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Old 03-17-2014, 07:34 PM   #1
jlonginav
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Battery Life Dry Camping

Hello, I have a Pasport Elite 31RE. I have two Interstate 24RD batteries (1 year old). While dry camping I make sure I fully charge the system via a Honda 1000 before shutting down for the night. Only things on are Refrig, Water heater (on gas) and furnace. Each night temps went into the forties. Furnace was set for 65 so ran a fair amount. Two of Three mornings I had no battery power left. Can the furnace draw down the batteries that much?

Thanks ahead for your thoughts
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Old 03-17-2014, 07:54 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by jlonginav View Post
Hello, I have a Pasport Elite 31RE. I have two Interstate 24RD batteries (1 year old). While dry camping I make sure I fully charge the system via a Honda 1000 before shutting down for the night. Only things on are Refrig, Water heater (on gas) and furnace. Each night temps went into the forties. Furnace was set for 65 so ran a fair amount. Two of Three mornings I had no battery power left. Can the furnace draw down the batteries that much?

Thanks ahead for your thoughts
I would suggest you do a search on say "battery" there are a few threads out there on various topics related to Batteries. You said Furnace ran quite a bit, that is a DC motor driving that blower and my guess is that would be your biggest drain. Not sure what ever you had on??

Hope this search will give you access to more information and thing to consider. I have not done any dry camping yet except fooling around in the driveway (no Furnace)
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Old 03-17-2014, 09:51 PM   #3
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When you are not plugged into shore power, there are a number of drains on your battery while you are dry camping:
1) the furnace motor/fan will be the biggest draw. The longer it runs, the more drain on the battery
2) the fridge draws a small amount of current even though it is operating on propane
3) in the evening, if you have your lights on - which I assume you do, they will draw on your battery - especially if you have incandescent lights. Each light you have on will draw approximately 2 amps.
4) every time you use the water pump (taps, shower, toilet flushing)
5) the "parasitic drains" such as stereo lights and propane gas detectors

You can see that your batteries are being drained more than you think they are.

If you do a fair amount of dry camping, I would:
1) switch out all my incandescent lights for LED's. There is a sticky on LED lights on the forum to help you with this topic (see Modifications and Upgrades)
2) turn the thermostat down as far as you can without being uncomfortable and perhaps look at adding another blanket when going to bed.
3) when it is time to replace your batteries, consider switching to 2-6volts. They will give you more amp hours than the Group 24 12volt batteries you have now.
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Old 03-18-2014, 02:10 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jlonginav View Post
Hello, I have a Pasport Elite 31RE. I have two Interstate 24RD batteries (1 year old). While dry camping I make sure I fully charge the system via a Honda 1000 before shutting down for the night. Only things on are Refrig, Water heater (on gas) and furnace. Each night temps went into the forties. Furnace was set for 65 so ran a fair amount. Two of Three mornings I had no battery power left. Can the furnace draw down the batteries that much?

Thanks ahead for your thoughts
In addition to what has already been said (which is good stuff BTW)... How long are you running the generator in the evenings to charge? How are you determining that you're getting "fully charged"?
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Old 03-18-2014, 02:44 AM   #5
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Personally for dry camping this would be my minimum required equipment.

Led lights is first. The most important spec is Lumens. You need to be 300 or better to have equivalent light output to incandesent. These are what I and many others have used. M4led warm white (soft yellowish) or M4led cool white (bright daylight).

A quality battery monitor like the Trimetric 2025 RV with shunt.

Start with these two and find out how much you need the next two.

A pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries in series from Sam's Club or Costco.

A converter upgrade that will actually charge the batteries.

-Jeff
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Old 03-18-2014, 07:00 AM   #6
Outbackmel
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Funace draw

I recently had a converter go bad. Could not get a replacement for 10 days as we were in a very small town and no stores within 100 miles had a replacement converter in stock. I was told by an RV Repairman to go and buy a cheap battery tender and use it until I could get a converter replacement.

NOW, I realize this thread is about dry camping and no electric: BUT, my unit acted just as if there were no electricity and the battery had dropped to an insufficient level to power anything except the refer and VERY dim interior light.
The WORST part was that without solid 12 volt power, the furnace blower would run, BUT, the propane heater would not ignite. A couple of times ( before buying the battery tender) I had to go out and plug into the truck and run it at 3am and 5am and 7am just to not freeze.

I am not a dry camper, however, those giving advice as having a fully charged 12volt as back up and using a set up of 2 . 6 volt golf cart batteries in parallel makes sense.

We plan to do more event stuff and will be doing something to strengthen the process on our new rv, either solar or generator.
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Old 03-18-2014, 10:41 AM   #7
Ram189
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90 - 95% of my camping is done dry camping.

I would never run the furnace with just battery power. I would suggest if you need to have the heat running use the generator and "store as much heat as you can then turn everything off at night. I know this cannot always be done but add a blanket or two.
The furnace will kill a battery in a few hours for sure.

I have run the fridge and a few lights here and there for 4 - 5 days at a time on dual batteries with no generator or recharge at all.
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Old 03-18-2014, 11:30 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jlonginav View Post
Hello, I have a Pasport Elite 31RE. I have two Interstate 24RD batteries (1 year old). While dry camping I make sure I fully charge the system via a Honda 1000 before shutting down for the night. Only things on are Refrig, Water heater (on gas) and furnace. Each night temps went into the forties. Furnace was set for 65 so ran a fair amount. Two of Three mornings I had no battery power left. Can the furnace draw down the batteries that much?

Thanks ahead for your thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ram189 View Post
90 - 95% of my camping is done dry camping.

I would never run the furnace with just battery power. I would suggest if you need to have the heat running use the generator and "store as much heat as you can then turn everything off at night. I know this cannot always be done but add a blanket or two.
The furnace will kill a battery in a few hours for sure.

I have run the fridge and a few lights here and there for 4 - 5 days at a time on dual batteries with no generator or recharge at all.
Trying to reason through this, if have a generator why not just run it?
camp site rules?
Have done zero dry camping todate but i am sure one day I will. With two 12v batteries, a 5500 onan generator with 30-60 gallons gas and some power management on my part think power would not be a concern.

Think my issues would be liquid management. Easy for me to say have not done it
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Old 03-18-2014, 02:03 PM   #9
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Appreciate all the input

To everyone that has posted here. THANKS. This is of tremendous help and I have some very good advice to try out.
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Old 03-18-2014, 03:21 PM   #10
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Trying to reason through this, if have a generator why not just run it?
camp site rules?
Have done zero dry camping todate but i am sure one day I will. :
PARAPTOR:
If someone were to leave their generator running all night so that they could run the furnace and they were camped next to or near me, they would soon hear me knocking on their door!

Even folks with onboard Onan generators need to be aware that they too give off noise and; while they may not be as loud as external, portable generators, they should be shut down whenever the campground rules tell you or at a reasonable hour in the early evening.

Just because someone has a generator that doesn't give him/her license to run it whenever he pleases. Almost all campgrounds have laid out specific times when generators are allowed. Outside of those hours, they are supposed to be shut down. They may have to go without their microwave or furnace during those periods. If people can't get by without some of these conveniences and absolutely must have their generator running, don't camp near anyone - move somewhere else where they have no nearby neighbors (Medical reasons excluded).

It's all about respect for your camping neighbors - they have rights too.
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