RE: Charging the Camper Battery while Dry Camping

[Joe Gleason]

 
I bought a 15 Watt Solar panel...Worthless... Neat looking add s a trickle... Makes you feel like your doing something ... That s about it though...
 
 I ll be Dry camping in Florida for 7 nights..   Need power for work (working the road is better then working at the office)....
 
 What is the best way to recharge a camper Battery?  
 Jumper Cables to the car?  How long?
 Is it had on the car to run idle?  Will it charge?
 Hitch hook up? (then you ve got exhaust near the camper)
 
 I ll be brining one of those portable battery the jumpers (a nice thing to have while traveling)..... Can leave that @ the ranger station over night?  But that gets? old!
 
 Who s tackled this with good results?
 

[Tim5055]

 Joe Gleason
Joe,
 
 I have [link=http://www.title-3.com/Battery.htm]added a second battery[/link] to our Santa Fe to extend the dry camping time available.  When this is not sufficient I have a [link=http://www.title-3.com/BatteryCharge.htm]Battery Caharge Cable[/link] to top off the batteries.
 
 As you say you " Need power for work" , I assuem you are powering a laptop or some other device.  Are you being a conservative as possible on your power usage?  As an example, using an inverter to plug in a 110v AC device uses more power then getting a 12v DC power cable for the laptop.

[Joe Gleason]

 Joe Gleason
Good idea on the 12 Volt PC outlette.  I have run my laptop off a portable 12V w/ pack then to a AC converter, on Local Power failure days... Shocking how fast it Drains!
 
 Did quite a bit of reading on the old boards regarding battery types.. Mine is shot so I ll upgrade...
 
 Recharging from the Car: Not clear on this...
 If I hook up my towing rig, and leave the car off... Will that power the camper rihgt?  It does when we are travelling...   Will it Charge the camper battery.. Ie if it s 60% - will it draw from the car that s 100% (higher voltage)... If that s the case... That should work fine as we take the car for a spin every few days...
 
 Someone mentioned not running the car in the campground... That makes a lot of sense... Where we are going will be empty and on a 1/2 mile wide island, but still I d be a pit " upset"  if someone else did that!

[tlhdoc]

 Joe Gleason
Take a second battery.  I use 2 group 31 batteries.  The second one is a spare and I usually don t have to use it.  We have camped 13 nights on one battery.  If I had to recharge I would hook jumper cables to it in an emergency.  If I had room under the hood I would have a spot there to set a battery so I could charge it when we drove around.

[Joe Gleason]

 Joe Gleason
Been thinking about this.....
 
 1st ... My Campter battery is SHOT... Not sure what the price is for a Deep cycle vs standard.. if deep is much more ... i" ll go standard as " Unfortunatly"  I don t DRY camp very much... Most of the places I enjoy have power... BMMER...
 
 Charging..... My understanding is that connecting jumper cables will charge my batter (with car off)... SO once or twice a week leave the car connected over night - powering & Charging the camper... The JUICE will flow and average...
 
 I keep an extra battery back (w/jumper) in the car just in case...
 
 Is this Logic a mess?  
 
 Reason for the " saving"  on the battery... Most of my battery damage will occur from time and lack of maintenace (I ll admit I am bad on that)...

[mike4947]

 Joe Gleason
Yup,Joe it s a mess, but not as bad as some of the ideas I used to have about batteries.
 Hooking up the Camper battery to a car battery won t " charge up"  the camper battery. The best you can hope for is somewhere about 1/2 way between the state od charge on the two when you hooked them together. It s voltage that provides the push for charging and it takes more than the voltage of a fully charged battery to fully charge a battery.
 Also one of the worst things you can do to a battery is leave it partially discharged.
 The second is to use a battery for a use that it s not intended for.  In your senerio you re doing both so figure on buying at best a new battery every year if not several times a year. I know about what it takes to ruin a battery as I ve found just about every way possible over the years.
 Using a " car"  battery will get you maybe 2 years out of a battery. Batteries designed for starting or dual purpose batteries have a different plate design than deep cycle batteries and are designed for quick discharges (starting) and immediate recharging. In other words just the opposite of what it ll see in a PU (slow discharge and not recharged FULLY till you get home and hook it up to a good charger.) Don t charge it fully as soon as you get home and you cut it s life in 1/2 also discharging it beyond 50% also shortens it s life.
 My latest deep cycle is 6 years old and still checks out within the " new"  spec range. and it was in my PU for 4 years, in the garage (charged fully once a month) for a year and in the neighbor s PU this year. With car batteries I was using 1 maybe 2 a year. The $110 for a good group 27 deep cycle and a deep cycle charger looks mighty good now 6 years later.

[ForestCreature]

 Joe Gleason
My first thought was to reccomend you get another 30 watts to add to your solar system. (with a bad battery that wouldn t make a difference anyway) But if you rarely dry camp, replacing the battery you have with a Deep Cycle battry is a better option.
 If you are a Costco member, they have group 27 batteries for about 85 bucks.
 From the sounds of it you may want to think about using 2 batteries.