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dlduck · 01-09-2017, 04:46 PM

I own a 2006 National Dolphin Model 5355 with the Ford V-10 engine. My question for those with much more experience than I is: When I do not have any shore power and am dry camping, what else can I use besides my TV on my invertor? My invertor/charger is the Xantrex 1000 watt model. I am trying to determine if I need to spend some big bucks to buy a portable generator while dry camping for several weeks in Key West just to keep my batteries charged. Thanks for your inputs.
Dave

twinboat · 01-09-2017, 04:52 PM

Don't you have an onboard generator ?

If not, you will need something to charge them, usually once or twice a day.

Running the main engine, every day, just to charge batteries isn't really recomended.

I have a 1000 watt inverter and watch Sat. TV, charge our phones and laptops, and make morning coffee.

Mr_D · 01-09-2017, 04:53 PM

The question is: what do you want to run? You need to figure out how many watts you will be drawing then that will give you the wattage of the generator you need. Some rigs only had an inverter to run the TV and DVD or tape player. That depends on how your rig is wired.

Richard S. · 01-09-2017, 05:53 PM

The 2006 Dolphin 5355 had a 7kw generator and 1000 watt inverter as standard equipment.

hoosierrun · 01-09-2017, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlduck

I own a 2006 National Dolphin Model 5355 with the Ford V-10 engine. My question for those with much more experience than I is: When I do not have any shore power and am dry camping, what else can I use besides my TV on my invertor? My invertor/charger is the Xantrex 1000 watt model. I am trying to determine if I need to spend some big bucks to buy a portable generator while dry camping for several weeks in Key West just to keep my batteries charged. Thanks for your inputs.
Dave

It depends on how long you will be dry camping before you can get back to shore power. I run a TV, DVD, cell phone chargers, small computer, and occasionally a coffee pot. We might also run a blender or mixer for a minute or two once a day. The batteries may also be used for the water pump, electric step, interior/exterior lights (hopefully LED), possibly fridge (unless it is propane) which don't go through an inverter, but reduce available power storage for later inverter use.

It really depends on how often you use those items, but typically you might be able to go 3 to 5 days before a recharge if you are conservative.

Tony Lee · 01-09-2017, 06:29 PM

Without knowing the size and type of batteries, what means you have for charging the batteries and what sort of loads you want to supply and for how long, the only possible answer is we don't know.

twinboat · 01-09-2017, 06:40 PM

To put in some kind of perspective, my TV, tracking dish and sound bar use about 10 amps@12 volts.

5 hours of me watching TV will use up half of the capacity of 1 typical 12 volt battery. Thats not counting lights, water pump and fridge power.

You shouldn't use more the half of a batterys capacity.

Obviously, if you have 2, 3 or 4 batteries you'll get more time between charging, if they are good batteries.

gatorcq · 01-10-2017, 08:20 AM

you only have 2, 6vdc batteries. Only up front outlets work.
With the inverter you have a CONverter. Does not really do a good job of charging batteries but will work.

Unplanned Tourist · 01-10-2017, 08:32 AM

Dave, spend the big bucks for a solar power system. Dry camping will be so much more enjoyable and quieter! Enjoy the TV shows

Tahiti16 · 01-10-2017, 10:39 AM

If you are going to regularly boondock agree with Unplanned, get a properly sized solar system for what you will consume.

We have same coach and if warmer weather then I only need to run the generator every other day. If winter time and the furnace runs during the night I run the gen for an hour in the morning during breakfast and coffee and again at dinner time usually clicking the furnace up a couple degrees to get a good warm on the coach while we have power.

We have 2 6 volt batteries for the house, if you have the monitoring panel not just the on off switch make sure the power share is set to 50 amp input when the gen is running.

tmw188 · 01-13-2017, 04:50 AM

I'm confused as to why you don't have a genny?

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lrsses · 02-04-2017, 03:27 AM

I use a small solar panel to charge both my chassis battery and the two coach batteries. I plug one into a liter port and place the panel in the windshield and use clips on the other to connect to the coach or house batteries keeps them up in the winter as well as dry camping. You can them purchase at Harbor Freight.