newbe dry camping questions

[bruceb]

so, if I do this week of dry camping I intend to be away from the trailer all day. Will the single group 27 battery keep the fridge cold and the camper warm?
How long will I have to run the generator to top off the battery? Do I run it all night?
Thanks again.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by bruceb

I intend to be away from the trailer all day. Will the single group 27 battery keep the fridge cold and the camper warm?

Hard to be certain... but "all day" I'd guess no. Not one Grp 27 battery running the fridge and the heater.

Originally Posted by bruceb

How long will I have to run the generator to top off the battery?

The unhelpful answer is... as long as it takes.

If you plan to run the fridge and the heater all day, charge your batteries at night, go to bed and run the heater and fridge while you sleep and then expect to leave the RV and be gone all day the next day? You are definitely not going to be happy with those results.

You are asking far too much from your existing battery. While it would help to add a second battery it's still too much to expect.

Turn off the heater when you are not there. That would help some.

I've read your original post, but I don't think it's realistic. If you had an RV fridge that ran on propane, and two group 31 AGM batteries and only ran the heater at night you could probably do that. But, that doesn't sound possible with your 12v fridge.

Sometimes when I dry camp in really cold weather at night I turn the fridge off while we sleep. With all the food already cold and no one opening the door the fridge stays cold without using any battery. But we keep it about 57 degrees inside the RV overnight.

[bruceb]

it is a dual fuel fridge. So new to this that I dont know even what to ask.
Would running the fridge on propane allow the battery to last all day to run the furnace and keep the camper at say 50?
Then would I just run the generator all night to charge the battery, run the furnace and fridge? What do I have to do to make this work?

[creativepart]

Sorry, I thought someone said it was a 12v only fridge.

If the heater doesn't run too much during the day you'll be pretty good. You'll need to watch power usage in the evening and run the generator probably in the morning for an hour or two and at night for two or more hours as needed.

In this case it would help a great deal if you added a second Group 27 Deep Cycle battery. Best would be to replace the existing battery with two Golf Cart 6v deep cycles as that would give you about 220 total amp hours allowing you to use 110 Amp hours and stay above that 50% discharged limit to prolong battery life.

I'm not a fan of running 6v batteries A LOT of folks are. They would give you the most power for the least amount of cost.

If you add a second 12v Grp 27 Lead Acid deep cycle to your original battery bank you'll probably only have about 90 amp hours of power to use before hitting the 50% discharged number versus 110 amp hours with the 6v batteries.

But, here's the thing - we can hypothesize about this all day but until you try it - we'll never know for sure.

[gurroz]

Originally Posted by bruceb

it is a dual fuel fridge. So new to this that I dont know even what to ask.
Would running the fridge on propane allow the battery to last all day to run the furnace and keep the camper at say 50?
Then would I just run the generator all night to charge the battery, run the furnace and fridge? What do I have to do to make this work?

You will not be popular (as in a knock on your door in the middle of the night) if you run the generator all night! When boondocking you should still observe quiet hours for the sake of others in the area. Most parks are quiet from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM.

[tinglett]

I just dry camped this weekend in a 2108DS with temps going from 60F down to 28F each night. No 120v appliances, of course. And we left the water heater off and only turned it on 1/2 hour ahead of using the shower. Overall we were pretty careful about power use.

We consumed about 40Ah per day like this. The fridge uses about 0.8A rather continuous while on propane (a fan maybe?). The furnace draws a bit more than 4A and ran at least once an hour for at least 5 min at a time during the cold parts of the night. We kept the temp set at 60F and used the cooktop and stove in the morning which indirectly warmed it up.

We were a bit sloppy with water use as we only had a 2-night stay so used 1/3rd of our fresh water (as measured by the not-so-precise control panel). Catch as much water as you can and send it into the black tank. We used about 1/2 of a single propane tank for this 2-day stay. So maybe 1/4 propane tank per day and a bit more if your temps are lower.

Maybe you can consider this a rough ballpark of what you'll need. I'd think you can get through a week with the water and propane, but you'll need to do something to top off your battery each day as 40Ah is almost too much as-is.

