Dry camping questions

[ashmanbrian]

Originally Posted by jestoy7

Very awesome thread. Ashmanbrian, how did your battery perform? You mentioned it was 12.5V before your trip. How did it do once you got back and did you buy a voltmeter?

-you are correct, this thread is full of great information, I learned a ton-
I was very conservative, using only the water pump for grey and black water as needed, and extremely limited led light usage. Battery lasted 2.5 half days and was down to 60%. (I don't think it was fully charged to begin wtih) I have since purchased a battery tender and keep that on the battery at home inbetween trips. Hoping it's not too late to extend it's life. My battery is only 65 amp hours, and I have had it 2 years now w/o any inbetween trip charging, so I am not sure how much life it has left. I will see how it performs on the next trip. (I have also purhased a 100W suitcase solar panel for dry camping, so that should help immensley.) If I need to, I plan to upgrade the battery, and maintain it from now on.

[jestoy7]

Originally Posted by Subaru297

If you want to learn all about maintaining and getting the most out of your battery read this....
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/...ging-puzzle-2/

In between all the rants is a lot of good information.

Normal life for a battery should be 6-8 years if properly maintained. Undercharging or overdischarging will shorten life and capacity fairly quickly. And I would guess most people do both. I certainly did when I started out.

Your tow vehicle will take hours to fully charge a battery. I have noted on one 3 hour trip that we got about 10Ah back into the battery during the trip home. This was on a battery around 90% charge and the last 10% is the hardest to get back in the battery and takes the longest, but it is also the most important.

Same goes for the trailer converter. It can take days being plugged in to fully charge the battery. They drop into float (~13.2volts) after a set voltage or predetermined time too early and don't get a full charge back into the battery. They are really designed to maintain a battery while being plugged in not to efficiently charge one.

Cheers

I'm bookmarking it! Thank you.

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by ashmanbrian

(I don't think it was fully charged to begin wtih) I have since purchased a battery tender and keep that on the battery at home inbetween trips. Hoping it's not too late to extend it's life. My battery is only 65 amp hours, and I have had it 2 years now w/o any inbetween trip charging, so I am not sure how much life it has left.

When you are at home, do you keep the camper plugged in? If not, do you disconnect the battery? If not to both of those questions, you do cycle the battery fairly hard, and will shorten its life. When plugged into shore power the on board battery charger does a great job maintaining the battery. One maintenance item you do need to do a few times a year is check the batteries fluid levels. Pop each cell open and add DISTILLED WATER (only) to each cell to the bottom of the plastic rim. If the water drops below the top of the cell it will shorten its life dramatically and possible short out the cell.