Will I be ok with just one 24 battery?

[jackman5000]

Camping at big bend next 5 nights. Freezing at night. Will a 24 battery, that I charge with generator during day, run the furnace fan all night ok?

It’s a small, 18ft Jayco with small furnace.

Thanks!

[Jay2504]

Depending on how much the furnace runs it will be close. Regular lead acid batteries charge up to about 90% pretty fast, but the last 10% can take several hours connected to the generator. Be sure to run it enough to get as much charge as possible for the next night. This trip will tell you whether you will need a bigger battery or not. I suspect you will upgrade the battery set up. Jay

[Jagiven]

As long as the battery is in good health, you should be fine. In the morning and evening I would start the generator and run it for a couple hours. While running on Generator, I would use my electric heater.

If you have a fully enclosed TT, you will be better off than my HTT, which just leaks heat from the bunk ends. We did have lots of blankets, just in case. Last campout, was 5 nights, with the lowest over night low of 22 degrees.

We just upgraded to a group 31 (AMG) from a group 24 this fall, but have not had issues in the past.

[RogerR]

I have a 27 type battery and would like to upgrade as at 3 years it is losing some capacity.
Consider getting foil faced duct wrap, kind of a bubble wrap type material, and cutting pieces to fit each window and possibly the skylight and vents. This will substantially reduce heat loss vs single pane glass. Works well in off season to keep sunlight out of the inside and reduce heat and fading. We leave it in while traveling and it cuts the cool down time when we arrive at a campground and power up the AC.
Last thought, if that is a group 24 starting/deep battery and not a true deep cycle it will be much less likely to run it through the night without hitting damaging low voltage. Carry a plug in voltage meter and watch out for below 12 volts that ruin a battery.

[jackman5000]

All good stuff. Think I’ll go grab a second one just to be safe. I’ve got a battery tender set up in garage so won’t hurt to run a second in parallel to maintain them while at home (correct?)

Thanks sirs/ma’am’s.

Best

[CAG]

From experience I can tell you one 12 volt will not last the night if it gets into the 20s or below even with the thermostat set at 50 or 55. The furnace fans draws too much juice. I was up at 2 AM on that trip jumping the batter so I could get the genny started.

[SmokerBill]

Just buy a Mr. Heater propane heater, or one of the blue flame type heaters. I use mine Tough Buddy heater overnight all winter when boondocking. I leave one window cracked open a couple of inches, and the bathroom fan vent open an inch or so to allow plenty of fresh air into my TT.

I hook it up to a 5 gallon propane tank that's under one of the windows. The propane hose for the heater goes through the window, and I use a strip of foam rubber to seal the gap (to keep bugs out of the trailer).

With a catalytic or blue flame heater you'll use much less propane for heat, and there's zero drawdown of your batteries.

[SmokerBill]

Here's pic of my propane heater setup. The hose runs up and out the window to my 20# propane tank.

[Bob K]

What's the amp-hour capacity of your battery?

I had a Group 27 for my 18-footer. In 31° temps, running the furnace for about 16 hours consumed about 20% of the battery. That's setting the furnace at about 68° and it cycles about every 20 minutes.

If I were recharging it during the day with a generator, I wouldn't have any concerns about it lasting overnight.

Tons of experiences and opinions as you can see. Unless you're willing to figure out the amp usage of your furnace and match that against your battery capacity, you won't know for sure. Actual real-world experience will tell you if your estimates are correct.

[Vicr]

Originally Posted by jackman5000

All good stuff. Think I’ll go grab a second one just to be safe. I’ve got a battery tender set up in garage so won’t hurt to run a second in parallel to maintain them while at home (correct?)

Thanks sirs/ma’am’s.

Best

Do not charge or use batteries of different types or ages together. Once you connect them together the battery with the most charge will be discharged by the weaker battery and charging them together is just a mess. There are a hundred or so You Tube videos on this subject you can watch.

[Old and soft]

My group 27 battery would run my 15k btu furnace in my tent camper for at least 8 hours straight. Not cycling, 8 hours straight. Burnt 10 pounds of propane every night. Hooked it up to my 7.3 powerstroke to charge for 3 hours every evening. Boondocking at deer camp for 7 nights. Did this for 12 seasons at camp. You haven't lived until your boots freeze to the floor 3 feet away from the furnace (hit -8 f that night).

[gypsmjim]

Before we got power, during hunting season I would genny charge my battery for 2 hours at lunch time and again 2 hours after we came back from dinner at a local restaurant. The temp was set at 40 degrees during the day (when we were not in the trailer) and 50 degrees at night while we were sleeping. In the evening, while watching a DVD movie, or in the morning while dressing and eating breakfast it was set at 70.

My battery would last at least 4 days under those conditions. The outside temps were usually between 25-35.

[skids]

I suspect that 2, 6-volt batteries in series make them both get the same charging current rather than 2, 12-volt batteries in parallel where one gets more than the other.

[Johnynorthland]

Originally Posted by jackman5000

Camping at big bend next 5 nights. Freezing at night. Will a 24 battery, that I charge with generator during day, run the furnace fan all night ok?

It’s a small, 18ft Jayco with small furnace.

Thanks!

If you have a slide keep it in if you can. This will keep a lot of the draft out.

And you will only know how charged your battery is by metering it, else it’s just a guesstimate.

Good luck, Keep warm! Please Let us know how it goes.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by jackman5000

Camping at big bend next 5 nights. Freezing at night. Will a 24 battery, that I charge with generator during day, run the furnace fan all night ok?

It’s a small, 18ft Jayco with small furnace.

Thanks!

I found this The typical furnace will draw about 8 amps of power. It is a good idea to have solar or generator power to supplement the charging of your batteries when not connected to shore power. If your small battery is a 75 amp and divide that by 8 divide by 2 that's 4 hours because you don't want to run the battery down lower than 50%. But your furnace won't run all the time. Will you have lights on and other things?

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by Johnynorthland

If you have a slide keep it in if you can. This will keep a lot of the draft out.

If you have a draft with the slide out, you have a seal issue. I have never noticed a draft with my slide out.

[Johnynorthland]

Originally Posted by Jagiven

If you have a draft with the slide out, you have a seal issue. I have never noticed a draft with my slide out.

Have you ever laid on your floor in front of your slide when camping in the winter? That’s how I noticed the cold draft. I also read in MH magazine that keeping the slide in is more efficient when heating the RV.

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by Johnynorthland

Have you ever laid on your floor in front of your slide when camping in the winter? That’s how I noticed the cold draft. I also read in MH magazine that keeping the slide in is more efficient when heating the RV.

I don't normally lay on the floor, unless playing with the dog. Commonly I am barefoot, never noticed a draft.

Keeping the slide in, has less surfacspace. To the cold weather, so less heat transfer through all that extra exposed wall and ceiling space.

[Jay2504]

Just make sure that a closed slide doesn’t block any floor registers, if that is the type you have. Jay

[Jay2504]

Just don’t run the furnace with the slide in if. You have floor registers that are covered with the slide in. Jay