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Old 05-02-2019, 01:04 AM   #1
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How many hours do you go between generator starts when you are boondocking?

And the answer is: "That depends!"

There must be at least 4 different (maybe 8 different) battery configurations out there, but we still should be able to "level the playing field" and be able to answer this question.

For example, my 2004 Itasca "Horizon" 40-AD has 4-6V-GC2-Golf Cart (220AH each) batteries, because I removed the 3-12V house batteries that came with the coach. This means I have the total equivalent of 440AH of 12V battery storage. (Theoretical I suppose.)

I would also guess this configuration represents about 80-90% of all the RV on the road today. Therefore, what battery use numbers I get should match what you probably get. With a few assumptions of course. But even if I am off, the numbers have to be within 10-20%. Right? (Let's find out?L)

Answer: First I have to say that I have a 17 cu-ft residential refrigerator -- and I get about 22-23 hours of battery live before my battery State Of Charge (SOC) drops to about 40% or 11.9V. ...And then I need to start my 7500W generator for about 2-3 hours every day to recharge my battery bank. This means I'm burning 2-3 gallons of diesel fuel per day or about $7-$10/day when I'm boondocking, depending on the price of diesel at that time.

Note: I have a Dimensions 2000W Inverter/100W Charger, which is a 3 stage, not so smart, but not so dumb charger also.

But get this: On the second day, and on the subsequent days, the time between generator starts drops to about 20-21 hours; and even less after that; until I find I'm running my generator twice a day for 2-3 hours at a time to keep my battery bank above the 40% SOC mark.

And by the 4 day I have run my generator 4-5 hours/day.

I don't know what this phenomenon is called, but maybe there is some internal battery resistance or "bounce back" as I call it that takes place. That and I'm using more power per day than what my 4-6V batteries can store. Here's just a guest of what I am experiencing in regards to how much my batteries start the day with:

Day 1: 440AH
Day 2: 400AH
Day 3: 360AH

That's it. That's my answer, but your battery life in the field maybe more or less depending on your battery management/power use. So please give us your battery configuration, if you have a residential frig, or other aftermarket accessory we should know about.

* And if you are the type who stopped being nice to your batteries, and just run them down to under 11.4V, and prefer doing this than running your generator, please let us know that too.

Further, I'm guessing if you have AGMs you get 10% more useful time between charges, because you have more AH of storage, but maybe you don't???

Likewise if you have 6-6V... do you get 1.5 days of use between generator starts? Maybe more?

"How do you treat your batteries? How do they treat you back?"

I personally treat my 1 year old batteries very well, but even so I'm not sure that my newer bank of 4-6V-GC2 batteries from Sam's Club are going to make it 2 years. That said, between you and me, I sometimes think I should just beat the sh^t out them, and return them to Sam's under warranty each year. ...Okay, I won't do that, but I'm betting many of you feel my pain, and I know some follow this reasoning. Who can blame them given one person's comments to me the other day:

They don't make golf cart batteries like they use to. Either that or our residential refrigerators are putting a heavy burden on them?

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Old 05-02-2019, 08:05 AM   #2
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1. You need to implement an energy conservation plan to reduce consumption and consequent reduction in battery Doc. (Hint....batteries are like gas tanks.... low mpg = bigger and more frequent refills.)

2. You are significantly underestimating the charge to required to "refill" your "gas tank." Depending on charger (total charging amps available are meaningless because the chargers reduce current to protect batteries. Your 100A charger may be down to say 15A after a few minutes.) At 40% Doc, it may take 10-12 hours to get to 90% Doc. Maybe, 20 hours to get to a full charge.

3 Get your charger`s manual or do some Google to find a chart that will tell you how long it takes to fully charge those batteries. Obviously, the more energy you take out of the batteries...the longer it takes to fully charge them. (Think of a near empty 100 gallon gas tank with a restrictor fill neck that allows only 1/2 gallon per minute refill.)
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Old 05-02-2019, 11:56 AM   #3
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We have one 12v house battery, and go several days between generator runs before we need to charge. I don't think 80 - 90% of RVs out there have four 6v batteries either. We do not have a residential fridge, nor do we use a TV, and our use of lighting is also limited.

