Battery Power Question - RV-Dreams Community Forum

skipwest · RV-Dreams Community Member

Battery Power Question

Workinrvers · RV-Dreams Family Member

with the genny you should be able to recharge the 5er battery in fairly short order so dont think you would want to (or need to) hook into the truck batteries. When we boondock I run our genny a little while in the evening while we enjoy some TV time or maybe watch a movie. I also run it in the morning for my coffee. Generator times can be extended depending on the amount of charge needed but for only 4 days you should be fine.
Hopefully some others will chime in with more experience than me as most of my boondocking has been limited to only a day or two.

Phil

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Skip and Peg,

We also have the EU3000IS and have had it for several years. When we would go to Colorado to our favorite National Forest campground, the generator would be locked into the bed of the truck using two cables with loops at each end. One cable each would be run to the tie-down brackets on each side of the truck bed.

We then had an 30 Amp extension cord and with the truck backed up close to the front of the fifth wheel, we would hook up for a few hours each day. If I was going to be wanting 110V (like for making my morning and evening coffee), I would run the genny for an hour or two both morning and evening.

The rest of the time we would operate off of the batteries. One other thing to mention with the Hondas. If you change altitude like we did (Oklahoma City up to between 9000' to 10,000') the carburator would run too rich in gas and after a few days, I would have to change the plugs because of fouling.

With that in mind, make sure you go with the proper tools to change that spark plug. When we had our first experience with that, we had to go to three different businesses in two different towns to get all the tools that we needed. Needless to say, those tools now reside permanently in our RV.

Terry

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

skipwest wrote:
So here's my question: Would it do me any good to leave my trailer hooked up to the pickup with its 2 batteries to extend usage time or should I just stay with using the battery power and recharging when needed from the generator?Wow! I'm stressing to the max on this thing and all for a 4 day stay at the "Q". What a dork! Thanks all...

An opinion: No, I never leave the truck connected to the 5er if we’re running off trailer batteries. If you drain the truck batteries you’re stuck. Even if you have a generator it could be an issue for several reasons. Always disconnect the tow vehicle when parked without power. (Actually I usually disconnect at night regardless just to be safe on a few other accounts but others may say this is overkill. I have my reasons.)

Assuming space, I would install a second battery regardless and it should match the capacity in amp hours of the one you have. (Technically if the one you have is over 6 months old you should replace both but I don’t want to make this too complicated.) A single battery of the size the factory supplies just isn't much capacity and it may be handy in the future. But, with a genny you should get by OK as others have commented.

My 2 cents - Have a great time

Bill

Bill Adams · RV-Dreams Family Member

One battery might be your only possible issue. The fridge is going to draw down that battery at all times (even on propane it still uses 12V for the "brain". You should take a look at the size and type (Lots of amps and deep cycle, hopefully). Is it 2 - 6V batteries creating 1 12V circuit or 1 single 12V? If only 1 battery, do you have room for a second? Is this going to likely be your only dry camping this year? If so, forget about all of this and just go have fun. Even if you have to run the generator longer than you think you should have to it will still be cheaper and easier and setting the 5er up for dry camping on a regular basis.

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

We used to be regulars at Qzite every year. Our 5th wheel has 2 sets of 2 batteries plus I have the 2 2000 watt Honda parallel kit generators.

One set of batteries are the house batteries, they power the 12v stuff.

The other set of batteries power the inverter to run 110v stuff like the TV, microwave, hair dryer, Sat dish receiver and laptops.

We could go about two days without fully depleting the batteries without any charging and being conservative in our use (only lights that are needed on, a few hours of TV)

While boondocking at Q I would run one of the generators in the morning (we're not early risers so about 10AM) until the batteries are all fully charged... about 3 hours. That would give us plenty of power until the next morning.

Like others have said you need at least another battery or plan on running the generator for breakfast prep, lunch prep, dinner prep and while watching TV.

I don't want to add to your worry but you need to be very careful at Q, generators are one of the most common thefts. The thieves are very good at defeating any locking device and they are very quick. One RV'er had his Honda 3000 secured with a heavy logging chain using a case hardened lock plus he had a one inch thick cable lock on it. He was watching TV and the power died. By the time he got out of his RV the thieves were gone out into the desert with his generator. The locks had been shattered. The sheriff said it looked liked they used a nitrogen spray to super freeze the locks and then hit them with a hammer to shatter the lock.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree with the above... if going off-grid for a few days at a time is going to be a seldom thing for you, don't worry about it. Go have fun. Run your generator as needed and/or buddy plug off your friends when they are running theirs. (When we camp with friends, we will do this to share the generator load - one gen runs, and re-charges the group - makes for a quieter experience.)

If you're thinking that boondocking will be a more frequent part of your experience - then worry about optimizing for it.

Enjoy!
- Cherie

skipwest · RV-Dreams Community Member

Wow-zer! What a great bunch of responses. I deeply appreciate all your suggestions and concerns. OK, I'll stop sweating and just try to enjoy myself. Must be my ADD kicking in (or not enough beers). Thanks again and I will try to be as helpful as you all have been where I can. Yep, that's me "Happy Camper".

ahoweth · RV-Dreams Family Member

You don't say how often or for how long you intend to boondock. If you are going to do it very often or for extended periods of time, it would be a good thing to add anther battery or 2. Even if you do not have the room in the 5er's battery compartment. You can add them externally. Connecting them with battery cables or 10 gauge wires. 10 gauge should be big enough for what you are doing. Of course you have to connect them in parallel with the original battery and remember that the more battery capacity you have the longer the generator must be run to recharge the set up. While not tripping to an intended boon dock destination you can leave the extra batteries at home and charge them via a trickle charger.

Just an idea.

Lonney Wade · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi, I'm new here and I was reading what you said, you can charge your batteries while you drive and pull your camper, because of the feet of cable you must run 2/0 cable or larger cable must be used from your engine battery to the back and tie into your RV it will charge very fast if you have a high amp alternator. I built a sliding draw that can carrier 500 pounds in the front of the 5th wheel to hold 6 AGM batteries, totalling 630 AH and a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter and for 2 years I have been building and testing a battery charger that can push up to 320 amps and charge 6 AGM batteries 50% down in charge 12.1 volts in about 1 to 1.5 hours to bring them back to 12.8 volts and burn under 1 gallon of diesel fuel, it will run on the diesel Transfer fuel tank in the back of the Chevy truck. Four years ago I built a electric VW bune buggy, 9 batteries, speed was 55mph and drove it on the road, was in Hot VWs magazine June 2009, that is how I learned about batteries and charging them, hope this makes sense and helps, Lonney.

-- Edited by Lonney Wade on Saturday 16th of March 2013 11:36:48 PM

-- Edited by Lonney Wade on Friday 12th of April 2013 09:31:49 PM