Power systems help: Boondocking

[saburai]

Hello All!
In need of guidance here...
Marketa and I have elected to live for the next 3-4 months in a 30ft. Keystone RV. It's nice with a big pop out and the normal cool stuff. We will be dry camping - "boondocking" as it's known. The very cool part is that we will set up camp in a old 40 acre palm grove with two large ponds situated behind a organic farm. I think I *may* have water and waste figured out but I'm still figuring out power. I was planning to, later on, next season, add couple of AGM batteries and panels. For now, I've got the 62W foldable solar panel from the Jeep and as I mentioned, I'll build a more robust solar system down the line... I want a quiet inverter genny, of course the popular choice would be a Honda EU2000i, we wouldn't be able to run the AC with it but we're both pretty tropical! We do need at least 2k as Marketa uses a 1500W Vitamix every day for breakfast smoothies and a bunch of other food prep as well. I was poking around on some of the RV boards and found a link to this: http://www.amazon.com/Champion-Remot.../dp/B00JZQUSAC
Home Depot has it as well, if there were a problem right off the bat being local would help. I've been researching all day, and while not a Honda or Yamaha, Champion seems well regarded. The remote electric start is nice, Marketa could kick it on from inside w/o needing me to start it to run high draw appliances, and a little extra head room would be nice to have for running tools and such. It's has many favorable reviews on the RV sites...
What do you guys think?

BTW, the RV is a '04 Larado 25+4RL, it's via a friend who is the sales manager of a RV "Super Store", he is hooking us up at wholesale on a trade in and can do the same again in the future. We are only down here for about five months of the year and don't want to buy any property as we like to stay agile and fluid if things change. Seasonal rents are stupid here due to the general awesomeness of the area and we are about sick of dealings with land lords. The wholesale price is low enough that if we want to we would be able to sell the rig and turn a profit. Plus we much prefer to live "in the woods" and could use the profit to up grade to a newer or bigger rig next season. The catch down here for us is that we operate on the proverbial shoestring and don't want to deplete our meager savings or bust our asses working to maintain daily needs...

Back to the problem at hand -

I would love to run a few good batteries and a capable inverter, but I don't know that we have the budget for all that and a generator to charge as well...

The rig is about seven hours away and I have yet to see it in person, but I do trust my bud.

Batteries Would be about 1k for a pair of good size AGM's
I've got no idea of the type or condition of the house battery(s) that's in the rig now, I'm assuming that my pal will do right and at least provide a good "standard RV" battery - what ever that is!

Here are inverters that I think would do the job:

Inverter $400:
http://www.altestore.com/store/Inver...verter/p10830/

Or the one I'd really like with a built in transfer switch $1035:
http://www.altestore.com/store/Inver...-Switch/p2172/

As I wrote, solar panels will come later on but I need power now.
Trying to keep the budget at at 2k. Closing in on 3k would be a strain...

Any ideas or advice would be great!

 

[java]

Will the trailer be in one place the whole time? I would find the largest golf cart batteries (6v) I could and just put them next to the RV and tie them in to the existing system.

 

[saburai]

Will the trailer be in one place the whole time? I would find the largest golf cart batteries (6v) I could and just put them next to the RV and tie them in to the existing system.

Thanks! Yeah, I guess that would help keep costs down. New? Used? Any ideas on cost?

 

[workerdrone]

Inverters look good, if your primary concern is budget as it sounds like I would go for the $400 Samlex. I'd skip AGM batteries in favor of 6v golf cart batteries. I'd get a couplefew hundred watts of used Solar and a basic pwm charge controller and some properly fat wire and you're good to run everything but AC. If the Vitamix is your biggest load I wouldn't worry about it at all, as long as your inverter doesn't trip out it is used for so few minutes a day it doesn't add up to much load at all. You'll see your voltage dip down low while it's running and then recover all the way right after shutting it off.

Quality golf cart batteries are going to be under $100 new and much less used. If you can score 12v batteries used really cheap then you can use them with small inverters too to run fans and LED lighting on a shoestring. It's better if they're "marine" or "deep cycle" batteries (neither is actually a deep cycle battery) but with tiny loads as long as you keep them topped off well they'll be fine. Best to never run a 12v battery of any kind down below 12v.

