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Old 05-03-2020, 03:31 PM   #1
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Micro-Minnie 2020 2108FBS Boondocking

We are newbie with travel trailer and need some help or education on power management.

Most of our camping is with no electricity, usually 15 days at a time. The trailer is coming with one 24 volts battery, should we had a second one in parallel?

Since our camping is in the wild with little sun access usually, solar panel is not necessarily the best option for us.

Is it realistic to survive 2 weeks on two 24 Volts batteries if we don’t use the AC? Is a generator absolutely necessary or maybe a 3rd battery in the truck? In wort case will buy a small generator if we most.

Ideally is someone could share is analysis of energy consumption per elements while boondocking this would be greatly appreciated.

We have been trying to research on battery management and the more we read the more it gets confusing.

Hopefully some on this site can help us and my apologies if this was discuss on previous posts.
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Old 05-03-2020, 04:03 PM   #2
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It would be extremely unlikely that the RV you said you are buying has a 24v battery. As in never.

What makes you think it’s a 24v battery? Might you mean it is a Group 24 sized 12v battery?

As for two group 24 12v batteries lasting two weeks that depends on you and your usage. Only you know what you plan to do with the batteries. The most amp hours you can get in a group 24 is approximately 70 to 80. So, two would have about 150 amp hours of storage available.

Most people strive to make their batteries last a long time by not using up more than 50% of a battery bank’s total amp hours before recharging. So you may have about 70 amp hours of power available for two weeks. That means unless you have a generator, solar panels or some other way of recharging your batteries during the two weeks, you could only use about 5-amp hours per day. That’s a tiny amount and really wouldn’t be enough to do much with.

In general, most folks Boondocking for 2-weeks would probably carry a small generator that would be used daily to replenish the power used by the batteries.
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Old 05-03-2020, 04:29 PM   #3
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Battery usage for boondocking

Amen. You will more than likely use up your 50ah in 2 or 3 days without severe power usage management. Therefore, as mentioned, you need to plan some method of replenishing those batteries either with a generator or solar panel or both if you plan for more than 3 or 4 days of boondocking. That is what I've learned so far. Lots to learn about power management and fresh/waste water management. So study hard. If you have the option to camp locally in your yard or driveway, I would suggest to do a trial run and see how long you can go. Hope that helps.
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Old 05-03-2020, 04:50 PM   #4
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Correction it is mark 24 VDC on my contract and after doing some reading it stand for 12 V Dual Purpose Marine battery, like I said I am newbie at all this.
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Old 05-04-2020, 08:10 AM   #5
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There's a fair amount of drain on the batteries whenever the batteries are connected. Things like the CO detector and probably even the "entertainment system." Even the refrigerator when running on propane requires some electricity. You might just try a trial run of leaving the trailer sitting with battery connected both with and without the refrigerator on and see what the battery charge is after two weeks. I suspect you'll be disappointed.

I'd probably look into a small propane operated inverter generator and also maybe research faster ways of charging batteries so that you can run it as little as possible. I have a 3000 watt generator I use for home emergency use and it will run on a standard tank of propane for about 24 hours with loads far greater than what you're going to be using. A small 1,000 watt generator would be even more efficient and give you enough power to charge the batteries and run the refrigerator on electric (I think).
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Old 05-04-2020, 09:04 AM   #6
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Here are some numbers while dry camping with our 16' Livin Lite trailer:

If we use a cooler and don't run the absorption fridge we use about 10 amp hours each day.

If we run the fridge it jumps to 15 Ahs due to the fridge controls and gas solenoid valve draw.

We rarely run fans and almost never run the furnace. The furnace draws about 5 amps to power the fan and if you are in very cold outside temps it will quickly run your battery down.

It has a Group 24 battery (maybe the source of your 24V confusion) which has about 70 Ahs of capacity. You should not run down a lead acid battery more than 50% for best performance. So it has about 35 Ahs of usable capacity.

