Help with hook up when boondocking

[tomkaren]

Could anyone please help us?? If we have no hook-ups and run our water for a shower, where is the power coming from? I would think that the deep cycle 12 volt supplies the power but is the gen set charging that source? We are going to a rally next week with no hook-ups. I can run the gen set provided that the surrounding people don't object. Thanks,Tom/Karen

[Senior Chief]

Tom:

Yes, your water pump is 12 volt, and will run off the house batteries, as will your lights and retractable steps.

How long will the batteries last without recharging? Depends on how large (how many amp-hours) the batteries are and how many lights, etc are on and for how long.

It is normal at a rally with no hook-ups for folks to run their generators to recharge their house batteries and run any 110v AC appliances like TV, coffeepot or microwave. Courtesy requires you restrict the running to daylight hours only.

P.S. you will get a better response to your questions if you start your own thread and don't hijack one on a completely different subject.

[FIRE UP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomkaren Could anyone please help us?? If we have no hook-ups and run our water for a shower, where is the power coming from? I would think that the deep cycle 12 volt supplies the power but is the gen set charging that source? We are going to a rally next week with no hook-ups. I can run the gen set provided that the surrounding people don't object. Thanks,Tom/Karen

Tom/Karen,
It's true, ALL of your 12V appliances, lights, water pump, furnace, steps, and more will run and are designed to run off your house batteries. Depending on just how much you use all of those appliances when, the generator is not running and, how many of them you're running at one time. Deep cycle 12V batteries are sometimes, not TRUE deep cycle ones. Not in the terms of "DEEP CYCLE" anyway. I wont' get into all the constructions techniques but, suffice to say they won't last as long as a group of 6V golf cart ones. But that's another subject.

The "generator" running subject has been a debate since the beginning of time. Some are louder and some quieter. Some bother people and some don't. Common courtesy and common sense sometimes seems to fade away in certain conditions. How much you run your generator in any given day, including the start up and shut down time is up to you. But, running it all day because one is watching TV is, in my opinion, way over board. If you've got bad batteries and you have to run the generator to compensate, GET NEW BATTERIES!

If you run it to simply re-charge what you've used for a short time, and again, it's a matter of judgement of what a "short time" is, and, if you're really polite, you talk to a couple of your closest RV neighbors and tell them of your intentions, 99.999% of them would approve. But, we've all seen and heard generators running for hours on end, even with the occupants gone. The smart move is to acquire solar, enough to replenish the batts to full charge during the day. But, that's expensive and depends solely on the weather. I've had solar in the past and really liked it. I always entered my coach at the end of the day with full batteries.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senior Chief Tom: Yes, your water pump is 12 volt, and will run off the house batteries, as will your lights and retractable steps. How long will the batteries last without recharging? Depends on how large (how many amp-hours) the batteries are and how many lights, etc are on and for how long. It is normal at a rally with no hook-ups for folks to run their generators to recharge their house batteries and run any 110v AC appliances like TV, coffeepot or microwave. Courtesy requires you restrict the running to daylight hours only. P.S. you will get a better response to your questions if you start your own thread and don't hijack one on a completely different subject.

Chief,
While I agree with most of your statement, I'm not sure I understand the part of starting his own thread? In running down the list of subjects/posts/threads, he DOES have his own POST/THREAD. If, he started asking about and or talking about ideas or in the middle of a discussion about a related subjects, I could see your point but, he DID start this thread. Just wondering here.
Scott

[Gary RVRoamer]

A moderator probably split it off into its own thread. That happens fairly often.

[SyrenSkywolf]

A forum I used to help run, the moderators would make a post on the split thread (aka this one) when it was done to help avoid confusion. Just saying :]

[Senior Chief]

Wow, now I'm confused!

Yes, this thread must have got split off into its own thread- it was originally just a non sequitur post in an unrelated thread.

I apologize if I appeared rude. Just meant to help a new poster get some good responses to his first questions.

[FIRE UP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senior Chief Wow, now I'm confused! Yes, this thread must have got split off into its own thread- it was originally just a non sequitur post in an unrelated thread. I apologize if I appeared rude. Just meant to help a new poster get some good responses to his first questions.

Chief,
Roger that, now I sort of see what happened. If there was more to it previously, and it's not there now, then I see the light. Learning all the time, even at this age.
Scott