[DavidM]

Your daily amphour usage sounds a bit high from the data in this post as well as your own thread about this shakedown camping trip.

One reason may be that the fridge has a "frame heater" that keeps the frost off of the door jam. It can be disconnected and that will safe you 10-15 amp hours daily. I also suspect you may have used the furnace more than you are indicating.

When we dry camp with a very simple trailer with only lights, water pump, hot water heater for 30 minutes a day, absorption fridge controls but no frame heater, tablet and phone charging, we use less than 15 amp hours daily.

David

[gurroz]

Originally Posted by tinglett

I just dry camped this weekend in a 2108DS with temps going from 60F down to 28F each night. No 120v appliances, of course. And we left the water heater off and only turned it on 1/2 hour ahead of using the shower. Overall we were pretty careful about power use.

We consumed about 40Ah per day like this. The fridge uses about 0.8A rather continuous while on propane (a fan maybe?). The furnace draws a bit more than 4A and ran at least once an hour for at least 5 min at a time during the cold parts of the night. We kept the temp set at 60F and used the cooktop and stove in the morning which indirectly warmed it up.

We were a bit sloppy with water use as we only had a 2-night stay so used 1/3rd of our fresh water (as measured by the not-so-precise control panel). Catch as much water as you can and send it into the black tank. We used about 1/2 of a single propane tank for this 2-day stay. So maybe 1/4 propane tank per day and a bit more if your temps are lower.

Maybe you can consider this a rough ballpark of what you'll need. I'd think you can get through a week with the water and propane, but you'll need to do something to top off your battery each day as 40Ah is almost too much as-is.

tinglett, good informative post. After 115 days of camping this past summer we have determined we use 60Ah per day.

[SonofBert]

Originally Posted by creativepart

I've heard from other users that the propane versions of the generators don't perform as well. And, seen some tests on YouTube that confirmed that as well.

When we travel trailered we never used our gens for enough time to need to carry any gas other than filling the generator when we left home to start the trip.

We used ours for short durations of time. During breakfast, lunch or dinner prep or to cool down the trailer for lunch on the road. We did dry camp but only when the weather was cool enough to not need A/C. We lived in Jackson, Wyoming at that time... so, it was pretty much cool days and cold nights everywhere we traveled (WY, ID, MT, and UT).

You absotively take a decrease with LP compared to gasoline, about 15%. LP has only ~85% of the BTU's per gallon compared to gasoline. We offgrid for 4-5 days minimum, often at below freezing overnight. The gen gets a workout keeping the house batteries charged, running the fridge on AC, charging the laptops, my electric shaver, etc. Gen can run 4-6 hours per day with all of those chores.

A 2kW inverter gen has a 1g gas tank, good for maybe 8hrs run time. One 20lb LP tank BTU's is roughly equivalent to 3.8g of gasoline so you have 3x the run time using an LP generator on one 20lb LP tank.

I'll never go back to gasoline. It's just too easy to use LP and have longer runtime, no spare gasoline cans, no gasoline stench carrying it inside the trailer, no chance of a gasoline leak, cleaner spark plug, cleaner spark arrestor, cleaner oil, no re-jetting for high altitude, no worries about carburetor fouling.

[SonofBert]

Originally Posted by bruceb

it is a dual fuel fridge. So new to this that I dont know even what to ask.
Would running the fridge on propane allow the battery to last all day to run the furnace and keep the camper at say 50?
Then would I just run the generator all night to charge the battery, run the furnace and fridge? What do I have to do to make this work?

You're asking the right questions and had great answers, but I think you'll find by trial and error what the answers are for you. That's how it is with RV's, very rarely once you get the RV addiction you stay with the same setup. Hence the incredible amount of RV's for sale on Craigslist in any area.

[tinglett]

Originally Posted by SonofBert

That's how it is with RV's, very rarely once you get the RV addiction you stay with the same setup.

Amen! When we camp and aren't hiking around my wife likes to knit. What do I do? Mainly I think up new projects for the RV. Does anyone else do this?