A battery bank at 40% can't possibly be fully charged in 2 - 3 hours with a 100A smart charger. You may get from the bulk to the absorption phase in that time, but the monitor will show 100% because of the surface charge, which will drop quite quickly.

True answer - - - It depends...

Peace,

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Old 05-02-2019, 04:28 PM   #4
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It takes much longer to recharge up to 100% SOC. The last 15% takes twice as long as the first 80%. That why you’re seeing battery recharge time increasing.

Three choices, use less power and run the gen longer, get solar to help augment the process or switch to LiPo batteries.

We too have a residential fridge. We left our campground with 100% SOC and drove 7 hours with the inverter on. It was running our fridge, our router, and MiFi devices. We have 300 watts of solar so when we arrived we were still at 100% SOC. Oh, and we ran the microwave at lunchtime off the inverter, too.

PS. Not running the generator long enough to reach 100% is shortening the life of your big heavy battery bank.
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Old 05-04-2019, 02:01 AM   #5
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Let's limit the feed back to 36-42' RVs with or without a residential refrigerator

Okay... This is a start.

Thank you for your feedback... But to keep this post "real" I/we need all responses to state the facts. Like:

1) What type of motor home do you drive?
2) How many batteries do you have and what type?
3) How many AH of battery storage do you have? (This very important.)
4) Do you have a residential refrigerator?
5) Are you an average power user? Below or above? (Explain?)
6) If you added 400W of solar power to your roof, how much longer are you now able to go between generator starts? (My conclusion is: "Not much."

Finer points: I recognize my residential refrigerator draws 1-3 Amps AC power, which is equivalent to ~20A of DC power for 10 hours/day (which equals 200AH from my 440AH battery bank... on average) is the biggest power drain. And if you don't want you batteries to drop below 40% SOC, that really means you on have 60% of 440AH or 264AH to work with daily. So it's no wonder I need to start my generator every day!

This bothers me. It's costly too.

So let's qualify this post a bit further. The feedback I am looking for is from other RV owners who are driving 36-42' rigs. Some will have residential refrigerator and some will not. I'm also assuming most of use are average consumers of power, but if you are not please indicate that in your response.

And I'm not adding for the microwave, because that's when I switch on the generator to "double-dip" as they say. You know: This means charging my house batteries while I cook something in the microwave.

To clarify: I think most 38-40' RV on the road have 4-6V-GC2-Golf Cart batteries, which means all these coach are working with ~440AH of battery storage or thereabouts.

And I would like to ask those of you, WHEN YOU ARE BOONDOCKING, with or without a residential refrigerator, this question: How long do you go between generator starts?
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Old 05-04-2019, 06:13 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by imnprsd View Post
Okay... This is a start.

Thank you for your feedback... But to keep this post "real" I/we need all responses to state the facts. Like:

1) What type of motor home do you drive?
2) How many batteries do you have and what type?
3) How many AH of battery storage do you have? (This very important.)
4) Do you have a residential refrigerator?
5) Are you an average power user? Below or above? (Explain?)
6) If you added 400W of solar power to your roof, how much longer are you now able to go between generator starts? (My conclusion is: "Not much."

Finer points: I recognize my residential refrigerator draws 1-3 Amps AC power, which is equivalent to ~20A of DC power for 10 hours/day (which equals 200AH from my 440AH battery bank... on average) is the biggest power drain. And if you don't want you batteries to drop below 40% SOC, that really means you on have 60% of 440AH or 264AH to work with daily. So it's no wonder I need to start my generator every day!

This bothers me. It's costly too.

So let's qualify this post a bit further. The feedback I am looking for is from other RV owners who are driving 36-42' rigs. Some will have residential refrigerator and some will not. I'm also assuming most of use are average consumers of power, but if you are not please indicate that in your response.

And I'm not adding for the microwave, because that's when I switch on the generator to "double-dip" as they say. You know: This means charging my house batteries while I cook something in the microwave.

To clarify: I think most 38-40' RV on the road have 4-6V-GC2-Golf Cart batteries, which means all these coach are working with ~440AH of battery storage or thereabouts.

