Florida

[PopRichie77]

Well, here we are in sunny Florida. We are in Big Cypress at a national camp ground, dry camping. We were in Ruskin, at at county camp ground, had electric and water hook up there.Temp was 85 today, cooling off now, should be ok for sleeping tonight. Thinking of you guys in the cold, but I don't miss it. So far no problems, except the heater wouldn't work the night we stayed over in VA., was 22 that morning, thought I would never get warm. Don't need it now. Got a wire less moden for the computer, works great here but wasn't to good before. Well got to go before I run the batteries down in the trailer and we need it for the fridge.

 

[RichR]

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a miserable time but I am sure you will survive. We made it to 50 degrees today and it has dropped to 33 this evening. If you are talking about battery power for the control board on your fridge it does not draw very much amperage. Your lights, if not LED, will make a bigger hit on the batteries. Have a great time!

 

[sam-HILO]

Rich,Always a few things to fix when you get home. It was 50degrees in the morning then a very cold front came in with 25 to 35 mile an hr. winds. The kind of day where when running errands you can't get in your vehicle fast enough!!

 

[PopRichie77]

Thanks RichR, it was just an excuse when you have nothing else to say. Actually the computer is running on it's own battery. Will fire the generator up this morning and charge everything back up. Solar panel works but not that great when mounted on the roof. Was much better when on the ground and I kept it facing the sun but I can no longer do that.

 

[JoeJones]

Battery vs generator vs temp

If you have. Second battery do u need a generator? If do what size can you get by with? Joe

 

[RichR]

If you are interested in just charging the battery and maybe running small appliances and a TV, you can get by well with a small 900 to 1000 watt inverter type generator. Honda and Yamaha make nice little generators that will handle the task. We have dual batteries and a 900 watt Yamaha inverter generator. Even if you have dual batteries and depending how long you will be using power from them you will need to charge up sometime. We boondock for maybe a week at a time and I may charge up maybe every other day. I can go longer with the charge that was done plugged in at home and then maybe every other day after that. So when we need to charge up I fire up the Yamaha and let it run for maybe five or six hours. I never let the batteries go below 12 volts, which is about to the 50% level. The longer you let the charge go the better it is because the charge rate tapers back and it takes longer for the batteries to reach full charge. Going with that, you want to buy a quiet running generator that won't become annoying to you and everyone around you. That's why I recommend these generators. There are other brands out there and for less money but you want to check them out well first.

 

[JIM L-HILO]

If you have. Second battery do u need a generator? If do what size can you get by with? Joe

Hi Joe; The need for a generator depends on if you plan to boondock and if so for how long. We have never boondocked so have never needed on. We took a 2000W Honda to Alaska and also to Nova Scotia as a backup but never used it. When we go back to Alaska in 2014 we do plan to boondock so plan to use it. The Honda is expensive and there are several with about the same specs that are cheaper. A 2000W gen will not run the AC. A 1000W will run your lights and other small items but you would need to use propane for items like the hot water heater, fridg and furnace. I have only one battery on the RV but have a second one on the pickup.

 

[jcurtis95]

If you have. Second battery do u need a generator? If do what size can you get by with? Joe

Joe,

We do not boondock any more but on the occasions we have, we took our 4500 Watt PowerMax ES generator that I bought for emergency power at home. It is pretty lightweight but it takes two people or a makeshift ramp to load and unload from a truck. We ran it for an hour or so every morning for charging batteries and running small appliances [coffee maker. toaster, etc.].

Years ago I bought a LPM-10 Battery Meter by BZ Products, Inc. that you can see at a glance the percentage of charge your battery holds. It gives a better idea than the on-board battery checker as to how charged up your battery is. It was inexpensive but I see it is no longer available. There are other meters available that do this.

I also purchased a portable solar panel to maintain a charge during the daylight hours. We do have two batteries and I installed battery isolators to insure reserve power if we were to run the batteries down.

Jerry Curtis
2406 T