[Diesel-Lover]

How Do, Camping in the wilds is the best thing out there, not bum to bum and arm pit to arm pit. I equate those fancy ones like that to a tenement of mansions in a fancy common ground with amenities like pool, sauna, workout rooms and yes nice shower houses etc. As to wilderness camping and using portable combustion heaters. Make sure your gas detector, co detector and fire detector are all in great shape with backups. Only one life to give eh, but we all honored the constitution and the draft.


Remember our rigs are rather small compared to a house cubic area, and not too well insulated. As it is without that combustion heater you will find that things get rather muggy by morning with condensation of breath. Add to that combustion which creates H2O+CO2+CO+etc

That sulfur in the gas has to go someplace as do impurities. So if you are well insulated and try to create a nice enclosed space the air exchange rate will be low, if you increase the air exchange rate by cracking open a couple of windows you may be ok yet the water vapor will tend to migrate to the nearest cold surface. Therefore, its best to go for vented heating. There are some really nice vented heaters in the boating world including some fire places....


In the old days of tent camping we would use the gas lantern as our heat source in the tent, worked well but man did it get the humidity up there! It took a week to really dry the tent in the heated basement at home (canvas tents back then). Many times we resorted to using warmed rocks from the campfire to the lantern and staying by the fire as long as possible before scurrying into the tent with those rocks and into the sleeping bags.

Insulate your windows well with foam panel (spray glue cloth surround to keep it from shedding those pesky static prone nodules! Or use that bubble wrap foil, though that has no stiffness but velcro will hold either to your window if there is no way to wedge them there.

All the best let people know where you are and how long you will be including the ranger station. In the old days things were a lot safer!

[TerryMA]

Or solar enough to top up the battery. Or as previous post mentioned you can top up your battery by running you vehicle
Otherwise 2 days max ... also depending on your battery. Propane u are likely ok!

[deucehotrods]

Please reconsider!!! As a South Dakota native who lived there 57 years I would advise you head south because the weather in South Dakota can be down right nasty and possibly dangerous this time of year. It's very unpredictable and blizzards are not unheard of this time of year and they are life threatening. You are going to the most uninhabited and inhospitable part of the entire state! Have you checked the forecast? This weekend its snowing and the low temperature will be -4 degrees! That's 4 degrees BELOW ZERO with an 18 MPH WIND! Your water system will freeze solid and most likely be severely damaged! I wouldn't even ride that out in a campground with full hook-ups! There are graveyards around the state from the late 1800's where new settlers back then were killed by the unpredictable winter blizzards! I grew up four miles from one.

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l...d1a594ec50f23c

[Ttowntoehead]

Originally Posted by Old Navy

Like others say, you will need a generator. Hopefully running the furnace will protect your plumbing at night. Also, double check your battery to make sure it is an actual deep cycle, and not just a multi purpose "marine battery". Even 50% discharge will greatly shorten marine battery life and quickly decrease their capacity. 6V CG2 batteries can take hundreds of discharges well beyond 50%, as they are designed to. Lithium is fantastic if you have the coin. As for filling waste tanks, other than late at night, I rarely use the RV toilet if other facilities are available, and I have yet to put any "solid waste" in my black tank.

LOL. Guess I didn’t get the memo. We have been pooping for 15 years in our ‘95 Vectra. In fact every day for the last 3 years. The wife will use a park bathroom once in a while, but I have never stepped foot in one, especially with the virus. It doesn’t smell at all. I have a camera that I stick down my tanks every year or two, and my black tank looks brand new except the level sensors are corroded. Grey tank usually gets a grease build up that is easily removed with hot water. The man I bought it from bragged about “no pets and no smoking “ as I was loading our dogs and lighting a cigar!

[Old Navy]

Originally Posted by Ttowntoehead

LOL. Guess I didn’t get the memo.

LOL. My trailer is still new, so I will certainly use it at some point. I was just pointing out to the OP that if you use other facilities while boondocking, the black tank will not be a limiting factor. The trailer, like my house, is definitely no-smoking unless I'm just lighting up or passing through. I smoke my cigars outdoors, and occasionally in my truck.