will a group 24 and a 50watt panel be enough for 2 week trip

[Mote]

We are taking a two week to Yellowstone this summer taking the truck camper. Our camper has a group 24 wet cell battery and a 50 watt solar panel. I replaced the original solar controller with a sunsaver duo this winter as the old controller was bad.
Daily energy use would be the fridge on propane, interior lights (all are LED), water pump and water heater as we’ll shower each day in the camper. No TV thou.
Our plans are to leave the camper on the truck as we drive from place to place during the day so the truck will recharge the battery somewhat.
Will the current battery and solar panel be enough? I measured by battery compartment. I do not have room for two batteries but I could fit one group 31 or 29. How large of a battery would the 50 watt panel recharge on a typical sunny day in June?
Thanks for the help

[tonymull]

I haven't been there but from what I understand most or all of the NPS campgrounds in Yellowstone have showers. That should be a savings for you. I assume that by boondocking you mean those campgrounds. There is no just pulling off and camping in National Parks, not allowed. From what you describe as your kind of camping, adding a battery and going to 200w of solar would make you very independent.

[bobndot]

That's a vg point if the nights are cool and you need to run the heat , that's experience for ya .:W
If you are driving everyday you should be ok but I would pump it up to a larger battery just because it makes better sense.
If you choose to do so, you have a few options to carry a second battery on your rig , in the wheel well or a Tork-lift hidden battery box under the truck.
( if you have to for an hour, run the genny , at least you have that option, loud or not ) The Lance 8 ga wire with driving day to day works well for me .
The fridge will draw about .50-.75 amps while running on gas. Not much you can do about it.

My gas detectors use about 1 to 1.5 amps , I pulled the fuse and use portable detectors in place of it.

My tv and radio has a .50 amp draw while sitting there doing nothing because they are hot wired into the system to run the clock and memory.
I installed a toggle switch to kill any and all power going to them.

The only draw I have is my fridge while running on gas .
I used to have solar and now I don't. I do not miss it because I don't have the need for it with my camping style. I do have a genny in case I run into bad weather but hardly ever have the need to use it . I run two DEKA grp 31 AGM batts.

[Mote]

ticki2 wrote:
Will you be boondocking for the whole 2 weeks , or will you be plugged into shore power some of the time ?

Two weeks of boondocking is the plan.

Four days to get there (stopping at sights along the way), seven days there and then four days to get back.

So we will be driving somewhere every day.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

If planning to beef up the charging path I'd go with #4 wire. It will have much lower voltage drop than #8 and be more effective for charging the "house" battery.

[ticki2]

Will you be boondocking for the whole 2 weeks , or will you be plugged into shore power some of the time ?

[Mote]

bka0721 wrote:
The quick answer will be no, on the solar.

But like n7bsn wrote, the moving around will keep your batteries charged up. After 42 years of working, visiting, backpacking, living in Yellowstone I never get tired of that place. If you (and anyone else) send me a PM with an email I will send you my Tip List on places to vist, eat and go in and around Yellowstone.

Here is the issue why a 50w Solar Panel and Grp 24 battery will not service your needs, well. The nights in Yellowstone are cold, almost all summer. Especially June and September, but the days are wonderful. Except for a short rainy period in August, July and August are warm and sunny. For the Rocky Mountains, brief afternoon thundershowers are common, after a period of clouds forming. For this, there is no way you would get long periods of sun harvesting all day, as an earlier poster suggested. Then, when coupled with consistent Trees/shade/shadows in campgrounds, picnic areas and road side pullouts, you will not harvest as much PVsolar sun as you would somewhere like Craters of the Moon National Monument(a must see IMHO).

So, prepare for the worse and hope for the best. Solar is a wonderful solution for extended trips and vacation, but 50 watts will be mostly maintenance for your battery bank. The best thing is you have a small battery bank to charge, which in turn limits you in how many amps (furnace/refrigerator/lights/water pump/accessories) you are able to use. The best thing would be to get a better battery/quantity of batteries and rely on the distances you drive (alternator) around to see the sights to keep your batteries up to 90% and let your solar top them off.

Have a wonderful trip and report back about your adventures!

b

PM sent for more info on Yellowstone

[_DJ_1]

I think you will be OK. Are you camping with hookups?

I just added a 2nd battery to mine. No room inside like you so I put it ahead of the fender well on the driver's side and wired it into a charging terminal I previously installed.



Just a thought if you wanted to add more capacity. But replacing your present battery with a 31 should give you 130 AH.

[bka0721]

The quick answer will be no, on the solar.