So without the fridge we are good for 3 days, with it two days. So you will never be able to dry camp for 15 days without more batteries and some source of charging.

Batteries. The best bang for your buck is two 6V golf cart batteries wired in series. That gives you 220 Ahs of capacity or 110 Ahs usable. That will let you camp for 7 days without recharging. Mount them in place of your existing battery, presumable on the front A frame. Use a couple of aluminum 2" angles to make a platform to support a battery box that holds two GC batteries. Wire it in place of the existing battery.

Since you camp in shade (and so do we) solar is not your best charging source but even in dappled sunlight you can get some good with solar panels. I would add two 100 watt panels and tie them in through a solar charge controller to the upgraded batteries. That just might give you enough power to replace 15 Ahs daily. But maybe not.

Then I would buy a small inverter based portable generator. The Honda 1000 will work as your shore power converter, typically the PD 9245 draws 600-700 watts and since it will be the only AC load the Honda 1000 should power it fine. You only have to run it for an hour or two every 4-5 days to keep up even with no solar input.

So upgrade the batteries, install a couple of hundred watts of solar and get a small inverter generator. You could just skip the solar and see how running the generator every few days works.

David
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Old 05-04-2020, 10:41 AM   #7
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There's a fair amount of drain on the batteries whenever the batteries are connected. Things like the CO detector and probably even the "entertainment system." Even the refrigerator when running on propane requires some electricity. You might just try a trial run of leaving the trailer sitting with battery connected both with and without the refrigerator on and see what the battery charge is after two weeks. I suspect you'll be disappointed.
I should add to check daily to make sure you don't run the batteries down too far.
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Old 05-04-2020, 04:54 PM   #8
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I have a group 27 battery and it will be drawn down to nearly 50% in under 2wks from phantom loads alone. It’s crazy how much phantom load these trailers have going on.

My plan for this year is to install a battery monitor to start to track all this load.

Back to your question though. Going two weeks without a charge really doesn’t seem feasible.

Oh, I have a 2108BHS
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Old 05-05-2020, 05:50 AM   #9
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Thank you all for you answers. The dealer will be upgrading to 2 6V battery plus we will get a small Honda generator 2200i.

The batteries spec they are installing is:
*6 Volts GC2 battery
*383 Reserve Capacity (RC)@25 Amps
*210 Amp Hours (AH)@20 Hr

Can someone confirm if the battery monitor that come with the 2108 micro-minnie will be sufficient to monitor my 2 6V batteries or do we need to also upgrade this?
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Old 05-05-2020, 07:00 AM   #10
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You will be much happier if you also upgrade to a shunt battery monitor instead of the voltage monitor. The shunt monitor will show you state of charge in percentages rather than voltage which is difficult to interpret and subject to inaccurate reading due to surface charge and or loads.
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Old 05-05-2020, 07:40 AM   #11
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You will be much happier if you also upgrade to a shunt battery monitor instead of the voltage monitor. The shunt monitor will show you state of charge in percentages rather than voltage which is difficult to interpret and subject to inaccurate reading due to surface charge and or loads.
Any recommendation on which model I should buy and where?
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Old 05-05-2020, 07:47 AM   #12
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You will be much happier if you also upgrade to a shunt battery monitor instead of the voltage monitor. The shunt monitor will show you state of charge in percentages rather than voltage which is difficult to interpret and subject to inaccurate reading due to surface charge and or loads.

Voltage only battery monitors don't directly measure state of charge (SOC), they only measure voltage which is very indirectly related to SOC and will vary depending on the current being pulled from the battery at the time.

I have used several shunt BOMs, here are a few ranging from $20 to $200:

Drok- Very crude but it works. At about $20 on Amazon it can't be beat.

Renogy- Full featured but i haven't used one. About $100 on Amazon

Victron- One of the best. About $200.

