Boondocking with a compressor fridge

[DavidM]

With a non widened Sprinter based RV like the Winnie Era you are generally limited to two Group 31 coach batteries. These give 100 Ah usable if FLA or AGM batteries, 160 Ah if Fireflys and up to 200 if LPOs.

I am shooting to keep daily amp hour usage down to 75 or less so with two Fireflys I can go for two days with no charging. If I camp in a sunny spot (rare) then I may be able to go almost indefinitely if the sun shines. Otherwise I have to run the generator every other day while boondocking.

While only staying 2-3 nights at a time at a campsite I should be able to fully charge the batteries from the chassis alternator while travelling to the next campsite.

So compressor fridges definitely do make us pay attention to DC power usage and that makes it significant to me.

The other factor that enters into the equation is propane usage. Running the propane generator at half load which should be plenty to power an 80A converter, takes 0.4 gph of propane. So along with cooking and water heating I would probably have to fill the 9.5 gallon propane tank every 2-3 weeks. That is 2-3 times what I used when camping with a propane absorption fridge.

David