We haven't done much camping without service but had the opportunity in a state park on our last trip. We were surprised that only the lights and water pump worked from the battery. Can someone tell me what should run off the battery?
Lynn, Bud, 2 teenaged boys
2 Huskys, 1 hamster
2001 GMC Yukon
2011 Jayco Jay Feather Ex-Port 17Z
The lights, furnace, and pump will work without being plugged in to electricity. The microwave and air cond. will not. The refrigerator, stove, and water heater will operate off of propane so they will also be fine without being plugged into electricity. The refrigerator and probably the water heater do need 12v from the battery to operate.
Lights, water pump, water heater, furnace, refrigerator all run on 12 volt systems.
THen if you have a inverter, you can make 110 volts to run a TV that is not 12 volt power (some TV's in RV's have 12 volt input, most will not). Yet be careful with the inverter use, or you might run down the battery to quickly, and have to run a generator or have another way to recharge the battery.
You can not run the air conditioner or microwave from a normal "Average" battery system. They take to much power. It can be done, but not without a $3,000 investment in larger batteries, solar to recharge them, ect. IT is easier to get a generator if you must have the microwave on. Most just use a oven or skip baking while camping.
KD4UPL wrote: The lights, furnace, and pump will work without being plugged in to electricity. The microwave and air cond. will not. The refrigerator, stove, and water heater will operate off of propane so they will also be fine without being plugged into electricity. The refrigerator and probably the water heater do need 12v from the battery to operate.
your radio/entertainment center works off of the battery. your fantastic fans do also.
and, the 110v outlets will not work off the battery. many new owners expect to be able to plug their stuff into the outlets and have them work. if you have heated mattresses, they can't work with the battery.
Dan- Firefighter, Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur, Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever, 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LS, 2007 Rockwood Roo 23SS w/Equalizer and Prodigy, and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes
As you have read in the posts above that just about everything (except Air Conditioning and large microwaves) will run from your battery. The trailers were designed with "dry camping" in mind.
If you are going to do alot of camping off the power grid you may need to beef up your battery system to at least two batteries (I run three batteries on my POPUP). You will also have to make sure your on-board Converter is the "smart Mode" charging type. Its A good idea to change out all your incandescent lights to LED lights (big power savings)... I also use a couple of the small 300W Pure Sine Wave inverters hard-wired in to give me 120VAC (operated from my batteries) for the HDTV, DVD, a couple of 120V window mood lamps, Cell phone chargers etc.
Some people try to find all of the 12VDC operated items but I found it easier to just get a 300W inverter and use the 120VAC items as is. I also have a larger 1500W PSW inverter to use on extended stays when camping off the power grid.
The idea is to get setup where you can run almost all of your items from the battery system and then re-charge the batteries the next day in as short of time as you can using a small 1KW or 2KW quiet mode generator (I use the EU2000i Honda 2KW Inverter type generator sitting near the tail gate section of my truck).
When camping off the power grid We use our HDTV system off the OTA Batwing Antenna (pickup 6-36 Digital Channels full blown wide screen high def TV using our 22-inch Vizio HDTV just about everywhere we go), I play with my Ham Radio stuff, Light up our corner of the camp ground with outside lights every night sitting around the patio and fire pit. Can run just about everything we do when camping at Electric Sites except no air conditioner or high power Microwave (I carry a small $35 walmart microwave just for camping in the woods...)
Then the next morning I start re-charging my batteries by connecting the trailer shore power cable directly to my generator and can re-charge my three GP24 three batteries in the short generator run times most camp grounds allow the use of generators. usually takes 3-4 hours of generator run time to get me charged back up...
Be glad to share with you what all I did with my POPUP for camping off the power grid - send email
My Posts are IMHO based on my experiences - PM me Roy and Carolyn
RETIRED DOAF/DON/DOD/CONTR RADIO TECH (42yrs)
K9PHT (Since 1957) 146.52M
2010 F150, 5.4,3:73 Gears,SCab
2008 Starcraft 14RT EU2000i GEN
2005 Flagstaff 8528RESS
POPUP PHOTOs-Pg52-Pg56
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, Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur
, Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever
, 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LS, 2007 Rockwood Roo 23SS w/Equalizer and Prodigy, and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes
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