Why?

[oldmoose]

We were dry camping in the San Bernadino Mtns this past weekend at Heart Bar. It's a wonderful campground at 7000'. I have 2 group 27 batteries and it worked out well. Especially with the temp's in the high 20's in the morning. Our furnace was going on and off all night. A review of the campground will be posted shortly.
 
Moose

[garym053]

John, one thing that I'm not sure if I stated, I use a separate battery just for the CPAP, oh, and I bought an inverter with wattage that was as little OVER the CPAP's stated wattage as possible. My theory on that is that there is more energy wasted converting 12v to 120V in larger inverters. This conclusion, though not done scientifically was based on hooking up my CPAP to my first inverter a 750 Watt Walmart model, and using the multimeter to measure the Amps drawn from the battery. Then I hooked up my Radio Shack 140 watt inverter and measured it and the draw was less.

[Walt]

I was a backpacker and moved to camping out of a jeep. I got older and fatter. lol... Well the tent got bigger when I finnaly grew up and got married. I got sleeping cots, bigger stoves... I just bought a 02 Coleman Taos and I'm looking forward to my first trip.

[dademt]

We were dry camping in the San Bernadino Mtns this past weekend at Heart Bar. It's a wonderful campground at 7000'. I have 2 group 27 batteries and it worked out well. Especially with the temp's in the high 20's in the morning. Our furnace was going on and off all night. A review of the campground will be posted shortly.
 
Moose

Quick question if you don't mind, how do you run your heater fan off of the batteries?  Mine will only kick on when connected to a landline (120v ).

[mike4947]

The fan in the furnace is 12 volt. The converter supplies the 12 volt power when hooked to shore power. If the battery is low then the voltage won't be enough to start the fan and if it does start it might not have enough pressure to activate the sail switch.

[dademt]

The fan in the furnace is 12 volt. The converter supplies the 12 volt power when hooked to shore power. If the battery is low then the voltage won't be enough to start the fan and if it does start it might not have enough pressure to activate the sail switch.

Thanks, I will check it out next time I put it up.  I appreciate the feedback.  Still very new to working with a combination ac/dc system and figuring it all out.

[garym053]

RE: Dry Camping and CPAP Useage
We spent 11 days Dry Camping at a Vermont State park from June 24th through July 4th. I told my wife I was going to see exactly how long I could run my CPAP on a battery (105 & 115 AH) until it reached a 50% charge.
The first battery, a 105 AH Gel Mat Battery lasted 4 nights and was down to about 55% or so at 12.14V. Probably COULD have gone one or two more night without stressing the battery too much! The second battery, a 115 AH Wallyworld Deep Cycle lasted the other 6 nights with no problem!
Next time I go for a long dry camp, I am going to take the Walmart battery and see how long it will power the inverter! Even IF it shortens the battery life by taking it as far down as possible, I'd still like to know for future reference. The Walmart battery was a LOT less than the $180.00 I paid for the Gel Mat!!!

[Camping Coxes]

Yes, we have gottena little spoiled with having trailers with hot and cold running water, AC, etc.  If I'm staying somewhere and we have hook-ups, fantastic.  You can throw caution to the wind and let the water run while you do dishes if you want, run the AC all weekend if you want, and not worry about  if you left your lights on as you left the trailer.

Having said that, I would have missed out on some fantastic campgrounds if I were not willing to dry camp, such as Lodgepole in Sequoia NP, where deer and even bear came roaming near our campsite and my kids got to swim in a natural lake the river created at a slow spot.  Also, Sugarpine SP in Lake Tahoe, where we loved the freezing cold lake and had the best time at our campground, with paved trails to ride our bikes, as well as an off-road trail, and we met a family camping there that we met up with again the next summer to visit with because we enjoyed each other's company so much.
 
On the other side, we stayed at Lake Tahoe the second year and stayed where we could have hook-ups, and had a miserable time at a poorly maintained CG that wanted to charge for everything (lake access, dumping gray water) and had moldy showers with doors that barely latched. I'll dry camp at Sugarpine any day that have hook-ups at "historic" Camp Richardson.
 
It take a little common sense to dry camp, such as not letting the water run, using bottled water for cooking to conserve your water for dish washing, using battery lanterns when you can, and just generally conserving your resources.  That's for a week's stay mind you.  If it's just the weekend, you can let the lights blaze and you'll be fine, but you still need to conserve your water.