Knowledge Base

Fridge

The fridge is on 24 hours a day, much of the time with the cooling fan on which requires .93A total @ 24 hours = 22.3AH per day. This is by far the biggest load on the batteries for summer months camping.

Showers

The hot water heater is 6 gallons and takes a mere 5 minutes to heat up from our experience. Daily electrical usage and LP usage to run the water heater is nil.

Figure on 2-3 days of usage before the gray tank (21 gal) is full. This includes daily showers for the two of us (without being ultra conservative on the water, ie navy style), plus doing dishes.

Heater / Thermostat

The heater works great and heats the trailer up in no time. The issue is the wide heat/cool cycle temperature range. This is most likely caused by the fact that the thermostat is isolated inside the bathroom rather than the main cabin area. Perhaps this can be solved by making adustments to the thermostat control as well as proping the bathroom door open a bit during heater usage (3.2A draw). The heater isn't normally used for summer camping except for short periods. For early spring and fall camping, the heater becames the biggest load on the batteries.

Water Pump

The water pump switch should normally be off.. unless you plan on using it. Although it uses more current than any other appliance (6.4A), it is not on for long over the course of the day and thus is not a concern as far as battery usage goes.

No Shore Power No TV?

Since we camp mainly without hookups, we have no shore power, and thus no A/C. In order to watch TV, its just a matter of plugging in a small inverter into the 12V socket by the TV, and plugging the TV into the inverter. To reduce power consumption to about a 4A load, use the TV remote to setup the screen to power saving. The screen isn't quite as bright, but your battery will be happier. When watching a DVD, you need to have the Sony Multi Disk Player/Radio unit on with runs off 12V. I believe it draws about 2A. Assuming we watched a 1.5 hour movie each night the total power consumption each night would be 1.5 X (4A tv, 2A player) or 9AH. This would require running the generator for about 2 hours to restore the AH's! We might consider having a separate portable battery to power the TV.

Batteries

Since we mainly camp without hookups, battery usage and maintenance is of special interest to us. For summer camping our main battery load is the fridge. Daily usage with some tv viewing  before bedtime, and minimal light usage runs in the 32AH range. Considering that we are allowed to run the generator up to 5 hours a day, and that it charges in the 5A range (when at 50% capacity) , we can restore the batteries by approx 25AH per day. So essentially we aren't quite able to top the batteries up to max each day. This is especially true since the converter only does a bulk (high current charge) up until the batteries are about 80%. A solar panel would be the solution as it will provide a much lower charge at a lower current, ideal for topping up that last 20%. In reality we only have access to a top charge of 80% less the minimum level we wish to bring the batteries too (50%), so we have access to 30% of total battery capacity each day assuming we can charge to the 80% level and not go below 50%. This = 30% * (2 batteries @ 82AH each) = 50AH.

Tips

Be sure not to remove the breakaway switch! It will apply voltage to the brakes and drain your battery in no time (applies about 6.5A of current). I made this mistake already :(

Ensure you turn of the light in the rear boot if you use it! It is easy to forget, and will again drain your battery (another good reason to buy a Link 10 battery monitor).

Watch how you tight up the jack stabilizers. If there is any torque on the frame, it can twist it just enough to make it hard to close the door. Doesn't take much.

When initially parking the trailer at the campground, find a consistently flat section for both the trailer and tow vehicle to make removing from the hitch easier. If the tow vehicle is on a different lateral level than the trailer, you have to use the trailer jack to really raise the tow vehicle rear end in order to remove the sway arms from the hitch.

Replace that silly plastic latch on the curved door below and between the entertainment are and the ved!

If the batteries are down considerable, we could use our 10A portable charger with the generator to charge the batteries at a higher (but still safe) rate. Remove the black/ground line from the batteries to trailer prior to hooking up the portable charger.