But like n7bsn wrote, the moving around will keep your batteries charged up. After 42 years of working, visiting, backpacking, living in Yellowstone I never get tired of that place. If you (and anyone else) send me a PM with an email I will send you my Tip List on places to vist, eat and go in and around Yellowstone.

Here is the issue why a 50w Solar Panel and Grp 24 battery will not service your needs, well. The nights in Yellowstone are cold, almost all summer. Especially June and September, but the days are wonderful. Except for a short rainy period in August, July and August are warm and sunny. For the Rocky Mountains, brief afternoon thundershowers are common, after a period of clouds forming. For this, there is no way you would get long periods of sun harvesting all day, as an earlier poster suggested. Then, when coupled with consistent Trees/shade/shadows in campgrounds, picnic areas and road side pullouts, you will not harvest as much PVsolar sun as you would somewhere like Craters of the Moon National Monument(a must see IMHO).

So, prepare for the worse and hope for the best. Solar is a wonderful solution for extended trips and vacation, but 50 watts will be mostly maintenance for your battery bank. The best thing is you have a small battery bank to charge, which in turn limits you in how many amps (furnace/refrigerator/lights/water pump/accessories) you are able to use. The best thing would be to get a better battery/quantity of batteries and rely on the distances you drive (alternator) around to see the sights to keep your batteries up to 90% and let your solar top them off.

Have a wonderful trip and report back about your adventures!

b

[kohldad]

I don't see where you will have a problem. I don't have solar and have a group 27 battery. Now my fridge doesn't pull any power when on LP so that is a plus. Before I had a battery monitor, I was really concerned and tried to conserve as much as possible. Then I installed a Trimetric from Best Converter and no worries for two reasons. First is I know where the battery stands and second is I've discovered without being conservative, I still usually only use 15-20 A/hr each day. Most of this is furnace consumption when we camp in temps below freezing. When we don't use the furnace, we usually on pull about 5-8 A/hr each day.

Biggest power drain for you would be the frig, but without knowing the model can't determine how much it draws. But remember, the draw is only a concern after the sun quits charging the battery until you crank up in the morning.

[RoyB]

I think you will not be happy with you got. When we camp out for a couple of weeks with even re-charge to 90% every morning gets abit questionable after a few days. Of course we are just sitting still at the camp site doing this.

Will watch my battery DC Voltage like a hawk and when it gets discharged down to around 12.0VDC tells me I am approaching 50% charge state and its time to shut down or re-charge...

Being old school I will not do anything with my truck start battery system as that is the only way I get home on...

Only having one 12VDC battery for the camper would not work for me. I use too much juice when we camp off the power grid.

I am also a PLAN B nut... I can say I have never been stranded anywhere yet since 2009.

Roy Ken

[Photomike]

To give you a 100% accurate answer we would need a lot more information and honestly it would never be 100% accurate as there are way to many variables.

A group 24 is small for any camper, if it is getting old I would say it would be the weak spot and I would put in a 27 or better. With a new(er) 27 or better and the fact that you would need minimal lights and heat and the fact that you could also use the truck battery for extras like charging batteries when driving and the fact that you will be doing some driving - I would not hesitate doing it myself. Just take an extension cord along and if you get someplace that has a plug in take advantage of it to top off the battery in case you hit a cloudy time.

I have gone a week on my group 27 parked in the summer but I have no draw on for fridge or hot water tank. If I drive a little each day I am always topped up and that is without the solar that you have.

On edit (as you added the post above): Do the battery upgrade and hit the road. The generator will be your emergency fall back should you need to heat or have a cloudy period.

[Mote]

some more info.
The camper does have a built in generator but I would prefer to not have to use it since it's pretty annoying.
We are not planning on using the furnace since we're going in late June. We'll bundle up at night.
The fridge we will run on propane.
I haven't hooked up the charging circuit to the truck yet. I planned on using 8awg wire and a battery isolator.

I've thinking of upgrading the group 24 battery to a group 29 or 31. I think the price difference is minimal between the two.

I could ad an extra 100-120 watt panel for not much money if I need to.

[2oldman]

You'll be fine.

[n7bsn]

Actually your battery will be at like 90% given just a bit of driving around (the engine charges at a fast rate). With the solar on top of that you should be OK

If you are there in warmer weather and not needing to run the furnace, then things get more dicy

[Dakota98]

A single group 24 will be around 75-80 AH. If you only let the battery get to approx 50% SOC, that gives you approx. 40 amps of usage in a 24 hour period. A 50 watt panel will only deliver on a good day about 3-amps. You'll need more panels or a generator to maintain the battery SOC above 50%, as it will be under load most of the time.