And I would like to ask those of you, WHEN YOU ARE BOONDOCKING, with or without a residential refrigerator, this question: How long do you go between generator starts?
1st: It doesn't matter which RV you have or how many batteries you have. It takes many hours of generator time to fully charge your batteries. In your initial post you wrote that you have to run the generator longer each day. That is because the first day, I assume you are starting with batteries at 100% SOC. The second day since you are only running the generator for 2-4 hours, you are only getting your batteries to 90% to maybe 93% SOC. The 3rd day you are starting at lower SOC. Not until you either run your generator for 8 or so hours or get 400watts or more of solar and also run your generator for 2-3 hours in the morning will you get close to 100% SOC.
2nd: It sounds like you are attempting to use the battery voltage to determine the SOC of your batteries. The battery voltage is a guesstimate of the SOC at best. To even get a decent guesstimate of the SOC using voltage you need to let the batteries rest w/o a load(or no more than 2-4amp load) for 30 minutes or more to get a reasonably accurate voltage reading.
3rd: For anyone doing more than overnight or maybe 2 days w/o hooking up to shore power you MUST use a battery monitor such as a Trimetric/Victron/Magnum or others which show the number of AH (Amp Hours) going in or out of your battery bank. With a true battery monitor you will quickly realize that the first 15-30 minutes of charging you will see a high amount of current going into the batteries, followed by a significant decrease in the amps going in. After a couple of hours of generator run time you will see amps going in down to 10-15 amps or less and continuing to drop to 5amps, 4-3-2 as the hours go by.
4th: Taking your batteries down to 40% SOC (i.e. using 60% of your battery capacity every day) you really shorten your battery life. Don't expect more than 1 to 1.5 years of battery life by taking your batteries that far down. This short battery life is also taking into account that you are not getting the batteries back to 100% SOC of charge so the plates are sulfating.

To answer your question on how often do others run their generator when dry camping or boondocking.
For me, pretty much once a month for about an hour just to exercise the generator. I only run the generator to charge batteries if there are several days of very cloudy weather or if we are in partial shade and don't get enough sun to the solar panels.
We have 400AH of lithium, and 650 watts of solar. We have a gas/elect fridge. If we had a residential fridge I would add another 200AH of lithium and another 325 or so watts of solar to support the fridge. Or I would run the generator every day for an hour or so, which I would really not like to do.
Our daily AH consumption is around 100-200AH. We use the microwave for several minutes, a few times a day, quite a few hours of use for out 2 laptops, 3-5 hours of satellite TV (the satellite receiver is a power hog), sometimes we use the toaster. If we put 4 slices of toast in, the toaster pulls 180amps of battery for 3-4 minutes. My wife is handicapped and has a power scooter and a power wheelchair, both of which we recharge from battery & solar.
On our Alaska trip in 2016, from the time we left the lower 48 states until we got back, we went for 137 days w/o hooking to shore power. We only ran the generator for about 1.5 hours on 1 day to charge the batteries because we had 3 days of heavy cloud cover. With the motorhome we had at that time, the house batteries did not charge while driving.
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Old 05-08-2019, 06:13 PM   #7
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After using my RV for many years; and after doing some research on this subject after my original post; these are some interesting observations I can can share/add:

* 4-6V-GC2 Type Golf Cart batteries have ~440AH of 12V energy; and this is not enough to boondock for very long. Ergo you need a generator or AC power source for your Inverter-Charger to recharge your batteries...

* ...or you can get a "Battery Isolstor" or "VSR" as some call these devices that go between your engine battery Positive Post and your house battery Positive Post -- which will let your engine alternator charge your house batteries while you drive. (This is for all you owners who don't currently have this function or if your BIRD Relay has failed.) This is handy when you are traveling from point A to point B as you never need to run your generator to keep your residential refrigerator running; and you always end up with a full charge of house batteries when you arrive at your destination.

* When boondocking, your time between generator starts, and how long you run your generator (assuming 100W charger output) will vary a lot depending if you how you treat your battery storage. For example: Many start up the generator as soon as your battery voltage drops to 11.9V (or 40% SOC); where as other people let your inverter run your battery bank all the way down to 11.1V ... or even until the inverter will no longer function, which is never recommended.

* State of Charge (SOC) is this sort of nebulous term we use very inaccurately describe how much battery storage we have left. Why do I say that? Well, have you ever noticed that your battery voltage will drop faster from 100% down to 70% vs. the amount of time it takes (for the same battery drain) to drop from 70% down to 40%? ...There you go!