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Old 05-05-2020, 08:43 AM   #13
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Thank you all for you answers. The dealer will be upgrading to 2 6V battery plus we will get a small Honda generator 2200i.
It would be a bit more expensive, but I would consider two smaller generators you could run in parallel. Then you could charge your batteries only using one and saving fuel--the smaller one just charging your batteries would use a lot less fuel than the larger one doing the same task. Also you'd have some redundancy if one doesn't run. You could even convert one or both to dual fuel to have fuel flexibility. Finally each would be smaller and easier to store and carry.

Just make sure that at least one of them has a 30 amp outlet--I wouldn't want to rely on a converter plug.
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Old 05-05-2020, 10:20 AM   #14
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The cheaper BMKs are good and really all anyone needs - but the $200 Victron has built in bluetooth and a phone/tablet app that is super convenient and most appreciate that feature.

The shunt measures all current in and out of the batteries. It calculates their state of charge based on this data. It's not affected by the load at the time or if you are charging or have been charging recently.

It's pretty easy to install too. All NEG loads (every last one don't miss any) attach to one side of the shunt and the other side of the shunt goes back to your battery bank. Simple.
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Old 05-05-2020, 02:24 PM   #15
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2108FBS - 2 x 170W Panels, won't cover everything but will cover a lot.
The 2 x 6V will be about 130LBS of battery on the nose. about 75LBS in addition to what's there now. something to keep in mind. 550LBS (tongue) but will be good capacity.
The battery meter shows battery voltage only, not a bad indicator to start with.
EU2200 is a very nice generator! The EU2200 may not start your air conditioner without a MicroAir EasyStart, depending on how hot it is. If you can swing it go EU3000 without the electric start, still 70LBS but 3000 Watts. Some high load items in your 2108 are Electric Water heater (Can do Propane) , AirCo, Microwave and your coffee maker.
If you really want power without Solar or Generator for 2 weeks.. go 3 x 200AH Lithium.
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Old 05-05-2020, 03:23 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by Gate68 View Post
Thank you all for you answers. The dealer will be upgrading to 2 6V battery plus we will get a small Honda generator 2200i.

The batteries spec they are installing is:
*6 Volts GC2 battery
*383 Reserve Capacity (RC)@25 Amps
*210 Amp Hours (AH)@20 Hr
Good choices. I recommend a propane conversion kit for the Honda (as recommended by others). https://www.motorsnorkel.com/

Very easy to convert with hand tools. The beauty is you carry one extra 20lb LP tank to power it instead of carrying gas cans. One 20lb LP tank is the same as four gallons of gasoline.

The generator runs cleaner, you don't have to drain the gas tank and carburetor when not in use.
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Old 05-05-2020, 04:31 PM   #17
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Your biggest hurdle may not be the batteries BTW, it may be the black tank
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Old 05-05-2020, 06:17 PM   #18
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Your biggest hurdle may not be the batteries BTW, it may be the black tank
Solution for that! ;-)

https://www.rei.com/product/799009/g...itation-trowel
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Old 05-05-2020, 07:25 PM   #19
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Battery Mgmt

I think with two 6V batteries and your portable generator you should be fine. It is imperative you get a battery monitor. If you can afford it get a Victron, if not just make sure it has a shunt. There are some cheap ones from China that will do the job. I just wouldn't cut a hole in a wall to mount one of the cheap ones that may fale and your left with a big hole. You will need the monitor to manage the health of your batteries.
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Old 05-06-2020, 06:13 AM   #20
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Good choices. I recommend a propane conversion kit for the Honda (as recommended by others). https://www.motorsnorkel.com/

Very easy to convert with hand tools. The beauty is you carry one extra 20lb LP tank to power it instead of carrying gas cans. One 20lb LP tank is the same as four gallons of gasoline.

The generator runs cleaner, you don't have to drain the gas tank and carburetor when not in use.

Please NOTE; Using a 20# cylinder that produces 441,600 total btu, the engine consuming 50,000 btu per hour would run for about 8.8 hours.


4 gallons of gas last a lot longer.
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