Batteries?

Originally posted by Tars Tarkas Originally posted by Tom A I was just advised not to leave my new 190 plugged into shore power because the stock inverters are not good enough and it will fry my battery. Really? It wasn't just R*Pods or Forest River, but there were apparently a lot of bad converters in the overall RV market a year or two ago and people had a lot of trouble with them.  They quit working; I don't recall hearing about them frying batteries.  My converter (and it's a converter, not an inverter) is nearly 10 years old and I keep my pod plugged in all the time when I'm home.  Never had a problem.   RPod converters generally have a good reputation and the charger is supposed to be a really good 3-stage charger. I'm curious where you heard that story.... TT

Originally posted by Leo B We have the one 12v battery, going to be using our renogy 100w solar panel/set up to keep the battery charged, and hopefully not have to worry about battery capacity. We will charge it while camping and not have to carry a second battery.  Just bought the solar stuff over the winter, playing with it now so we will be ready for the season.

Our Renogy suitcase is deployed right now in Frisco, NC.  Doing a great job, although at the first of the week not so much.  It was very overcast for a couple of days.

You bring up a good point, indirectly.  It doesn't matter too much what kind of battery you have or how many.  They are all going to drain down eventually if you don't have some way to recharge them.  Without the ability to recharge, you are always counting watts and living in the dark.  That's okay for some people but I have one 12v battery and I can boondock all week with no problem with the Renogy suitcase.  I also have a 2200w generator, which hasn't gotten much use this week.  It does let me crank up the air conditioner or cook some biscuits when I want to too though.

There's a guy a couple of sites down who must have 400 watts of solar on a lazy susan platform on top of his big diesel pusher.  Plus he has one of these:

Probably another 600w, when the wind's blowing, which it usually is here.

Anyway, 1 12v battery is fine for me.

TT

Originally posted by Tars Tarkas I'll admit -- I'm in over my head.  A 4 stage converter sounds better than a 3 stage converter, especially to hear a 4-stage converter salesman talk about it, but I've been around this forum for a while and I don't recall anyone ever complaining that the stock WFCO converter fried their battery.  I don't think I'd run right out and buy a new converter based on one person's opinion.  I'd probably wait for either my battery or my converter to fail and, depending on why one of them died, maybe shop for a new converter then. Again, I've left my converter plugged in for months on end with no problems whatsoever. I think it was StephenH who posted this link for me a few days ago, about the WFCO: http://wfcoelectronics.com/wfcos-three-stage-converter-handles-every-charging-need-for-your-rv/ TT