* Some people find they are replacing batteries every year while others claim they see an average of 3-5 years of useful life out of their 4-6V-GC2 batteries.

* My 4-GC2 batteries cost $520 at Sams Club, but $650 is the typical interstate battery cost. Just be sure to replace your battery cables between your batteries if you suspect they have built up internal resistance over 10 years. Get the fattest ones you can with pressed lugs! (9" on Amazon will do the job.)

* I don't know if having a pure-sine wave inverter has anything to do with your battery bank lasting longer, but I suspect the newer inverter-chargers have a smarter charger function which is better vs. my 2004 Quasi-sine inverter with a 3 stage charger.

* What I do know is this: If you have a residential refrigerator you will not be able to go a single day without turning on your generator so you can recharge your batteries. (440AH-12V System)

* Your batteries will get hot. And outgas if you don't have sealed AGM type batteries. So make sure you have your battery storage area well vented or plan on buying AGMs at $200-$300 each.

* Don't buy Marine Deep Cycle batteries for your 4 house battery storage. These will work, but if you read their AH rating it is only have of what you will get by going to a true deep cycle golf cart battery (GC2).
* Use 4-6V-GC2 type batteries vs. 3-12V-Golf Cart batteries. These will have approximately the same "footprint", but the 6V batteries will last longer.

* The more you use your system while boondocking, the longer it will take your batteries to recharge; and the faster it will appear your battery storage is being used up. However, this mostly a function of your gauges not reading accurately since the only why to accurately take a battery voltage reading is to let it sit (unused) over night. And no one is willing to wait that long.

* Each of your battery cells is 2V. Don't believe me? ...Just count the number of caps (hole) on top of your battery and multiply by 2. For example: Your 6V battery has 3 caps; and your 12V battery has 6 caps.

* Solar power is cute technology, but not a very good Return On Investment (ROI). It makes us all feel "greener" I suppose, but it's not very cost effective. I have 4-100W solar panels on my roof and this realistically only adds 18A at that battery input... for about 6 hours/day. This is equivalent to about 100AH of battery storage... but that's only when it's sunny outside!!!

Therefore, my 4-100W of solar saves me ~1 hour of generator run time (on sunny days). So if you like camping in the trees, I guess your solar sales person will have a hard time convincing you to "go green" and buy a solar system for your RV.

Personally, I like to camp in the sun. So the way I look at my solar system is like this: For every 1 hour I don't run my generator, that's 1 hour of less noise... and 1 gallon of diesel fuel I did not burn! ...And I suppose that's about 30 hours/year. Or about 30 gallons of diesel fuel I did not have to buy. ($120 savings at $4/gallon). So it will take me ~10 years to break even, since I installed my solar system myself, which not a great ROI, but it's still pretty cool technology. And every little bit helps... especially since I don't have room for 2 more 6V golf cart batteries in my storage bin, never mind the increase in weight!

How often to your start-up your generator when boondocking?

END.
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Old 05-09-2019, 01:02 PM   #8
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I have a 2004 Itaska Horizon 40wd it has 3-12 volt batteries and the same charger and inverter that you have, I have No clue how long they will last, when we boondock we run the 7500 Onan quiet diesel, I run it for twelve hours and never see the needle on the fuel tank move, At night while sleeping it runs about 2 amps, under normal load it runs 6 amps and when the a/c turns on it runs 23 amps.
Wait we did boondock for seven days and I think the fuel needle dropped 1/4 tank so that would be 25 gallons, we were cold running the electric heaters I think it was using about 15 amps. Ten dollars a day in fuel, we acted like we were plugged in.
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Old 05-09-2019, 01:18 PM   #9
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I have a 2004 Itaska Horizon 40wd it has 3-12 volt batteries and the same charger and inverter that you have, I have No clue how long they will last, when we boondock we run the 7500 Onan quiet diesel, I run it for twelve hours and never see the needle on the fuel tank move, At night while sleeping it runs about 2 amps, under normal load it runs 6 amps and when the a/c turns on it runs 23 amps.
Wait we did boondock for seven days and I think the fuel needle dropped 1/4 tank so that would be 25 gallons, we were cold running the electric heaters I think it was using about 15 amps. Ten dollars a day in fuel, we acted like we were plugged in.
I really, really, really hope you are parked next to another RV which runs their generator like you do. I also really hope you don't pull up and park next to a family in a tent, popup camping trailer, or another RV'er who DOES NOT run their generator and prefers the piece and quiet of the outdoors.

