Furnace drained batteries?

[Bhfromme]

Okay maiden voyage last weekend in our 2018 2108DS. Second night we woke up to dead batteries? Yes we were running furnace but still. We have two new Group 24 batteries. We could dry camp in our R-pod for two nights in the winter no problem. And that was on one battery not two!

I did not run the generator during the day but I did get batteries back up close to 100% (all four lights on panel) with my 90 watt solar panel. Then 3am Sunday we wake up to dead batteries. Not good.

Took it to dealer and they tested everything and are saying everything is fine. How can that be. I'm sure you guys dry camp in weather needing the furnace. How do your batteries perform?

[Robwid]

I’m working on the same issue with my new-to-me 2014 Winn View. With my old rPod we could go 5 nights of dry camping with plenty of battery capacity remaining from 2 - 6 volt deep cell batteries. My view had two 12 volt batteries that wouldn’t last the night with little use. I’ve replaced these original batteries with the same set up I had in our Pod. After one test night the batteries were significantly drained in 24 hours with very little use. I’ve learned that my electric propane valve draws a consistent 2 amps an hour so I’m working on a solution for that. If you come up with any ideas please post them!

[Bhfromme]

So it seems the R-pods we both had used battery power more efficiently than our Winnies. Could there really be such a significant difference though? From what I've learned in my very limited experience is that all camper/RVs are very similar in design so it strikes me as odd that my 22' Micro Minnie uses so much more power than my old 20' R-pod. I saved the following from the R-pod forum:

3. Some typical current draws on my trailer*
Furnace (Fan) 2.8 amps*
Refrigerator on DC 11.00 amps*
Fridge cooling fan .32 amps ea x 2*
Refrigerator on LP .10 amps + fans*
TV .80 amps*
TV/DVD*****1.20 amps*
Water Pump 5.7 amps*
3 Speed Bathroom Exhaust Fan******
1= 1.00 amps*
2= 1.30 amps*
3= 1.75 amps*
LED Light, Porch .15 amps*
LED Light, single .28 amps*
LED Light, double .55 amps*
Propane Alarm .07 amps*
Slide out 4-6 amps*

Could the furnace on the Winnie be pulling much more than the 2.8 amps the R-pod furnaces use? Seems hard to believe. If anyone has the ability to measure amp draw on the Micro Minnie appliances I'd be very interested to see if there is a major difference between the two.

Rob,
You mention an electric propane valve. Please post more info on it when you can.

Bill

[Robwid]

Sorry, but I don’t have much more to add. I’m still researching the electric propane valve. There is a guy on yahoo Skinnie Winnie’s selling a resister/capacitor that reduces the amp draw on the valve. There are also people who remove the solenoid from the valve and use magnets to hold the valve open. I’ve only been out one night since replacing the batteries. I barely used the furnace, water pump and lights so it’s looking like the culpret is the propane valve. Hopefully, someone can give us more advice.

[luvlabs]

You have to charge your batteries daily if you expect to have any usable battery capacity. If you run your batteries much below 12V you have already began to shorten their life. So, either go solar or, if you have a generator, run it for 2 hours in the AM and 2 hours just before you turn in.

The propane valve is used on motorhomes which have their tank mounted between the frame rails and the valves are not accessible from one of the side compartments. I don't believe any trailers use this valve. If you have a Navion/View you most definitely have one. The device you are referring to is a resister, a capacitor, a switch and an LED. It reduces the current draw from about 1 amp to 0.1 amp and propane flow appears to be adequate for the water heater, furnace, the stove but if you start it generator, it will close. You can make them yourself and get the plans from the Yahoo Skinny Winnie group.

[Robwid]

Thanks for the advice. I really hate using the generator. The campground we frequent is very quiet and I hate being ‘that guy’.

[Cooperhawk]

Originally Posted by Robwid

Thanks for the advice. I really hate using the generator. The campground we frequent is very quiet and I hate being ‘that guy’.

OK, I am 'That Guy". Here's what I do. I run the genset morning and evening to charge up and when I do, I invite my neighbors without gensets to plug in and charge up their batteries as well. Everyone wins and we get invited to sit around lots of camp fires being the nice folks in the CG.

Some of them even take advantage and watch a little TV while the juice is forth coming.

Win, Win.

[Robwid]

I was planning to make an offering of beer to other campers but beer and a charge is even better!

[vanmark]

The problems with the above posts is the batteries are not being charged enough. You cannot go by panel lights or digital voltage meters to tell when the batteries are charged. They will give a false reading when the generator is charging. Panel lights are not known to be accurate. Digital meters will only give a correct reading of the charge of the batteries, when the generator has been off and the batteries have been at rest for about one hour. You need to run the generator about two hours in the morning and about three hours of an evening. Even at this run time the batteries will only be about 80 % charged. It takes several hours of generator run time to reach full charge. About every five days the batteries will need to be fully charged, because the batteries will slowly reduce the amount of charge that you will have. My experience comes from seven years of living on a sailboat and being off the grid for months at a time and several years on a motor home. With using the above information, you will have no problems lasting the night with good batteries.

