New member lots of questions

[jepk]

Hi everyone. This forum is great and I have learned a ton reading through it. I would like to tell you a little about my camping, my pup and what I am trying to do and get some ideas about the best direction to go.

I strictly dry camp out of my 02 Coleman Taos. The battery will run exacly three things right now the lights, the lp detector and the furnace fan. No water heater or water pump(just a manual hand pump for the sink). My battery is the middle size between the 24 and 31 (26 or 27?). I milked eight days out of it recently on a fishing trip with conservative furnace and light use. It has the Coleman roof top AC and in the six years I have owned the trailer it has never been turned on.

Now to my questions.
1. I would like to replace the AC with a vent fan. What is the best make and model of vent fan to use or are they all pretty much the same? Also I don't think I could do this myself where would be the bast place to have this done(camping world, my dealership or somewhere else?)
2. Would the vent fan be enough to cool off the my trailer or do I need to get the pop up gizmos or the bunkend fan/light combos that Fleetwood has to help?
3. I am going to need a generator. Before the vent fan idea I was just going to get the Honda eu1000 to charge the battery on long or cold trips when I needed the furnace more often(I have a good smart charger). My goal going foward is to be able to run my furnace or vent fan liberally without worrying about my battery. Will the vent fan be a big drain on the battery and would I be better off with the eu 2000?

Sean

[Recumbentman]

Sean
first Hello and welcome to PUT

1] one of the best fans is the Fan-Tastic Fan  here is a picture of one and I am sure you could do a web search and find a better price.
2] you can't go wrong with the gizmos over the bunkends. it makes a big difference, plus it keep your bunkends a lot cleaner from bird and/or sap droppings. can't comment if the fan is going to keep you cool enough. that's a personal state of being.
3] The EU1000 should be enough to just re-charge your batteries or just buy a second battery for your PU.

Good luck

[mike4947]

The EU1000i or one of the Chinese clone 1000 watt gensets will be sufficient for the converter in your PU to output it's maximum to the battery.
Do not use the 12 volt lugs on the genset as they are restricted to only 4 amps and to use them you have turn off the auto trottle and run the genset at maximum RPM.
 
I second the use of the bunk end covers.

[Jim K in PA]

Sean,

Welcome to PUT!

With your conservative usage, I would think a second 12 volt battery would be the best option for you, or even go for a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries in series.  If you can get a week out of a group 27, you should easily get two out of the gc batteries.  If you want to go longer, think about a 50-80 watt solar panel to recharge during the day.  It should keep up with your loads, but do a usage calc and size the panel accordingly.  That way you can leave the genset and gasoline, at home and enjoy the quiet.

Have fun!

[austinado16]

Definately get or make the solar bunk end covers.  

Consider also, an "O2Cool Fan" from Walmart or others.  Runs on 4 D-cells, 2 speed, and runs forever.  I think we currently have 8 days/nights use on our batteries and they're still going strong.