Report on five days of boondocking - long - - Page 2

John_Canfield · 07-07-2006, 08:10 PM

Walt - oops

I bought the Lifelines a year ago and forgot the group size. They are a great battery and good luck with them!

Cliff Zimmerman · 07-08-2006, 03:43 PM

Hi John: We have gone eight days (seven nights) with a shower daily. That's of course a G.I. shower. We use liquid soap, wet down, soap down and rinse off. Mary will do a quick hair wash about every third day. She uses a pan for that and it works well. As you boondocks more you will find it easy just as you did on the boat. We rarely need the heat at night (that really uses the amps). We never unplug stuff but do use a battery-powered night-light. I always turn the inverter off when it's time to close my eyes. If we need coffee in the AM and quiet hours are in effect, I use the stove and the coffee press.
It would be grand to have more battery power along with cubic inches, but I've got what I've got so I must make do. My 300 watts of solar wasn't doing me any good in the past as neither the dealer or Camping World properly understood what they were doing. It's all wired properly now (I hope as the tech increased the wire size and went direct to the battery).
These things are set up for boon docking so enjoy it to the fullest. I know, "it's not for everyone".
We enjoy your updates, thanks....

lakewoodpaul · 07-08-2006, 04:49 PM

I dont know about you guys but whenever we dry camp its at a nat. forest or some other campgpound where we go for some peace and tranquilty.Parking in a place like that near a who guy runs his generator 7 hrs a day would ruin it for me and I think a lot others unless its in Febuary.On my 6th winnie since 74 so we are not newbies

jimandsue60 · 07-08-2006, 05:06 PM

John I was looking at your original post again. My thoughts are that 73 degrees on the thermostat is what is killing your battery (thats alot of heat to maintain). Have you thought of a catlyitic heater (to supplement your furnace). We are going to install one (olympic wave 8) in our rig but the prices here in Anchorage are 100 dollars more than the lower 48. We have had one in our 5th wheel and truck camper. They use 0.0 electricity. They have a proven track record for use in rv's. Any thoughts?

Jim

John_Canfield · 07-08-2006, 05:06 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by lakewood paul:
I dont know about you guys but whenever we dry camp its at a nat. forest or some other campgpound where we go for some peace and tranquilty.Parking in a place like that near a who guy runs his generator 7 hrs a day would ruin it for me and I think a lot others unless its in Febuary.On my 6th winnie since 74 so we are not newbies </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Paul - it looks like we are both in luck since we would much rather be plugged in and located in a nice resort-like setting. We use the Jeep to off-road and poke around really neat forested backwoods.

We don't consider ourselves campers; instead we have a nice condo that can move around the country.

--> Each to his own

AdrianLee · 07-08-2006, 05:20 PM

John,

AMEN - we too are not campers - we sldo have a condo we move around the country. That is the best I have ever seen it put.

I told friends that wanted to go camp in the desert that I did not have a camper - I had an RV - the diffeence being that I have a bread maker on board - they did not.

I was joking with them of course but in reality - this is my home - not a weekend camper to take out in the desert. It is not set up for that kind of use.

Being in a nice warm place is a nice thing. A friend wanted me to go meet him for a 2 week bare boat cruise in Tahiti this September but it just did not work out.

Maybe next year.

Have fun up there but hurry back down to the warm places.

lakewoodpaul · 07-08-2006, 05:27 PM

You are right John "to each his own" as long as your not screwing some thing up for others.By the way we also tow a jeep and do some off roading. And we spent 70 some days in Alaska and the Yukon last year and found hookups readily available unless we preferred to boondock for PEACE AND QUIET.

jimandsue60 · 07-08-2006, 06:58 PM

Another thought John, If you add an 8D battery you will have to isolate it from the other batteries because you cannot mix batteries. And if they are all hooked together the weak ones will bring down the good one. I am sure your charger system has multiple battery charging capabilities but how do you manage the batteries after charging?

Jim

Duner · 07-08-2006, 09:30 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jimandsue60:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Duner:
One more trick for water conservation...
I installed a 12 volt actuated valve in the hot water supply right under the bathroom sink. When flipped on it directs the water back into the fresh water tank. So when you want hot water for the sink or shower, turn the valve on for 30 seconds or so then back off. Hot water without "wasting" all the cold water in the line. In my rig the hot water tank is way in the front right & the bath/shower is rear left. ...just one more little project when you get time!
Bill </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bill do you have any pictures of that system you could post? Is there a return already installed under the sink?

Thanks
Jim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

For the return I tee'd into the fresh water fill line just inside the "City Fill" hose connector. On my Winnie, I only needed about 4 feet of plastic hose to make the run from under the sink to the fresh water fill. For the 12 volt valve, I used a lawn sprinkler valve. These are rated for 24vac but since I had one on hand, I've found that 12vdc works fine. You can get them at HomeDepot.com (don't buy the anti-siphon type). Toro Model 53380 3/4 In. In-Line Valve Male Thread ($13.97 on-line).

I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them here.

We've been using it for 2 yrs now & it works like a champ. We go to Glamis sand dunes a lot near Yuma Az where the water is really scarce; about 30 miles back to town or on holidays a water truck sells it for $1 a gallon! We've boondocked for up to 9 days and you've got to shower nightly to get the "dunes" out of hair, ears, and all the other nooks & cranies. We use the hot water bypass even when we're connected to city water in CG's because its so much quicker to get hot water. For the folks that have a hot water tank close to sink/shower they probably don't know how good they got it or what it's like to have wait a long time to get even luke warm water in the winter time.

