I know it’s been asked before...

Submitted: Sunday, Jan 08, 2006 at 23:08
ThreadID: 29488 Views:3245 Replies:8 FollowUps:7
This Thread has been Archived
... but I can’t find it. I think maybe Jimbo perhaps posed the question, although I can’t be sure.

Anyway, here it is... ( again?)...

If you are looking, at staying at one place for duration of camp, irrespective of the length of stay, and you don’t travel anywhere in your vehicle, like... you really do stay put, can you do the following?

Each day, say around 10:00 o’clock, start your vehicle engine, and simply let it idle for say... 2 hours?

On both of my vehicles, I have 3 battery set ups, and a LED Amp Meter, which tells me, that I’m pushing around 15 - 20 amps into the suckers first thing in the morning, like when I’m warming (idling) the 4 x 4 to go for a drive.

So, will the motor overheat? Can’t see why it should, but can it?

What would be the fuel usage at an idle for a couple of hours? Same as a say... 10 - 20 km drive?

I have a small solar set up, but it’s small, and I don’t want to upgrade it. I don’t want to spend dollars on a generator. Will the idle for a couple of hours in the morning do the trick?

Okay, it’s noisy, sort of, but I’m talking about remote camping here, like... away from anyone, by a big margin.

When I look at the capital costs associated with increasing my solar set-up. or a gennie, as well as the problem of carrying them, I’m wondering whether the plain ole’ alternator in our vehicles will do the same thing... charge our batteries up for daily use, whilst sitting still and idling?

I’d much rather part with a few extra dollars for fuel, and use it to allow my engine to idle for a couple of hours a day, than spend lots on stuff I won’t recoup the benefits on.

Cheers

Wolfie
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