[BrokerDon]

Originally Posted by Robwid

I’m working on the same issue with my new-to-me 2014 Winn View. With my old rPod we could go 5 nights of dry camping with plenty of battery capacity remaining from 2 - 6 volt deep cell batteries. My view had two 12 volt batteries that wouldn’t last the night with little use. I’ve replaced these original batteries with the same set up I had in our Pod. After one test night the batteries were significantly drained in 24 hours with very little use. I’ve learned that my electric propane valve draws a consistent 2 amps an hour so I’m working on a solution for that. If you come up with any ideas please post them!

We just installed a Propane Solenoid Power Reductions Circuit in our 2011 View 24K. Made right here in the USA by a father & son team. Easy installation and inexpensive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM5AUb5IOZc

If you're going to boondock your View, I also recommend you:

1. replace your View's original NAPA 12V "deep cycle" batteries with legitimate deep cycle significantly higher capacity 6V "golf cart" batteries like the 232Ah Energizer GC2 Premium batteries we installed in our View.

2. replace every halogen bulb inside your coach with LEDs. We bought all ours off eBay 4 years ago and only one has died. LEDs use a fraction of the power the halogens do AND also don't act like "heat lamps" when it's warm outside.

3. add 300+W solar. My wife and I added a 327W SunPower solar panel, a 40A MPPT solar charge controller, two 12V DC circuit breakers on either side of the charge controller, and wires to connect these $600 parts. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...ums/1856159274

Since we completed the above 3 steps, our "coach battery anxiety" days ended. Proof is our generator only has 26 hours on it, mostly from running it periodically to get fresh fuel into it or run the AC (dry desert southwest & mountains eliminate need for AC). Instead of running the AC we just run our dual Fan-Tastic 7350 thermostatically controlled vent fans which sucks the hot air out the top and cool air from our shade side windows when we're inside. When we're away and it's hot & sunny outside, we run one fan on Intake and the other on Exhaust which keeps our coach interior about the same temperature as the outside ambient air, making cooling our RV when we return much easier than a closed "oven".

[LarryW]

“I really hate using the generator.”

Then don’t! I rarely need my generator. Go solar. No noise, no fuel, no oil changes.

[Sue46]

I need some enlightenment. I never heard of an electric propane valve before and why it would draw power constantly. Propane is either on or off. What benefit is an electric valve?

[luvlabs]

The propane valve is kind of a dead man's switch for the propane tank. It requires power to keep it open. In a no power mode, it slams shut.

In a Navion/View you have limited battery capacity so every amp counts when boondocking. The normal propane solenoid draws over 1 amp @ 12V. The valve will stay open at a lower voltage, however. The device referred to above can be easily made from the proper resistor and capacitor pair and a switch.

[BrokerDon]

Originally Posted by LarryW

“I really hate using the generator.”

Then don’t! I rarely need my generator. Go solar. No noise, no fuel, no oil changes.

Exactly! Our 2011 Winnebago View 24K only has 26 hours on our generator because we:

1. minimized our 12V power draws by replacing ALL our coach halogen bulbs with LEDs, replacing our 120V AC Jensen 26" SDTV with a 12V DC Jensen 32" HDTV, bought 12V DC converters for all our electronics including our USB-C MacBook Pro & MacSafe 2 MacBook Air laptops,

2. increased our coach "battery bank" by replacing the low capacity NAPA batteries with larger capacity 232Ah Energizer GC2 Premium (EGC2) batteries from Sam's Club

3. adding 327W SunPower solar panel & 40A Renogy MPPT charge controller which recharges our coach batteries daily even in overcast skies and shorter winter days

4. installed an Amp-L-Start to keep our chassis battery fully charged via our Progressive Dynamics 4-stage 55A converter (when on shore power) or our 327W solar panel (when boondocking)

5. replaced our vent fans with thermostatically controlled Fan-Tastic 7350 fans which automatically keep our coach at ambient temperature when it's parked and locked up.

6. made Reflectix insulators for every window including one for the outside of our windshield to keep the solar heat gain down

7. upgraded our awning to an wind sensing automatically retracting Carefree Eclipse... and added a matching Carefree manual shade on the large window on our slide out

8. cook with our View's nice gas range or grill on our small propane grill. Grilling outside keeps the heat, smell and moisture out of our coach

The ONLY time we run our generator is when we're boondocking and have to run our AC or use our microwave... Rarely for us in our moderate dry Mediterranean southwest climate.