If you do buy new check the date of manufacture and state of charge in the store - buy the freshest batteries you can get. If you buy used they should read over 12.6v fully charged and still read that much after putting a bit of load on them.

Again, if your primary concern is budget, buy the genny used. Always deals on craigslist.

 

[java]

Thanks! Yeah, I guess that would help keep costs down. New? Used? Any ideas on cost?

Id go new, but they more a bit more cost effective. Not sure on costs, depends on the battery size.

I have a champion generator, its been fine so far, although last time I used it one of the charging coil didn't excite, so no 220v. But it had been sitting for about 2 years and fired right up.

 

[dwh]

My last generator was the smallest cheapest that Champion makes. I paid 200 bucks for it delivered, and it lasted well over 1000 hours.

Champion is an American company in Santa Fe Springs, Ca, in partnership with a Chinese factory. Fantastic customer service, which I can say from personal experience. There's a story floating around about a guy in Los Angeles who had a problem, and one of the tech support guys from Champion grabbed the parts and a tool kit and drove to the customer's house and fixed the genny for free. I believe it.

One thing I discovered, is that they consider powering an RV to be technically "powering a dwelling" which is specifically NOT covered by the warranty. Even if the stupid thing does have an RV plug. They knew I did it, and they honored the warranty anyway, but the tech gave me the heads up about technically violating the warranty. So just don't tell them that's what you're doing.

There is a huge, years old thread on RV.net about the smaller 2000w Champ inverter gen. From all accounts, bloody good for the money, but doesn't handle load spikes real well. The bigger one that you are looking at should be no problem, and will have the updated inverter module programming that Champion came up with to address the issues with the smaller one.


Samlex mades good stuff. Xantrex makes damned good stuff.


You certainly don't need sealed AGMs unless you are going to tilt your vehicle all wonky. For a boondocking RV that is going to sit still and level for months, definitely get the golf cart batteries. You can pop the caps and check the water and specific gravity, and they won't cost a ton. NEVER buy used or "reconditioned" batteries. As batteries age, the lead plates corrode. Cleaning out the battery and putting in new electrolyte won't fix the corroded plates. Always buy new.

Probably the most commonly used would the "Ol' Reliable" Trojan T-105.


If your RV has a standard "RV converter" it might actually do a pretty crappy job of battery charging, and if so, you're batteries won't last half as long as they could/should - so I'd consider adding a decent multi-stage battery charger that you can run from the generator to do a really good job of battery charging. 55a Iota DLS with IQ/4 brain module does a killer job of charging golf cart batteries without overloading your generator. Actually, with that 2800w Champ, you could probably run a 75a Iota.

Be advised though - a deep cycle battery drained 50% can easily take 12 hours or more to fully recharge - and that's WITH a good charger. And if you don't fully recharge them, they WILL NOT live a long time.


The little cheesy 62w solar is basically going to be useless for keeping a decent sized battery or battery bank charged. With a good charger, you'll get more amp*hours into the battery bank in an hour than you would from that little solar panel in a week.

 

[saburai]

Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the info guys! keep it coming.
Hey dwh, good info there,thanks. BTW, while my Global Solar folding panel my only be 62w it aint cheesy

http://www.globalsolar.com/products/military/p3-62

 

[dwh]

Okay, I take it back. It's a really really nice little solar setup...for charging a phone.

 

[saburai]

Actuality, for the past 5-6 years, it does a pretty good job, along with the two 880 CCA Die hard AGMs in jeep keeping the Edge Star fridge going and I've been known to run the 12v bunk heater in the RTT all night long...

 

[DiploStrat]

Start Here

Even if you don't agree with all of Bob's conclusions, his blog is a must read for what you are trying to do.

And no, you probably don't need a generator.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com

 

[saburai]

Even if you don't agree with all of Bob's conclusions, his blog is a must read for what you are trying to do.

And no, you probably don't need a generator.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com

Great link, thanks Fred! Tons of good info there. And lots of reading...

 

[jkosten]

What is the average wind in that area? Have you looked into small scale wind generation?

Handy part is wind csn work 24/7 for you if conditions are correct.

sent from my pocket...