To do otherwise is being a very inconsiderate camper.

Additionally if you are truly in the boondocks, where many or most of the folks DO NOT run their generators, you park at least 400 yards away from your neighbor so they don't have to listen to your generator running all the time.

Now if another RV'er pulls up and parks 20 yards away from you, then that is on them. They should move if they don't want to listen to your generator.
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Old 05-09-2019, 01:48 PM   #10
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To clarify. My boondocking is primarily at truck stops
And the generator is very quiet , on the occasion people park next to me I Always offer to turn it off if it’s loud, on the contrary I have had no complaints although they do ask if they can plug in and I say sure go right ahead.
Obviously you assume everyone else is inconsiderate.
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Old 05-09-2019, 05:04 PM   #11
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To clarify. My boondocking is primarily at truck stops
And the generator is very quiet , on the occasion people park next to me I Always offer to turn it off if it’s loud, on the contrary I have had no complaints although they do ask if they can plug in and I say sure go right ahead.
Obviously you assume everyone else is inconsiderate.
I totally agree that "you believe" your generator is very quiet. And as long as you park in places with quite a bit of noise and/or other generators are running, I would agree your generator is very quiet.

We have a Onan generator in our Winnebago Journey that I also believe is very quiet. We have also used a Honda 2000watt generator when we had a 5th wheel, that is also very quiet. However anyone with normal hearing can hear our Onan at 150-200 yards and the Honda at 100 yards in a very quiet environment.

However when I and many others are in a National Forest campground where no one else is running their generator, or boondocking where we are 1/4 to 1/2 mile from another boondocker and a person pulls up and parks 200 yards from us, I can hear your generator. Try it some time. Go out in the desert and park in a very quiet area. Walk 100-200 yards away (and not up wind). You will be able to HEAR your generator.

I don't doubt you have had someone ask if they can plug in. However I don't know of any RV'er who is set up to dry camp and boondock for many days or weeks at a time would EVER ask to "plug in". There is absolutely NO NEED to plug in to your rig. We are totally self contained and am set up to have all the electricity I would need without needing to plug in to electricity.

These are the people I am referring to. Those of us who seek out the quiet NF campgrounds and boondock areas and have no need for elect hookups or running a generator.

Bottom line: If some one can HEAR your generator in an otherwise quiet boondocking area or a remote campground you are annoying your neighbor. Doubly or triply if the generator is run for hours on end.

I only hope that you don't park in these areas and run your generator.

An additional comment. If/when we find ourselves in an place that we need to run our air conditioner, then we know we are in the wrong place. We need to move higher elevation for cooler weather or move to a RV Park or campground with elect hookups.
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Old 05-09-2019, 08:35 PM   #12
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Well...I am one of those people you would love to hate Boondock means generator except where it is prohibited. Everyone does what works, I try to be considerate but sometimes you gotta have a big dog. I do. Like parked in a boondock site last year, about four rigs running generators, my neighbor behind me came up and complained my diesel genny smelled bad. I just smiled and said, well now, my diesel will not kill you but your gas genny is killing us all - don't like it - move on. Some people! I'm happy you can dry camp with no generator use. Some of us have constraints, mine is a stupid 12 volt refrigerator and limited roof space and free weight capacity for more stuff like batteries. The generator is there to use as needed, use it or loose it. If you don't want one, pull it out and save the weight. The rest of the world is not so pristine. I wish it were, wish I had a 3 way fridge, wish I had $5k for lithium solution, wish on a star but we wanted to go small again, we did so look out for that noisy 18V24D - the guy is nuts, he runs his generator in a boondock site! OH, while dancing I almost forgot, I don't want any more stupid solar panels that only work when parked in the sun, cost too much, have very nebulous ROI, and it rains a lot everywhere we go for some reason, maybe the generator causes rain too? Well, to be honest if I had a 40ft rig I would load up that roof and have a fancy controller and be kinda like you, grinning most of the time and not running the generator. BTW, the advantage of using the little Honda 2000 or whatever portable is just that, you can put it out behind the rig and try to position it away from others to help with noise. I don't bother taking mine most of the time, the little diesel is just as quiet but we do hear it inside the RV much more - the real benefit of the portable then is still quiet for the owner.
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Old 05-10-2019, 12:41 AM   #13
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In a post several back, Al got much of my opinions spot on. To answer the questions:

