Newby Dry Camping Questions

[Golferdude21]

Hi guys,
So my wife and I are going to start dry camping. We have a 2007 27’ toyhauler w onboard generator. Most places im seeing do not allow generators 24/7 or are very limited usage if not allowed at all. So planning on upgrading to LED lights inside to start with. And getting a new deep cycle battery cause ours is somewhat old...as far as the fridge goes are you guys that boobdock even using it??? Or are you keeping your meat eggs and such in a yeti/orca type cooler. We only plan on dry camping for a few days 3 at most right now. Dont plan to invest in any solar panels right now. I know well use lights and water pump...how much energy does water heater use. Ours is a pretty standard 6 gal unit, any input is appreciated. Do i need nultiple batteries or can i get away with one big one like a group 27? Or somethin. TIA

[bukhrn]

garym114 wrote:
Two 6v GC2 batteries would be best, common golf cart size.

True, IF you have the space for them, I didn't, so I replaced my two group 27's with 2 12v Trojan group 31's, even then I had to modify my battery box.

[Sillybugs2]

Our two 27 batteries with Honda gen running an hour and a half a day kept us powered for six days. We had to fill water but easy with five gallon jug. We do have led light.

[pianotuna]

My solar puts out 7 amps in leafy shade at solar noon. The latest panels are a whole bunch more efficient.

[pianotuna]

How about tucking a 300 watt inverter near to the battery bank and running some light cord to it? The Victron PSW is sometimes under 100 bucks on Amazon. it weighs in at 7 lb (nice big transformer so you won't be dealing with the vagaries of a switch power supply.

philh wrote:
If you want to run any 120V devices while dry camping and not using the generator, you'll need an inverter. Pure sine wave versions. I wish I had gone with 300 watt, however, my wiring was not up to the load that 300 watts would have put on it. Since I bought it, I've found at least two items I would love to run on the inverter and both are in the 180-200 watt range 😞

[Veebyes]

The bigger the battery bank the better. Also an inverter for phone battery, TV & other small AC demand needs.

Solar is expensive & only works well under the sun. Not much use to you if you spend most of you camping under the trees.

[covered_wagon]

I get one day if I need the furnace all night set on about 50 degrees. Thats as far as I want to draw them group 31's down. The calcs really don't work. A honda gen does.

[Gjac]

garym114 wrote:
Two 6v GC2 batteries would be best, common golf cart size.

This is the best option for what you want to do. Sam Club,Costco and Batteries Plus all sell 6 v Golf Cart batteries for less than $100 each, watch for sales. For lights, water pump and 12v controls for refer you will last a week on 2 6v GC batteries wired in series. You will run out of water before electric power especially if you are not familiar with dry camping. I have to look for ways to exercise my genset and almost never use it just to recharge batteries and I dry camp 95% of the time. Once you have dry camped a number of times and you find you need to recharge batteries I would look for a good 40 amp potable battery charger, that can equalize and desulfate your batteries also. I am not sure what kind of battery charger/converter you have now? How many amps will it put out to charge you batteries? Even if it is just a low amp constant charger you can still keep it to float charge you batteries.

[pianotuna]

golf cart batteries 50% for best practise and longest life.

If planning on inverter then get an inverter/charger and leave the wfco in place as a back up

[philh]

My understanding of GC2 batteries, they can take a 80% discharge cycle.

You must replace the WFCO battery charger. I went to bestconvertor.com and got the 4655 WildKat http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-4655L-MBA-WildKat-55-Amp-Main-Board-Assembly-for-WFCO-8955-or-Parallax-7155-Includes-4600-Remote-_p_677.html#.XSPvu_57nIV

If you want to run any 120V devices while dry camping and not using the generator, you'll need an inverter. Pure sine wave versions. I wish I had gone with 300 watt, however, my wiring was not up to the load that 300 watts would have put on it. Since I bought it, I've found at least two items I would love to run on the inverter and both are in the 180-200 watt range 😞

[Golferdude21]

Also CG2 batteries and Group 27s should only be discharged to 50% correct? Or can u discharge CG2 more to get more amp hours out of single charge? Someone above mentioned it briefly

[Golferdude21]

Thanks everyone for the responses its greatly appreciated. I was looking at getting 2 Group 27 batteries and running in parallel so at roughly 80amp hrs per battery paralleled doubles it to 160 but usable energy is 50% on the battery correct? So Id get 80 amp hours? From what I read my fridge takes about 20ah day...then ya got water pump,water heater,LED lights inside, furnace sometimes.. Figure with all that using avg about 40ah day?? So in theory without running generator at all id get 2 full days of everything because it be 80ah half of my dual 27 battery capacity of 160ah...im trying to calculate stuff With furnace on in colder weather and also for state run campsites that dont allow generator usage or are very vague, and up to management staff onsite if they allow or not which seems to be same policy in alot of WI state parks...so bare with me GC2 batteries would cost me another $60 or so to get instead of the group 27s...they would be Costco interstate batteries.Or i can get Duracell GC2 at Batteries plus which is easier to get for me. As far as an inverter or charger can someone clear that up for me too. An inverter i prolly dont have on my rig correct...its an add on device that takes my battery power and lets my outlets work inside on battery correct? As far as chargers for 12v group 27 or 6V GC batteries....do you guys keep the rig plugged in 24/7 to keep batteries charged....or does this fry ur battery. Should u connect a trickle charger on each of your batteries when parked instead?? Or buy a Noco Gen2 or similar? Thanks

[Grit_dog]

Golferdude, you have everything you need.
Run fridge and water heater on LP. You have a generator onboard. No reason not to use it. Even if you're dry camping in established sites with others around, if they have campers you'll hear generators.
Run the genny when you can or need to. It's that simple.
Only other mods I'd do, if we camped a lot, is upgrade to 6v batteries and a high quality charger/inverter.

[covered_wagon]

While I agree 100 % with pianotuna, his calculations are wonderfully correct. It is my experience however, having to replace two new batteries every 6-7 years, used conservatively over and over, there is not much more room for use of an inverter except for shaving so as to not look homeless. After 2 OR 3 days dry camping my batteries are very much ready for a recharge and wouldn't want to draw them down much more at that point.

I like my little Honda Generator, it's a real life saver when your batteries are down. I can barely hear it inside the rv.


I'm not certain about my next statement, that even tho amp hour calculations are widely accepted, it is my estimation that the closer a battery gets toward a 50% depletion the less accurate the formula becomes. As well, the older a battery becomes, even tho it may still test good on a load test, the formula also diminishes with age of the batteries.

In a sense, I guess one can say that as a battery ages, the hours turn into amp minutes merely as a way of expressing the strength of a 2-3 year old batteries,

Sorry for the long post.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

While inverters are around about 90% efficient, a group 29 battery only stores about 1200 watt-hours. Of that, only 50% should be used, if long life is expected. If the coffee maker draws 300 watts (mine does) and runs for 10 minutes, then around 60 watt-hours (or 10% of usable capacity) may be consumed.

covered wagon wrote:
go without a drip coffee maker avoiding the use of an inverter. I think inverters are not very efficient because usually you have a larger battery bank.