Battery/Propane ?'s

[YesDear]

We are going to Carpinteria State Beach for a week in our popup, and will be without hookups all week.  Breakfasts and lunches will be light, and plan to BBQ for dinners most of the week so that should help with the propane use.  We will be using the propane for the refrigerator and hot water heater.  Wanted to know if we will get by with just one propane tank, or should we take along an extra one?  Also, will the popup battery last all week?  We have never strictly relied on the propane tank and battery, so we could use any suggestions or help that anybody can pass along to us!  Thank you!

Michelle

[MommaMia]

We are going to Carpinteria State Beach for a week in our popup, and will be without hookups all week.  Breakfasts and lunches will be light, and plan to BBQ for dinners most of the week so that should help with the propane use.  We will be using the propane for the refrigerator and hot water heater.  Wanted to know if we will get by with just one propane tank, or should we take along an extra one?  Also, will the popup battery last all week?  We have never strictly relied on the propane tank and battery, so we could use any suggestions or help that anybody can pass along to us!  Thank you!

Michelle

I can't answer about the battery but I can tell you that when we camped a couple weeks ago we set out for 4 days with less than half a tank of propane.  I used it for cooking each night, the hot water heater and the fridge (set on coldest setting) and had plenty of propane left in the tank after our 4 days.

[garym053]

As Mommamia stated, propane shouldn't be a problem, however the battery could be, depending on your useage! If you are just using lights when needed and turned off when outside or use booklights to read, etc there should be no problem!
I take an extra 12v battery with me, but I have Sleep Apnea and use one of the batteries to power my CPAP through an inverter. We have dry camped for a little over a week and the camper battery held up fine. We do use battery powered lanterns or book lights to read with though, rather than running the camper lights all that time. I have also made up a pigtail that plugs into the trailer plug on the Tow Vehicle to charge my CPAP battery while sightseeing! If you do this, make sure to tie down the battery so it can't tip over, and provide ventilation around the battery!

[Steve-o-bud]

Do you guys have a forced air heater? It's been my experience that the heater is the biggest consumer of battery and propane.

We have a forced air heater, a water heater, and fridge.

We spent 5 days recently in Yosemite. We used the outside high pressure stove a couple of times, and ran the fridge and water heater.  We used the forced air heater sparingly, setting the thermostat to the lowest setting to take the chill out. For lighting, we mostly use battery powered florescent lanterns, but occassionaly used the trailers overhead lights.

We did not come close to running out of propane, and the battery was in good shape.

Have fun at the beach!

[YesDear]

Thank you for the replies!  No, we do not have an air conditioner, we do not plan on using the heater, but obviously that could change depending on the temperature at night.  We have 2 battery operated flourescent lanterns that we plan to use as much as possible to help cut down on the use of the trailer lights.  Sounds like if we are careful, we should be fine!  Thanks again!

[kimrb266]

I was wondering which area you are camping at Carpenteria State Beach, we have stayed there with full hook ups...?

[YesDear]

We are camping in the last campground, can't remember the name of it right now.  A friend made the reservations back in January, and was only able to get one site with hookups which is in the middle row.  There are two sites on the beach row, one site in the middle with the hookups, and 3 sites on the back row.  Since we are new campers to this group, we are not the lucky ones to get the hookups, or even to get one of the beach sites... will have to work on that next year!  Ha ha!

[tlhdoc]

You will have plenty of propane.  The only thing that uses a lot is a furnace and you don't think you will be using yours.  The battery is the big question.  Take your battery charger along and if you need to recharge your battery you can do it at your friends site that has electricity.  Have a good trip.