dry camping

[pecooper]

I have owned a 200 Winnebago Adventurer 35u for two years and have done 2-9 day trips up and down the east coast. It has two AGM house batteries that replaced the old batteries when I bought it. I was dry camping at a car show last month and there was weather headed our way. I left the TV on all day tuned to a weather channel. About 3pm the TV shut off and the low voltage light was on my inverter. Of course I just fired the genny for an hour and everything was fine. My question is would it help if I added 2-4 more house batteries? I would like to be able to run the lights, charge the electronics, and watch the TV and only run the genny once a day. I don't want solar, just a little more power.

[vsheetz]

Always hard to say for sure but doubling or tripling your battery bank capacity will of course increase your time in batteries. Two battery setup is not much capacity. Most folks, I think you will find, need to run Genny a couple times a day for a couple three hours to charge. Typically in the morning to replenish batteries from the night and while prepping breakfast (microwave, coffee maker, etc.). And again in the evening when prepping dinner and to top off batteries for evening usage.

[Hufficon]

Adding batteries will increase your running time. If you double the capacity of your batteries you will about double your running time. This depends on whether the batteries you have now are in top shape. I would check them individually with a good load tester and hydrometer. If the TV was all that was on your run time seems a little short.

This is assuming your battery charge was topped off when you started.