dry camping with furnace and shower

[station71]

Hi All

May sound like a stupid question but using a deep cycle battery, can you use your furnace and does the 12 volt work to heat the hot water tank for a shower. My thoughts on the tank are no but I'm not sure about the furnace. If no for both, what do most people do to keep the trailer warm at night (other than the obvious with the DW) and what about a shower

Hope everyone is having a great summer

Cheers

Al

[Diplomat]

Hi All

May sound like a stupid question but using a deep cycle battery, can you use your furnace and does the 12 volt work to heat the hot water tank for a shower. My thoughts on the tank are no but I'm not sure about the furnace. If no for both, what do most people do to keep the trailer warm at night (other than the obvious with the DW) and what about a shower

Hope everyone is having a great summer

Cheers

Al

Yes, your battery will power the furnace, remember the heat is supplied by a propane burner.  Only the fan is 12 volt, running off the battery.  My recommendation is to use a good quality sleeping bag to sleep in and only run the furnace in the mornings and evenings.  I find that the furnace only serves to wake me up each time it cycles on and off and the warm air really struggles to reach the bunk ends.  You won't have any problem having enough juice to last a weekend in my experience.  Your water heater is propane, so the battery has nothing to do with it.

[ForestCreature]

Hi,
 The furnace fan runs off the battery, it'll drag the battery down pretty good after a couple nights if you leave it turned to a high temp. Less time if you run it all day long. If it's real cold out, be sure you have a full propane tank.
 
 The water heater runs off propane and has little bearing on the battery. The water pump takes more energy than the water heater itself.
 We take fast showers, water down, turn off water...soap up wash etc, then rinse. Not the most relaxing shower, but it gets ya clean.
 
 We leave the furnace off during the day, only using it at night when we are inside. We generaly turn the furnace on about 15 mins before we go in to go to sleep , then turn it down to about 58 0r 60 while we sleep.
 
   If you plan on being out more than a couple nights a spare battery would be a good option to bring along.

[ReconMarine]

OR you can get solar pannels and that will keep your battery charged.

[station71]

great advice thanks everyone

Al

[tlhdoc]

Like some of the others have said, the furnace will drain the battery and the propane tank.  Only plan on them lasting a couple of nights.  The water heater runs on propane (some have an electric option, but still run on gas) and doesn't use a lot of propane.  We take marine showers.  Get wet, turn water off, soap up, and rinse off.  We get 3 showers out of 5 gallons of water.  It is a wonderful thing to have your own hot shower.  I am stressing this because we just came home today from a 6 day trip to the the ocean.  The campground only has cold water rinse off showers.:eyecrazy:

[dee106]

also remember it insulate your bunkends to keep the heat in, in the cooler weather and the heat out in the warmer weather!, a carpet runner on the floor helps a lot too!

[ntxgrandma]

I just want to stress that insulating your bunks go a lot further toward keeping you comfortable than the furnace will.  Your bunks hang out with the air all around, so something under the mattress and on top of the canvas will help too.  I've even seen people put insulating board in the zip up window areas.  If you use the bunkend hideaway, that end will be warmer also, due to the lack of air movement under the bunk.
 
We dry camp a lot and also take marine-type showers.  Save the long, leisurely showers for when you get back home.  We just run the furnace a little in the morning to take the chill off while we dress, and maybe a little at night.  We've not done any "real cold" camping, but where the nights get down in the 40's, maybe.  Lots of quilts on the beds!!  DH & I took 3 grandkids and dry camped in the CO mtns. last summer for over a week.  We did fine, had to carry water to refill the water tank a few times, especially after showers.
 
When we dry camp, we now carry an extra battery.  (We've also been known to remove the battery and carry it around with us plugged into the cigarette lighter (12v port?) of the van and recharge it while we drive.)  
 
As far as the water pump goes, just turn it off when you're not using it.  Sometimes there will be a little leakage that will cause it to cycle off and on, using battery power.  Also, use lanterns, either battery or propane, rather than your 12v lights as much as possible.  We have a battery powered lantern that is remote controlled and that is nice when you return to the camper after dark and just hit the button when you get out of the car.  Voila!  Light!  Also even when you have everything turned off, the leak detector is on and using a little power.
 
You'll do fine and it's so much quieter without a generator, although Onan (I think it's Onan) makes a real small one now, especially for popups.  It's pricy though.