1) What type of motor home do you drive?
We have both a MH and a 5th. Have used the 5th for summer long off grid camping, 1050w of solar, no inverter. MH has not done much boondocking yet and does not have solar, yet an dno inverter.


2) How many batteries do you have and what type?
the 5th has four 6 v GC batteries, 460 AHr, MH has two 6 v GC totalling 230 AHr, all lead acid


3) How many AH of battery storage do you have? (This very important.)
as stated above


4) Do you have a residential refrigerator?
No for both rigs


5) Are you an average power user? Below or above? (Explain?)
Don't know what's average. Seldom use the TV, all LED lights an din boone docking mode run what ever we can on propane. Tend to stay where we don't need the AC, and the Fantistic/Maxxair fans handle most of the needs. The furnace fan is the largest 12 v power user on both rigs.


6) If you added 400W of solar power to your roof, how much longer are you now able to go between generator starts? (My conclusion is: "Not much."
On the 5th I turned off the breakers that feed the converts (115 amp) over a year ago, so 100% of our 12v power is from the solar. I designed a custom solar system using panels that work well with scattered/indirect light. On most days our batteries on the 5th are 100% by 10am, even under clouds. Don't start on the direct solar light pitch- there are production panels that are double sided! They work with indirect/reflected light. Just that the most common panels used on RVs are not well suited for RV use- IMO. Is solar cost effective, very rarely, but nor is RVing with all of the toys we take along. So what. I found many if not most RV solar systems are designed and/or installed badly. No wonder people don't like them. Even in Alaska with low sun angles and cloudy skies my flat mounted panels work well while parked under shade. Don't try telling me it can't work, I designed a system that does work in those conditions. But I used commercial grade panels not RV stuff.

To prompt good battery life you never want to run lead acid batteries down below about 50% of capacity. Lithium are very different as are others.

Get a quality battery monitor if you are going to be off grid much.

Learn to be energy conservative unless you like a lots of geny noise and fumes. I know some people love that smell and that's great for them. I don't.

Before I installed the solar system, my geny with 115 am converters could never get over about 97-98% recharge, even after many hours of run time. So as pointed out above each day out your batteries are likely starting from a lower charge point. Without the battery monitor you don't really know! I have probably never run the batteries down below 79% on the 5th, normally like 88-90% most nights.

Last summer while in Canada/Alaska for four months we ran the geny for 20.1 hours total. Almost all of that to run the microwave for a few minutes at a time and then shut it down. Only on the first and last two nights of the trip did we run the geny for the AC. So at most we might start it two - three times per day for perhaps 5 minutes per run. Some days not at all. If I had an inverter I'd probably would not need the geny at all on the 5th.

I have ability to transport waste and fresh water from/to a boondock site so we stay stay out as along as we want without moving the rig.

We use the MH differently.
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Old 05-10-2019, 05:41 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by Kayak73 View Post
Well...I am one of those people you would love to hate Boondock means generator except where it is prohibited. Everyone does what works, I try to be considerate but sometimes you gotta have a big dog. I do. Like parked in a boondock site last year, about four rigs running generators, my neighbor behind me came up and complained my diesel genny smelled bad. I just smiled and said, well now, my diesel will not kill you but your gas genny is killing us all - don't like it - move on. Some people! I'm happy you can dry camp with no generator use. Some of us have constraints, mine is a stupid 12 volt refrigerator and limited roof space and free weight capacity for more stuff like batteries. The generator is there to use as needed, use it or loose it. If you don't want one, pull it out and save the weight. The rest of the world is not so pristine. I wish it were, wish I had a 3 way fridge, wish I had $5k for lithium solution, wish on a star but we wanted to go small again, we did so look out for that noisy 18V24D - the guy is nuts, he runs his generator in a boondock site! OH, while dancing I almost forgot, I don't want any more stupid solar panels that only work when parked in the sun, cost too much, have very nebulous ROI, and it rains a lot everywhere we go for some reason, maybe the generator causes rain too? Well, to be honest if I had a 40ft rig I would load up that roof and have a fancy controller and be kinda like you, grinning most of the time and not running the generator. BTW, the advantage of using the little Honda 2000 or whatever portable is just that, you can put it out behind the rig and try to position it away from others to help with noise. I don't bother taking mine most of the time, the little diesel is just as quiet but we do hear it inside the RV much more - the real benefit of the portable then is still quiet for the owner.
I have no real problem with someone boondocking with a group of other RV's and all or most of them running their generators, as long as all of them are or were aware that was the group agreement.

