5 day work trip in it without solar, so I have a good how long the batt will last.

Been on here 10 years. No rookie!

chuckklr04 wrote:
I'll be working as an Core extra for the TV series Salem season 2. Hours will be long, 12-15 or even more 3-5 days a weeks. Figure I'll have just enough time to sleep during the work week.
They do have showers, bathrooms on set. so I plan on doing that there. should be no cooking needed during the work week. Meals are provided.

Gonna try real hard to avoid the campgrounds fees the during the first two weeks jan 15th-31. Then perhaps pay the 350 month for the nearest one.

So in a nutshell, unless the lot has 120VAC or you have a large enough portable generator, the AC won't be used.

Depending on outside/inside temperatures you main power usage will be:
- heat (furnace)/Cooling (Fantastic Fan)
- lighting (LED light fixtures help TONS here)
- TV/Radio/Entertainment (laptop, exc.)
- Water pump+on board electronics

Given the long work days I'll guess the "awake time" spent in the camper during the week will be rather short - 1-2hrs in the AM/PM to get ready for work and wind down from work - so unless you like to fall asleep with the fan/furnace and/or lights on your realistic daily heavy energy use will be limited to ~2-4hrs.

I've regularly camped for a week with ~100w solar (50% shade), 120AH of battery capacity and 2x20 propane bottles.

If your host truck is wired well enough to charge the battery it can be used in a pinch to help charge your battery, the smaller Yamaha/Honda 1000w inverter/generators work well for this to. (and cost much less than the 2000w units)

A small camper may only have 1 propane bottle which ought to keep the stove top and refridge going for a week or more.

It all comes down to managing the amount of daily power you use and then replacing it every day. (in attempts to keep the charge level above (ideally 75% to 50%). Then again, a 100-120AH deep cycle battery costs a whole whooping ~$75 (or less) at Costco.

Are you going to be around 120VAC during the week at the work site. It is very easy to plug your shore power cable into a standard 120VAC 20AMP Service.

This will run just about everything in the camper. You may have to select what is on at the same time in order not to exceed 20AMPS draw... i.e. can't run the air conditioner at same time you fire up the microwave etc...

You also can use your OTA BATWING type antenna to pick up BROADCAST TV from the local town...

If you are not going to have a 120VAC Shore Power receptacle available then with just a couple of batteries and small 2KW Honda type generator you can run alot of items off the batteries during the evening like your home entertainment setup, lights, and alot of other low wattage items using a small sized INVERTER and direct connected to the batteries.

The idea here is plan what you want to do and not run down your batteries more than 12.0VDC by the next morning. Then using a 2KW portable Generator your can run your trailer and if you have a smart mode controller/charger on board can recharge your batteries back up to their 90% charge state in a quick three hours generator run time. This will let you do all of this all over again for the next day/night off the batteries.

We camp this way all the time back off the trails around here with a 255AH battery bank... Two low cost 6VDC golf cart deep cycle batteries in series will give you a good 220-225AHs of battery capacity.

Having a larger battery bank goes hand in hand with solar panels. If you don't have anywhere to store the solar power then it won't work well for after dark. A typical 120WATT SOLAR Panel will only produce around 5-6 AMPS of DC Current.

Keep in mind you have to put back all you take out of our batteries over night. It takes 14.4VDC at 20AMPS capacity to re-charge a single 12VDC deep cycle batteries from a 50% charge state to a 90% charge state in a three hour period. Your panels will probably not have enough DC AMPS to do this in a 6 hour or so high sun day to get your batteries backup to their 90% charge state. You can gain back almost all of your battery capacity if you get them charged back up to their 90% charge state - otherwise the batteries will start going dead real quick when you start using them again.

The battery bank won't last long if you are thinking I will just re-charge them a hour or so each day before using them again. This will do harm to the batteries. To be successful you need to start the day/night run off the batteries with at least a 90% charge state. Even doing this you must also go for a 100% re-charge state on the batteries after some 12-14 cycles of 50% to 90% charge states. Not doing this will also harm your batteries. This will take around 12 hours of smart mode charging to get the batteries to a 100% charge state.

You just can't just show up and think things will work well for you when it comes to living off the batteries. Takes good planning to be successful... I personally don't think your solar panels will keep a 225AH battery bank re-charged if you drop your batteries down to their 50% charge state each day/night run. You may have to use a generator to get past the initial high current part of the re-charge cycle first then switch the over to the solar panels for the rest of the high sun day period. Bottom line is you have to start each day/night run off the batteries at a 90% charge state otherwise the batteries won't last long for you...

No sense living like a hermit in your TC camper if you don't have to... Then on the weekends you can find a place to dump your tanks etc... I'm guessing you may need to clean-up a couple of times at your work site...

Not an expert here just know what to expect when living off the batteries here from experience... Its not as easy as one would think it might be...

Roy Ken