Redback replied:

Depends on what your running off the battery.

Also no way you'll get 5amps of charge from a 13watt solar panel, 0.8amp would be the max i reckon.

(I have a 20watt panel)

If your only running lights and the water pump in the camper, then, the solar panel should keep the battery topped up, ours does.

I'm assuming the Jayco has a 3 way in it, so no 12v fridge too run.

We have a 3 way in the camper and a 12v in the car.

Baz.

Robin Miller replied:

Hi Caz

You should not charge from the generators 12v output except if really desperate because the rough nature of the output will cause harm to your battery over the long term unless carefully monitored.

If you wish to charge from Gennie then get a 240v charger and plug it into gennie.
The size of your battery would mean you should get one with an output of from 5 to 15amp (money limited) to properly top
up your battery in an hour or two.

Its better though to have a simple charge setup from the car battery, many supply these.

40w solar panels are probably the minimum you should have.

MEMBER - Darian (SA) replied:

I'm currently in the same boat - if my batteries get low in the bush I run the gennie and team it's 240V output with a 3 stage smart charger - safe and efficient as a method (though noisy in some circumstances). Solar is a good alternative but 13W nominal is not going to be much practical use.

Member - Mottleman (NSW) replied:

I use a 30amp charger with the 240v side of the gennie for my DC 120a/h battery.
Works well. Got it from ABR, look at their website if interested.

cheers
JohnN

Rod replied:

Check you Aldi generator's 12V output before you rely on it. It is an unregulated supply. My brother in law bought one to use at Easter and it would not put out more than 10.5 volts. The flip side is that they can also put out 18-19Volts.

240V circuit with a battery charger is safer than 12V circuit.

Member - Warfer (VIC) replied:

#13 watt portable solar penal charger#

Thats gotta be bad for the Prostrate !

Redback replied:

Cas, this is my setup, it's simple, easy to use and setup and i don't have or need a generator.

I have a 75AH deepcycle battery in the camper, that is charged via the car when moving, through an Anderson plug that runs an Arrid smart charger connected to the battery.

I use my 20 watt panel during the day when camped to top up the camper battery, i have 3 lights in the camper and the water pump and a 3 way running on gas when camped, so not alot of power used, the lights only use 1AH max.

If it's overcast, i top up the camper battery using an inverter to run a 240 volt battery charger and run it overnight off the second battery in the car, (YOU MUST HAVE A DUAL BATTERY SYSTEM FOR THIS)this isn't the most efficant way to do it but it works and i go for a short drive in the morning to re-charge my second battery.

My system;
1 20Watt solar panel
1 300watt inverter
1 Arlec 8 amp 240 watt charger
SC40 Traxide Tronics dual battery controller & Fullriver 60AH deepcycle batt (in the car)

This works for us and has done for 4 years now, 2 years in our current vehicle, we can camp in the one place for 9 days (longest we have camped at one place) so we could probably go for longer.

If like other you are running a 12v fridge in the camper then you will need a better system and probably the gennie would need to be there as a backup, the TV maybe the thing that uses the most power, but as we don't have one i can't tell you how much.

Hope this helps, try to keep it simple and you'll have no problems.

Baz.

Baz.
1 Arrid Smart charger & 75AH deepcycle battery (in the camper)