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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: New owner
    Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 12:57pm
For 1 or 2 nights you’ll be more than fine with 2 GC2 batteries.
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StephenH View Drop Down
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Posts: 6422 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 12:56pm
I use dual 6V batteries and have since we bought out RPod 179 in December, 2015. We can get multiple nights boondocking. Now, if you are thinking that the batteries will run the AC, forget about it. That isn't going to happen unless you have a massive solar bank and lots of LiFePo4 batteries or a good generator. However, you can run the lights, water pump, and Fantastic/MaxxAir fan on battery for multiple nights if you plan on running the refrigerator and water heater on propane. The furnace can also be run, but since it draws more, you would not get as many nights with it running. Also, we found that dual 6V batteries will also not power the refrigerator overnight so plan on using propane for it if you don't have shore power.

Full hook-ups will allow you to run everything on electricity with multiple items at the same time such as the AC and Convection Microwave or water heater.
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noatakme View Drop Down
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Posts: 18 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 12:11pm
Originally posted by offgrid

You are going to be limited by the resistance of the wiring back to the trailer. Alternators are set up to keep the tow vehicle battery at 14.4V max, so if your current alternator already does that while your towing (which is likely) then changing to a higher capacity alternator won't help you. 

If you wanted to route separate heavy cabling to the trailer battery from the tow vehicle (when I say heavy I'm taking about maybe 2/0 conductors) then yes the larger alt could improve things.  But you are likely to find you're just fine with what you already have. 


That's a relief. I believe I am going to go with 2 golf cart batteries. 6 volt wired in series. I would like to be able to boondock for 1 or 2 nights. It would be just my wife and myself. Probably just in the heat of summer for my wife. We will see. Our first trip is going to be at French Creek State Park in PA. Full hook ups.  We will drive from there an back to Philly to see the Cherry blossoms. I still haven't run any of the systems yet. I'll have to learn how to do that.

Paul
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2707 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 11:19am
Our alternator puts out 250 amps, so we are not worried about it. We have never run down either batteries when we tow with the fridge in 12V mode.
bp
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lostagain View Drop Down
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Posts: 2595 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 10:23am
Simple solution:  When in transit run the fridge on gas.  If you have concerns about fueling and tunnels, just turn it off for those things.  There is plenty of residual cold to keep thing preserved until you turn your gas back on.  Likely, you're going to drain your trailer battery while driving, even with the high output alternator for the very reason offgrid suggested.  The conductors to your trailer plug aren't really heavy enough to carry the current you need for that distance.  So you'll be supplying part of the energy to run your fridge from your TV and part from the trailer batteries, all at a net loss for your trailer batteries.  
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 9:15am
You are going to be limited by the resistance of the wiring back to the trailer. Alternators are set up to keep the tow vehicle battery at 14.4V max, so if your current alternator already does that while your towing (which is likely) then changing to a higher capacity alternator won't help you. 

If you wanted to route separate heavy cabling to the trailer battery from the tow vehicle (when I say heavy I'm taking about maybe 2/0 conductors) then yes the larger alt could improve things.  But you are likely to find you're just fine with what you already have. 
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noatakme View Drop Down
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Posts: 18 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 9:07am
I see Summit racing sells a 165 amp alternator for my truck. I assume this would improve the charge? I think I have 105 amp now.
Paul
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 at 8:59am
If you have a voltmeter you can check to be sure you have 12V to your trailer connector. That's pin 4 (you can find a good diagram on etrailer or other websites). That will tell you that you can charge while driving, but not how much current will flow.

 There should be a circuit breaker or fuse installed in the trailer connector charging circuit somewhere near the two vehicle battery, that would tell you the max charge current you could potentially get. Those are usually around 30 amps, you will always get less than that. The fridge on 12V takes about 11A so you can see that it is a very significant load. 

You won't be able to tell how much charge current will actually flow without your trailer battery installed. Even then, the current will vary greatly depending on the state of charge of the trailer and tow vehicle batteries. You are in reality connecting two 12V batteries in parallel through the trailer connector so current will try to flow until the two batteries are at the same voltage. 

There's not a lot you can do to change the charge rate from the tow vehicle anyway. It will be what it will be. So, once you've made sure you don't have a tongue weight issue, I'd suggest just installing your new trailer batteries and then see what happens while you're towing. Get a multimeter with a clamp on dc current probe (be sure its dc and ac, not just ac). Then you can check things under a variety of conditions. 
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2707 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Mar 2019 at 8:26pm
Originally posted by noatakme

Can I find that out with the battery off?
It might be in the specs somewhere, or you can measure what the output is if you have a clamp-on DC ammeter.
bp
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noatakme View Drop Down
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Posts: 18 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Mar 2019 at 6:49pm
Originally posted by GlueGuy

So it behooves you to know if and how much current your particular tow vehicle can provide to the trailer. Ours works fine, others have reported varying degrees of success. 


Can I find that out with the battery off?
Paul
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