squirescampers
Derry, NH
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Joined: 03/18/2005
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I will start from the beginning, as I am a novice in the battery knowledge department. Please advise to my ideas etc.
To start from the beginning, I have a 5 year old 19CK TravelStar, in 5 years we have dry camped 1 night the first night we use the trailer.
During the 1 night, running the furnice overnight and moderate use of lights, battery was dead by 2AM.
Have not got the wife to consider dry camping since...(It was a long cold night with an infant)
Fastfoward to today: Going to camp 4 days with no power. I have the same group 24 battery, which has gone thru 5 New England winters and summers.
To be on the safe side I was considering replacing with a new battery-
Now for the questions:
1. Should I replace with a group 27- how beneficial would this be?
2. Should I buy an additional group 24, and run that with my existing battery.
3. How effective would it be to hook up to the tow vehicle, and run the engine to recharge the batteries thru the trailers converter/charger? How long would it take to recharge a group 27, or two group 24's? I am thinking if I did this daily to 'top off' the batteries.
Moderate use of lights, with 1 light on all night (2 small children require keeping the range light on all night), moderate use of water pump, maybe 2 hours of the television- maybe. The furnace at night?? only if necessary.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
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TubaPete
Comstock Park, MI
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Joined: 03/05/2005
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I'm no expert, but I think of the things you listed, the 2 hrs of televison would be a killer. Also, I think the group 24 and 27 refer more to the size of the battery casing than they do to capacity.
You need to look at the amp-hr rating. The more the better. And for what you want to do, you want a deep cycle battery, not a starting battery.
Tuba Pete
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maddog348
Bakersfield,CA
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Maybe not much in total scheme of things - but usually use small battery(AA) type of nite-lite/lamp. Furnace is a real power grabber. That is a lot of usage for one battery of ANY size. JMHO
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thomasinnv
where ever i stop
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your tow vehicle will not be effectiver at all for recharging your trailer battery. i would replace the 24 with a 27, more amp hours. if you can, install a second battery as well. do not install a new battery with your old one, the new one will only be as good as the old one you pair it up with.
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JFG
TN
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Get two G27s and a generator to recharge batteries in the am and later that pm.
Fred
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M GO BLUE
Southgate, MI
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Ever consider replacing your 12-volt group 24 battery with two 6-volt batteries hooked up together? You will be amazed at how long these batteries will last...as for 2 hours of TV how do you plan on watching TV with no electricity? (asuming you don't have a 12V TV)...another option would be to borrow a generator from a friend? Trying to recharge by using your tow vehicle is really not an option due to the length of time it would take...
As for the furnace at night what we do is turn on the furnace about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before we hard to bed to take the chill out...turn off the furnace and climb under 2 blankets...turn on the furnace when you get up in the morning
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smkettner
Southern California
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Get two 27s or two golf batteries. Make darn sure they are fully charged before you go by plugging in 24 hours minimum. For the kids get them an LED flashlight or LED lantern that has its own battery.
What are you talking about plug into the vehicle and use the converter to recharge? The converter needs 120 vac to run so your vehicle needs a 1000+ watt inverter to make it work. Jump cables battery to battery would be far better than the 7 pin connector but will still take a couple hours to get any decent charge on.
Bring extra blankets or bags and set the thermostat down to 50 or less. Run it up to 65 in the morning only as needed.
A 1000 watt Honda/Yamaha/Kipor/Robins etc generator one hour a day would solve the troubles but you still need the two bigger batteries.
Make sure everyone knows the lights must stay off unless absolutly needed. Make a game of it.
12 volt side of life
I feel your pain my DW likes to be plugged in and I far prefer to be without.
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weathershak
Delaware
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Buy a group 27 battery and use the old one for the inverter to watch television. I would get 6 hrs of movie time on a group 24 battery. using a 400 watt inverter hooked to a 19" tele and DVD player. The battery operated lamp mentioned is a must. Bring a tiki torch or solar powered lights for outside if you wan't add. lighting. Use of the furnace is the main killer. I am now using a group 31 battery with more reserve then the 2 24's and 15 lbs lighter.
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Eycom
Fl to NY
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Joined: 09/12/2004
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Having had the experience with one GRP 24, I wouldn't dry camp without at least two GRP 27s and a generator to recharge. Using the furnace in cold weather, in conjunction with various other power needs, taxes the capacity of even two 24s. Recharging the house batteries with the tow vehicle is very inefficient unless the plan is to drive for numerous hours. As mentioned, batteries are best born on the same day.
During winter camping, I use a 12v mattress pad warmer to augment the furnace. Pretty easy on the bats, but I still need to run the generator.
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Achilles Heal
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Have had the same experience. We've got a battery that would be about four seasons old now, and it hasn't got the same staying power it used to have when new (from nearly three days down to just over a day).
When I have no power connection, I made sure there was minimal light usage (even replaced some of my dual incandescents with incandescent/LED combos to save drain), kept the furnace setting cooler, and didn't use accessories like the radio/cd player etc. For kids' entertainment we would watch movies, but played those through my laptop so it was offline from power consumption of the battery.
The above let us go for about a day and a half before the battery died anyway. I then ran jumper cables from my vehicle (larger cable gauge equals more power transfer) and charged the battery back up again with the vehicle running for about 45 minutes. I know that I could have also connected the trailer light connector to recharge, but opted for the jumper cables for efficiency.
Also keep in mind that there is a slow 'trickle' drain that seems to happen because the carbon monoxide detector and the fridge (even on propane) both seem to need a feed from the battery to operate. So even if you don't do all those other things you're still going to kill the battery - maybe after a few days.
I've also thought about buying a solar panel to do trickle recharging through the day, but haven't made that leap and don't even know how much that would carry us.
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