I am trying to get a bit of advice re power needs.
we have just started our travels and are currently in yeppoon heading for emerald,normanton,karumba and then over to cairns to start with.
Although initially most of our stays will be in caravan parks we would also like to stop over for 2-3 days at non powered camps.
We have a jayco expanda 16.49.1 2006 fitted with a setec st20-11 power system and a puma dc31 100 amp hour battery. the fridge will be on gas when camping and will use 12v when driving 3-4 hours a day max.
apart from lights and a 12v tv the only other thing the battery will be used for is an engel eclipse fridge which uses between 0.5-2.75 amps. this will be hooked up to the 12v all the time (only used as a fridge)
I also have a sca 1900amp jump start for emergencies.
The tow vehicle is a 2009 kia sorento v6 petrol and although the caravan is rigged up to charge from the car the kia has not been wired up.
My question is Will the power supply I have currently meet my needs or should I be looking at an extra source?
Kia wired up,solar,extra deep cycle battery or generator.
The engel can go in the back of the kia when travelling but I am currently using the space for a 4hp mercury motor for the portabote
regards
Peter and Rosemary (and Ollie our retriever)
Firefly said
12:06 PM Mar 31, 2011
We have a dual battery system in our car.
Number one battery runs the car.
Number two 160 amp hr gel battery runs all camp accessories ie: fridges in the car and trickles to the van when in tow, charging the 100 amp hr gel battery in the van.
You will by the sounds, need an alternate power sorce to be on the safe side.
We purchased a stand alone 120 watt solar panel for our next trip as we found the above insufficient for free camping for extended days.
Also we carry a genny, which is great, but the solar panels in the heat, will pay for themselves in no time and the genny will be the back up.
The sun is free, the genny takes fuel. We have two gennys, our advice here is buy it once, buy a Honda. We have the Honda 2kva, quiter and suits all our needs.
Hope this helps, others will list what they prefer as well so your choices will be many.
peter and rose said
07:31 PM Mar 31, 2011
thanks firefly you have given me a fair bit to think about but have cleared the grey matter which should help
Smokeydk said
02:05 PM Apr 2, 2011
Peter.......seems your covered......maybe as FF said a 120 watt solar panel..........I have a 80watt one I place on ground.its not fixed to the van roof as some......cause I like to park in shade
"I also have a sca 1900amp jump start for emergencies."..........I have 2 for the same reason
I have a 100amphour Deep cycle battery too......will get a bigger one soon.......but I only run a waeco 40lt ...and lights ....no TV...
last trip 4 days....I didnt use my solar panel.....still had power
NeilandRaine said
08:13 AM Apr 3, 2011
One big power user when free camping is the water pump, if you have an electric one. Fold up 120 solar panels are popular and good these days and a stand by Genny is good to have, a Honda 1 KVA is the go, reliable and quiet. Wish I had one of them. If the budget will allow it LED lights can save heaps of battery life. Normal van lights are hard on battery. We dont suffer for the sake of saving power, we have 2 100amp hr batteries in the van, with the 12volt tele, lights, water pump, laptops we run from a cheap Dick Smith invertor with a surge protector and a weaco we can easily get 3 days out of batteries. However, to be on the safe side I put the genny on for a few hours every morning, about 10 am not to upset anyone.
You say you run your 3-way fridge off your van battery for approximately 3-4 hours whilst travelling. These fridges are very 12v power hungry. You would be better off power wise just to turn the fridge off for those 3 to 4 hours and conserve your 12v. The internal temperature of the fridge will not vary much if left shut for that length of time. We use to do it for around 6 hours when we had our Campertrailer and never had any fridge contents spoil.
If camping for 3 days, and using gas for your van fridge, I would think that your proposed usage for lights, TV, Engel, maybe water pump(?) could be close to the edge with your 100A/H battery, ie using 50% of capacity, and you would be wise to top up your battery by some means to prolong battery life.
We are from the Solar Panel school, however more often than not we see generators being set up as soon as vans pull into the Camps Book sites and sadly they are running well into the night.
Greetings fellow travellers
I am trying to get a bit of advice re power needs.
we have just started our travels and are currently in yeppoon heading for emerald,normanton,karumba and then over to cairns to start with.
Although initially most of our stays will be in caravan parks we would also like to stop over for 2-3 days at non powered camps.
We have a jayco expanda 16.49.1 2006 fitted with a setec st20-11 power system and a puma dc31 100 amp hour battery. the fridge will be on gas when camping and will use 12v when driving 3-4 hours a day max.
apart from lights and a 12v tv the only other thing the battery will be used for is an engel eclipse fridge which uses between 0.5-2.75 amps. this will be hooked up to the 12v all the time (only used as a fridge)
I also have a sca 1900amp jump start for emergencies.
The tow vehicle is a 2009 kia sorento v6 petrol and although the caravan is rigged up to charge from the car the kia has not been wired up.
My question is Will the power supply I have currently meet my needs or should I be looking at an extra source?
Kia wired up,solar,extra deep cycle battery or generator.
The engel can go in the back of the kia when travelling but I am currently using the space for a 4hp mercury motor for the portabote
regards
Peter and Rosemary (and Ollie our retriever)
Number one battery runs the car.
Number two 160 amp hr gel battery runs all camp accessories ie: fridges in the car and trickles to the van when in tow, charging the 100 amp hr gel battery in the van.
You will by the sounds, need an alternate power sorce to be on the safe side.
We purchased a stand alone 120 watt solar panel for our next trip as we found the above insufficient for free camping for extended days.
Also we carry a genny, which is great, but the solar panels in the heat, will pay for themselves in no time and the genny will be the back up.
The sun is free, the genny takes fuel. We have two gennys, our advice here is buy it once, buy a Honda. We have the Honda 2kva, quiter and suits all our needs.
Hope this helps, others will list what they prefer as well so your choices will be many.
thanks firefly you have given me a fair bit to think about but have cleared the grey matter which should help
"I also have a sca 1900amp jump start for emergencies."..........I have 2 for the same reason
I have a 100amphour Deep cycle battery too......will get a bigger one soon.......but I only run a waeco 40lt ...and lights ....no TV...
last trip 4 days....I didnt use my solar panel.....still had power
Fold up 120 solar panels are popular and good these days and a stand by Genny is good to have, a Honda 1 KVA is the go, reliable and quiet. Wish I had one of them.
If the budget will allow it LED lights can save heaps of battery life. Normal van lights are hard on battery.
We dont suffer for the sake of saving power, we have 2 100amp hr batteries in the van, with the 12volt tele, lights, water pump, laptops we run from a cheap Dick Smith invertor with a surge protector and a weaco we can easily get 3 days out of batteries. However, to be on the safe side I put the genny on for a few hours every morning, about 10 am not to upset anyone.
see link below for working out power requirements
http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=51933&p=3&topicID=41270331
Peter and Rose
You say you run your 3-way fridge off your van battery for approximately 3-4 hours whilst travelling. These fridges are very 12v power hungry. You would be better off power wise just to turn the fridge off for those 3 to 4 hours and conserve your 12v. The internal temperature of the fridge will not vary much if left shut for that length of time. We use to do it for around 6 hours when we had our Campertrailer and never had any fridge contents spoil.
If camping for 3 days, and using gas for your van fridge, I would think that your proposed usage for lights, TV, Engel, maybe water pump(?) could be close to the edge with your 100A/H battery, ie using 50% of capacity, and you would be wise to top up your battery by some means to prolong battery life.
We are from the Solar Panel school, however more often than not we see generators being set up as soon as vans pull into the Camps Book sites and sadly they are running well into the night.