We're spending a week in the Adirondacks Scamping with some friends and the campgrounds we are going to don't have electric hookups. Just wondering from those with more experience: if we spend 2-3 days at one site going very light on the battery usage, then drive about 2.5 hours to a second site for another few days, are we likely to run out of juice? We don't have a generator and aren't likely to get one just yet. We are pretty conservative on electric use while camping anyway. Anybody have thoughts on this? Thanks, and regards.
Sun, 04/29/2018 - 19:56
#1
How long a drive does it take to recharge trailer battery?
It varies from vehicle to vehicle. The 12-volt line on my F-150 is regulated to low to do a good job of charging. You will also want to check to see if the charge line turns off with the engine. If not, unplug from the tow vehicle to keep from running your car battery down when not driving. Mine gets by as long as I do not run the refrigerator on the battery. You should be OK. I do keep a volt meter handy to check it at the start of the night.
Whether you have the fridge on or not is the big issue. You will not be able to recharge the battery while the fridge is on 12 volts. If you have the fridge on LPG (or 110V) while camping and it is nice and cold inside you should be able to drive for those 2.5 hours or more with the fridge turned off. As long as you don't open the fridge door much and don't put warm things in it it should stay cold.
Yes it varies a lot from rig to rig. Based on the very limited information you provided there is no way to know. It is very possible that the battery will not be recharged more than a few percent in 2 1/2 hours and could easily be considered fully discharged as soon as your second 2-3 day stop, if not sooner. It is also possible that you use so little power that it only takes a few hours at the low charge rate the vehicle provides to recover. So what to do?
Install a battery monitor that uses a shunt and tracks power going into and coming out of the battery. Some only give you the current status, ex. +3.4 amps, -2 amps, etc.. Others keep track over time and provide the net charge or discharge, sometimes as a percentage (based on the battery capacity that you program into it). Then seeing how much battery power you have is as easy as reading the gas gauge on your vehicle.
Another option is using battery voltage to check state of charge, but that is not very accurate and requires that you measure it when surface charge has dissipated and no loads are on it, so usually you let it sit for a few hours with NO use or charging. Thats a pain.
You can also use a hydrometer to check the state of charge. Then you risk spilling acid. Also a pain.
What size is your battery and what is the voltage after 3 days use? Both questions come to mind as part of the equation.
Have you considered adding solar panels to regenerate power?
I have read that you have to run your TV 45min for it to charge your trailer battery, no idea how full that would get the battery tho.
I have a group 27 and after 4 nights with minimal 12v use I was at about 50%. I have 100W solar panel but no sun that trip.
I would try to accurately monitor your battery as Gordon2 stated above.
In theory you can run your trailer battery to as low as you want, you may however take total life from the battery.
Please let us know how it all works out?
Mark
Thanks for making us feel so welcome.
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