Dry camping advice

[larbobmar]

This will be our first full summer with our 2018 Bay Star 3009. We always try to dry camp at least three times a season (if not more) at three days for each stay. We typically stay in campgrounds in the National Parks that have heavy canopies. Our unit has the all electric refrigerator. We are looking at switching the house batteries to AGM’s. Any advice on any other possible modifications that will enable us to dry camp without excessively using our gas generator? Thanks. Bob

[aether_one]

Switching to AGM will probably not help your capacity; 100 Amp-Hours is 100 Amp-hours regardless if it's AGM or FLA.

[Nickd]

Think you want to consider a decent solar system. As big as you can afford comfortably. Life saver if you dry camp and don’t like generator noise. I only start our generator for the microwave an A/C. Other than that we enjoy the peace of the great outdoors.

[10 fan]

Solar won't help under a heavy canopy. A friend had a 100w portable and was very happy with it. Do you have room for more or larger batteries? Maybe build a frame for more under the hood .

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by 10 fan

Solar won't help under a heavy canopy.

We stayed in Apgar campground, Glacier National Park for 6 rainy days under trees with our 300w of solar. Of course, we had a propane refrigerator and used minimal electric such as a stovetop perculator for coffee, toast made in the frying pan.

[richard5933]

We carry three folding 180 watt solar panel which can charge at about 30 amps under ideal conditions. We went with the portable panels so that we can park under a heavy canopy and still have our panels in the sun. By configuring the panels in series, the cable connecting them was able to be 50 feet long without a problem. Of course, this only works if you have room to carry the panels and if there is sun within 50 feet.

The only other viable alternative to solar (or running the generator) will be to add capacity to your battery bank. Doesn't matter if it's AGM or flooded cell batteries, you want to get more Ah capacity. There are lots of ways to get there - it's just a math problem where you balance available space, available money, and available high capacity batteries.

[Dutch Star Don]

If you have room for extra batteries, add two more. Otherwise, you can burn a lot of gasoline for the price of solar and all the components. Solar is great, but requires a LOT of it to successfully run off grid.

Start your genny in the morning while showering and eating breakfast and then once in the evening while prepping dinner. You'll probably use less than $40.00 in fuel over three days. Waaaaay cheaper than a bunch of solar, especially if you're only doing it three times a year.

[Mark_K5LXP]

Batteries don't create energy, they store it. All more/bigger batteries will do is allow you to run at longer intervals between charges, but the longer you go, the longer your genset will take to replace the energy used. So more batteries does not equal less generator time. Instead of say 4 hours a day, after adding more batteries you might push that to 8 hours every 2 days. There ain't no free lunch.

Lacking is specifics of the anticipated energy required. Other than a desire to minimize generator run time one needs to determine just how many watt hours is needed on a given day and what combination of solar and genset time can provide that. More/different batteries might play a role in reducing generator time if the recharge rate is also increased, like with a different or multiple converters. This doesn't change the amount of energy consumed but it does change the time it takes to replenish it.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[Bushy]

Originally Posted by tfryman

Switching to AGM will probably not help your capacity; 100 Amp-Hours is 100 Amp-hours regardless if it's AGM or FLA.

I can't disagree with tfryman about the relative capacity of AGM vs FLA but I sure like the maintenance free characteristic of AGM. They just keep doing their job with little or no required attention. We have an all-electric coach and we can easily make it 2-3 days with little or no generator. We love camping at National Parks. Enjoy. I'd love follow your summertime schedule.

[vsheetz]

AGM and wet batteries are both basically the same technology and capacities. Dont switch to AGM thinking better for dry camping. Prime difference is maintenance free.

If looking to install a premium or larger capacity AGM, consider Lithium. Technically better in most all ways. Can be least cost to own over their lifetimes.

[Beach Livin]

Understanding your coaches and your power usage will help you figure out how best to minimize power consumption when boondocking.

With your coach set up for boondocking use a clamp on amp meter to see how many AH's you are drawing with "nothing on". T

When set up Look around the coach find all the little blue green and red lights and unplug or pull fuse to get rid of as many parasitic loads as possible. TV's, microwave, radio, tv antenna power booster, phone chargers …. On the inverter AC circuit(s) unplug any thing you can.

You may be able to save 1-3 Ah of power just doing this. Over three days thats 24-72 AH.

Also using the clamp on ammeter turn things on and off one at a time to see how much energy each item draws. This will help you understand how best to conserve power. For the high power usage AC items other than the fridge try to only use them when the generator is running.

2X "Start your genny in the morning while showering and eating breakfast and then once in the evening while prepping dinner. You'll probably use less than $40.00 in fuel over three days. Waaaaay cheaper than a bunch of solar, especially if you're only doing it three times a year."

[slojo]

I too dont like to listen to my generator, but also have a residential fridge in my Canyon Star. I've found if I run it for 1.5 hours in the morning & 1.5 hour at night will do IF you dont use much power when it's shut down. Watching TV & running the propan furnace will draw the batteries down so those need to used sparingly if at all. Also I've found if it's not an overly warm night I can turn the fridge off (using the inverter switch) before going to bed and then turn it on in the morning along with running the generator.