Experimental weekend

[dthurk]

We just completed an experimental weekend at a local SP campground.  We had a site with electricity, but never plugged in.  This was our first attempt at dry camping, and it was more successful than I thought.

First, our rig.  We have a 28' travel trailer with just about everything in it we would want.  Power requirements are rather great.  I outfitted it with 2 6 volt golf cart batteries.  I'd like to rig it with solar panels to allow us as close to unlimited power as we can get.

We made camp on Friday at about 6 PM.  I did not take a voltage reading from the battery, but now I wish I had.  We had the camper plugged in at home for an extended period, so would assume the battery was fully charged.  We used lights somewhat sparingly, trying to limit ourselves to 1 light on at a time (we have a total of 16 12 volt light fixtures on board, 6 of those are dual bulbs).   We  also made more use of separate battery lanterns and  flashlights than we would normally use while camping.  Our refrigerator  and hot water heater  used propane.  The furnace is ducted with 4 outlets distributed through the camper.  Freshwater tank is enclosed and heated by the furnace.  The blower is quite intense, and heats up the camper quickly.  High temps were about 50 and lows were in the mid 30's.  We set the thermostat to 65 during the day when we were at the camper, 45 when we left and 58 at night when we were sleeping.  We used the water pump at will.  All in all, we didn't change much of our living habits during the experiment.  

Voltages during the weekend were as follows:
Sat 9 AM     12.39
Sat 9 PM     12.35
Sun 12 PM   12.21
I didn't want our voltage to drop below 12.00, so we were well within that parameter.  We probably could have stayed another night without plugging in, which surprises me.  I had thought we would use more power than this, particularly with the furnace running during the entire time we were camping.  These 6 volt batteries give me much more than expected.  

I would consider our experiment to be most successful.  I learned a lot from the weekend.  Now, I'd like to begin setting us up with a solar system with panels, mounts, controller and inverter.  Comments, questons, anyone?

[tlhdoc]

I am glad you had a good trip.  I was hoping to camp at Ricketts Glen SP in PA, but couldn't get a reservation.  I should have gone to Watkins Glen instead.  Oh well I am glad you had a good time.  How much water did you go through?

[dthurk]

I am glad you had a good trip.  I was hoping to camp at Ricketts Glen SP in PA, but couldn't get a reservation.  I should have gone to Watkins Glen instead.  Oh well I am glad you had a good time.  How much water did you go through?

I didn't monitor water usage, as I knew we'd be able to get through the 2 days with what we had.  I'd estimate we went through about 1/2 our 45 gallon supply from the amount I dumped.  They had closed 4 loops in the campground (only Mohawk and Cayuga were open).  I used the dump station in the closed area to be able to take as much time as I needed to clean the tanks as well as I could to put the camper into winter mode.  (I did ask permission in the office first.)

You could have come up.  We were on site 101.  103 was open the whole weekend, and is another nice site.  Actually, they only had about 15 sites occupied in Mohawk and about 5 in Cayuga, and those 5 were tent campers.  Hardy souls.  At any rate, there were a lot of open sites.  It was a very quiet campground.  We walked the gorge on Sat. from top to bottom (the only way to go!), and found a nearby apple orchard to pick apples and raspberries.  Allison didn't realize that apples grew on trees until that moment.  Interesting.