More on the HOT WATER BYPASS to save water while boondocking:
OK, here's the pic's I took today. The 1st is the valve tee'd into the hot water under the bathroom sink. The valve is normally closed. When you switch +12v to the valve it opens & the pump sends water thru the valve to the freshwater tank. I located the switch near the vanity light switch where there was +12 and ground available. The 2nd picture is where I tee'd into the fresh water fill line just behind the access panel for the city water fill. The tee I added is the one to the left. The line I added has the 2 hose clamps (I didn't estimate the correct length I had to add about 3" more). The whole job is really very easy with the most challenging piece figuring out where to drill the hole to get from the inside of the rv to the outside. I my case, I have hot/cold lines running to the outside shower at the access panel coming from the bathroom sink, so I ran the bypass water line parallel to those existing lines.

Happy Trails,
Bill

John_Canfield · 07-09-2006, 07:04 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jimandsue60:
Another thought John, If you add an 8D battery you will have to isolate it from the other batteries because you cannot mix batteries. And if they are all hooked together the weak ones will bring down the good one. I am sure your charger system has multiple battery charging capabilities but how do you manage the batteries after charging?

Jim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>On our sailboat we had two 8Ds and a 4D gel connected to the house via two Guest or Perko battery switches (off-1-both-2 I think?) and I would manually manage battery charge and battery discharge. I do not like batteries hooked up in parallel for that very reason you point out. The more I think about it the more I think I would probably yank out the group 31s and just go with two 8Ds in parallel if we got serious about boondocking (and add three or four solar panels.)

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">You are right John "to each his own" as long as your not screwing some thing up for others.By the way we also tow a jeep and do some off roading. And we spent 70 some days in Alaska and the Yukon last year and found hookups readily available unless we preferred to boondock for PEACE AND QUIET. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>That is a very good point Paul and we have found in general that 99% of all RVers we have encountered have been very polite and considerate of others. That is a code we lived by when we were boating ("always leave a clean wake") and certainly one we embrace while in the coach. We were completely isolated during our boondocking adventure almost all of the time. The closest anybody ever got to us was literally a football field away so we could just let the genny hum away whenever it wanted. If we were next to another camper that would completely change the run scenario.

Apparently you had your space locked in for the July 4th week - we didn't and had to leave the campground we were in, that's what precipitated the boondocking.

I'm very glad you didn't have any problem finding a campground last year, unfortunately that is *NOT* our experience right now. We are finding that in July if you DON'T make advance reservations at campgrounds you will most likely be out of luck. In fact we are going through that issue right now - we MUST leave the Kenai Princess on the 11th because they are FULL so we are scrambling around trying to find someplace to hang out for a couple of days before we head back to Anchorage later in the week. It is sort of taking the edge off of having fun at the moment...

Party Barge · 07-09-2006, 08:16 AM

Hi John, I have been out fitting my horizon with solar and agm batteries. My original plan was to buy 8 6 volt batteries. Four for the tray and four for a tray I made that fits between the frame rails, just behind the slide. The tray sat on top of the lower rail and was held in place with U bolt clamps. It looked like a it will work fine for hold 4 life line 6 volt batteries.
While working with blue sky solar I was cautioned about the distance in wiring between the two battery banks and balancing the charge/discharge process. A reduced battery life was realy the issue. I decided to go with four 6 volt batteries in the rear try for now and see if 4 130 watt solar panels will keep up with the load. They are pumping out 29 amps in the full sun.
I will use your infor for comparison.

John_Canfield · 07-09-2006, 05:15 PM

Bob - are you going to parallel (well, series/parallel since you are using 6V batts) all of the house batteries? If you are going to have the house batteries as one huge bank with long wiring runs I suppose that the ones the farthest away from the charge source might have a 0.1 volt difference - hard to tell unless you do some measurements. You could probably reduce that difference by running the solar regulator output to the closest batteries and then a separate run to the distant bank. I really can't see that being a huge problem if you use the right gauge wire to the batteries.

29 amps is a bunch of free

energy (of course you must not think about the cost of the panels!) My old 50 watt panel I had on the boat was lucky to do 2.5 amps.

Duner · 07-09-2006, 07:39 PM

More on saving water using Hot Water Bypass....
If you go back 3 posts I've added a couple of pictures an instructions for how I did it

Bill

jimandsue60 · 07-09-2006, 08:59 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Duner:
More on saving water using Hot Water Bypass....
If you go back 3 posts I've added a couple of pictures an instructions for how I did it

Bill </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the info and pictures, I will be doing that mod in the near future.

Jim

Lynnvt · 07-10-2006, 02:55 AM

We don't own a Winnie but we do boondock for music festivals. Some water conservation hints. DON'T try to save too much water with flushing. This can cause the dreaded black pyramid. We do the GI shower thing, paper plates of course and I gather the water in the shower in a container while waiting for hot and use it for flushing. We have gone 5 days with 6 people however we use biodegradable soap in the shower and dump that gray water. We do have a small solar collector for recharging the batteries and that seems to work. No heat needed at the time of year that we boondock.

Party Barge · 07-10-2006, 08:49 AM

John, I'm thinking about the same thing. I going to run on the 4 batteries and see how they do before adding additional storage for now. I setting up the 6 volt in series of two for 12 volts for each set.

Scooter · 07-14-2006, 05:38 AM

For more batteries and amp hours you might consider utilizing a cargo space that is right next to your factory house batteries.

We did this on our W/I 27C. Also divided the cargo space, airtight, and had 4 6v batteries on a tray in one area and our Xantrex 2000w inverter/charger in the other.

We have a Link 1000 inside the coach to keep track of usage and charging parameters.

Now we have six 6v and usually run the generator one hour in the a.m. and one hour in the p.m. No solar yet.

We HAVE to run the 120V coffee maker in the a.m. and the micro for 5-10 min a day and the big TV a lot. We are medium energy hogs.