Using Camper without Power

[brholt]

We were traveling from Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean back down the Dempster we lost battery power in our AF1150. Shore power still worked but we did have to boondock at least once in Eagle Plains and of course traveling we had no power. So no water, slide wouldn’t operator, refrigerator wouldn’t operate, no fans, no heat, no lights on battery power.

We used ice in the refrigerator and freezer sections and bought bottled water for drinking and flushing the toilet. The refrigerator did great and the freezer didn’t do badly with the ice (when we had shore power we would run the refrigerator at maximum cool that night so everything would be very cold when we took off in the morning). Didn’t need heat Of course lights were not a problem as it never got dark. It would have been nice to have a fan but we had modified our frameless windows to open much more so we did get decent air.

Overall I was fairly pleased how usable the camper was in a pinch without power.

We finally found the loose connection the caused the loss of battery power and are fully powered up.

[brholt]

A few reply’s.

We have a built in generator and I didn’t believe it would work without 12 V power. I may have to take another look at that as it might be wired directly to the battery for starting. We never used the generator as with 385 Watts of solar and 24 hours of sunlight the batteries were never challenged.

I have a volt meter and some basic electrical equipment. The problem I had was the batteries indicated good but everything inside was dead. When I got to “civilization,” Dawson City I called Northwood for advice. They told me to check a small junction “box” and told me where to look but nothing was there. It turns out they had the right idea but the wrong location.

We had 12 V power in the Arctic Ocean at Tuk, We lost it as we headed down. The Tuk campground has a two little sheds with 15 amp plugs so the people camping right next to them can get a little power.

To go there you take the Dempster highway from near Dawson City Yukon to Inuvik NT. It is 458 miles of gravel road. Then you take the new all season gravel road to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic. That is another 86 miles. Then you do the whole thing again to get back.

I guess the main point of the post is that even though power was out and nothing worked from water to the full wall slide it was still useable.

[theoldwizard1]

Harbor Freight has an assortment of small flashlights, sometimes they are even FREE with a coupon ! Carry extra AA and AAA batteries.

The cutest ones I saw for kids recently looks like a very small Coleman lantern ?

[Grit_dog]

^You’re right. I was wrong in my terminology…..referring to anywhere along the Beaufort Sea coast as N Slope.

[valhalla360]

Grit dog wrote:
You drove to the North Slope with a camper and no generator?
Hell, I never saw “shore power” anywhere we ever camped in AK save for our driveway. But we didn’t actually camp there. Must be full featured campgrounds in the Northern NW Territories?
Sounds like an awesome trip! Never got to camp up on the Slope unless you count 9 months in man camps…

Tuk isn't on the north slope. It's in Canada a couple hundred miles to the east of the tail end of the brooks range.

Also, the OP was without 12v DC. Not many RVers...even the real roughing it types go without basic 12v. That means no fridge, water pump, etc... Certainly can be done but much more of a pain than being without 120v.

To the OP, do you have an electrical kit? We were caught out (in far less remote locations) a couple times. Now we have a kit with multimeter, wire crimpers, cutters. various pieces of wire and connectors and wire ties, so we can trouble shoot and make minor repairs.

PS: Some of the camp sites on the arctic ocean did have electricity and water. That's pretty full featured for the end of the earth.

[notsobigjoe]

Great story and great ending.

[Grit_dog]

Assuming he had a built in generator and opted not to use it? That would make no sense since that would be easy to figure out how to get started. I was referring to a portable generator.
Without a stout solar/batteries/inverter setup I couldn’t imagine traveling a couple thousand miles into nowhere land …. and back without at least a small genny to run the converter.

[SoonDockin]

Starting the generator might have been hard without power or super long jumper cables.

[Grit_dog]

You drove to the North Slope with a camper and no generator?
Hell, I never saw “shore power” anywhere we ever camped in AK save for our driveway. But we didn’t actually camp there. Must be full featured campgrounds in the Northern NW Territories?
Sounds like an awesome trip! Never got to camp up on the Slope unless you count 9 months in man camps…