I do have a problem it this group of RV's shows up and parks 50 yards away from a group of RV's who are not running generators. That is being inconsiderate. It would be very nice if this group of generator folks were to check with the group, or single RV, already there and get a feel for what the existing group life style is. Again this is just being considerate of others.

I do understand that sometimes there isn't lots of space to get away from others. I also understand that sometimes there are a group of RV'ers who show up for a weekend. Don't necessary like it, but it happens. We call them the "weekend crazies". But hey, they are generally folks who work during the week and the weekend is the only time they can get away.

We spend quite a bit of time in National Forest/State Parks/BLM areas, etc. It is so NICE when the "weekend crazies" leave on Sunday and we get our peaceful campground back until Thursday or Friday afternoon. You just deal with the commotion.
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Old 05-10-2019, 05:42 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kayak73 View Post
Well...I am one of those people you would love to hate Boondock means generator except where it is prohibited. Everyone does what works, I try to be considerate but sometimes you gotta have a big dog. I do. Like parked in a boondock site last year, about four rigs running generators, my neighbor behind me came up and complained my diesel genny smelled bad. I just smiled and said, well now, my diesel will not kill you but your gas genny is killing us all - don't like it - move on. Some people! .............
What was the problem with the gas genny??
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Old 05-10-2019, 06:20 PM   #16
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Solar, batteries and boondocking

I really liked this comment "* Solar power is cute technology, but not a very good Return On Investment (ROI)." I Have designed hundreds of solar sites for multiple state agencies over the years. Some of that was when solar panels were many times higher in cost than is now the case. However, much of the same article and many other articles are spot on.


At current state of the art use Lithium with 200W panels to match if you are a serious fulltime boondocker. Most serious cruising sailors are going to Lithium and many with electric stoves, giving up propane, because it is less dangerous than propane. Be that said, Lithium, solar and full time off grid use is viable and more than cute. The future is here now but all that comes at a cost.



So, if you are a part time boondocker for maybe a month a year then I would say stay with golf cart batteries like Trojan T-105 or better. If you have a several hundred $$$ and are willing to drill holes in the top of your RV then add 400 W of solar panels with a good MPPT solar charger.


If you are a really serious boondocker and an old salt then add Lithium with 6-8 200W panels at a cost of $10K. Here is a link that puts things into perspective: .


This was a great article with lots of positive, constructive comments. Thanks for everything. Charlie.
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Old 05-10-2019, 10:20 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by al1florida View Post
What was the problem with the gas genny??

Nothing, just my way of saying while diesel smells from the genny, the fumes from the gasoline generator are dumping much more carbon monoxide into the air. It can be a problem if folks get careless with the fumes and you are in a place with little wind or that traps the exhaust. At the same time there is a lot of research that says diesel fumes are harmful as well which all leads to the reason we all really want to dry camp with little or no generator run time if possible. I'm headed that way, getting my Trimetric installed to do some more testing. If I change out my controller and some wire runs I can probably get at least another 200 watts on the roof for 400, maybe more. It is pretty limited up there but I have seen 12 amps coming down from the two panels installed, occasionally a bit more and usually a lot less depending on conditions. The quest is for 150+ AH back to the battery each day, not unreasonable on a good bright day. At least it could help limit the generator run time. It will be a lot easier to know exactly what is going on with the Trimetric installed.
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Old 05-13-2019, 11:00 AM   #18
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I can only speak to my own experience. We occasionally stay in casino lots, store lots, and rest areas. Sometimes a day or two, sometimes a week. Most recently a Freightliner parking lot for a week. Most folks like us, run their generators for a couple hours in the morning and night. Usually all go off during quiet hours.

I started out with two Costco GC2 6v batteries in 2011, added two more a year later in 2012. Yes, I know the weaker two would draw down the newer ones a bit, but did it anyway. In any case, those batteries lasted until 2017, very happy with their performance right up until they really died. Got 4 new GC2 6v batteries from Costco, I think the cost was $85 each, in the spring of 2017. They are working great.

Two hours does seem to charge them well enough to run the TV, my wife's CPAP, and other 12v equipment through the night drawing down to about 12v. But that surface charge does come down quickly. Three hours does a much better job, but unless I am using extra equipment longer, (like a/c on a hot day) I usually only run the two hours at a time.

With our occasional 'boondocking', say 7-10 times a year, I just can't justify the cost of a sufficient solar setup. I would like it, think its cool, just not able to make the numbers work for our style of living in our RV.
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:58 AM   #19
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The Future Is Lithium Ion (but not today for most of us)

Below is a chart that explains why we need to "baby" our Lead Acid and AGM type batteries.

The better solution will be to go to Li-Ion, but it's very costly. So until then we either budget $500 for 4 GC2-6V golf cart batteries every 1-2 years or we can run our generator more often... at 30%-40% SOC.

A Common Misunderstanding Associated with Amp Hours

Consider a 100 Amp Hour battery. This battery will provide 5 amps of current for twenty hours while maintaining a voltage above 10.5 volts.

A common mistake is made when it is assumed that the 100 AH battery will also provide 100 amps for 1 Hour. It won’t. In fact, a battery of this type may only provide about 40 minutes of continuous 100 amp service at best.

This is due to a well known characteristic associated with lead acid batteries. Specifically the capacity will decrease as the rate of discharge increases.

In other words the relationship between battery capacity (how much energy is available) and the rate of discharge is not a linear one.

The phenomenon being described here is known as Peukert’s law.

For more information you can visit this website:
Amp Hour Tutorial - Explaining The Specification | All About Lead Acid Batteries
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Old 05-14-2019, 06:00 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by imnprsd View Post
Below is a chart that explains why we need to "baby" our Lead Acid and AGM type batteries.

The better solution will be to go to Li-Ion, but it's very costly. So until then we either budget $500 for 4 GC2-6V golf cart batteries every 1-2 years or we can run our generator more often... at 30%-40% SOC.

A Common Misunderstanding Associated with Amp Hours

Consider a 100 Amp Hour battery. This battery will provide 5 amps of current for twenty hours while maintaining a voltage above 10.5 volts.

A common mistake is made when it is assumed that the 100 AH battery will also provide 100 amps for 1 Hour. It won’t. In fact, a battery of this type may only provide about 40 minutes of continuous 100 amp service at best.

This is due to a well known characteristic associated with lead acid batteries. Specifically the capacity will decrease as the rate of discharge increases.

In other words the relationship between battery capacity (how much energy is available) and the rate of discharge is not a linear one.

The phenomenon being described here is known as Peukert’s law.

For more information you can visit this website:
Amp Hour Tutorial - Explaining The Specification | All About Lead Acid Batteries
I agree with your statement about how hard you can use your battery. That is if you put a 100amp load on a 100AH deep cycle battery it won't supply 100amps for 1 hour, but more likely only 40 minutes.
BTW most mfg of lead acid batteries recommend you only load your battery to about 25% of the AH. That is if you have a 100AH battery youshould only put a max load of 25amps on it.
To be clear this is for deep cycle batteries. If you have a so called "Marine" battery which is a cross between deep cycle and a starting battery, then you can take higher amps for a short period.
If you have a regular car/truck starting battery that is roughly the same size as a 100AH deep cycle battery you can take 200-300 amps for a short period of time. The key here is "short period of time". Something like a max of 30 seconds and then let it rest before trying to start the engine again.

I would like to note that by the chart you provide, taking batteries to 30-40% SOC you are reducing the life of the batteries from about 1200 discharge/charge cycles to about 250-300 cycles or a reduction 4-5 times battery life.

In fairness you do state you schedule your battery replacement every 2 years or so, which does match the 250-300 cycle life of the batteries.
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