Battery system &/or generator
Submitted: Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 14:29
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The Birds (WA)
G,day
We are about to head off around Oz for 6-12 months and amongst other things we are finalising our power requirements.
My plan is to have a dual battery system in our Landcruiser connected to a third battery in our camper trailer via 50amp anderson plug and 6 B&S (13.5mm2) wiring. The cranking battery is isolated from the 2 auxilliary batteries via a solenoid. The 2 x auxilliary batteries I am looking at are the 100amp gel type.
The electrical items we will be taking/using are:
50 litre waeco fridge
35 litre Waeco freezer
300W invertor (for laptop)]
Laptop (for reading maps / next g internet / tv / dvd's / photo editing)
Dvd player for little one
Digital SLR camera / charger
Video camera / charger
mobile phones / chargers
stick blender (optional)
3-4
camping flouros (1 amp type)
spotlight / charger (million candle light type)
Portable radio
gps (hardwired)
Aside from the fridge and freezer which will run all the time, its hard to work out the exact usage for the other items and therefore our exact power consumption.
Would it be worth us taking a little honda 1KVA generator to reduce the load on the battery system when possible, or would the triple battery system suffice with monitored usage ? Would prefer to save the money and space on a generator however thinking it may be money
well spent ??
Undecided
Cheers
Reply By: rbt - Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 15:43
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 15:43
family, reliability, convienience, youll definetly "need" both plus throw in a solar-kit to keep the guilts away...
AnswerID:
249474
Reply By: Peter McG (Member, Melbourne) - Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 16:16
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 16:16
If your going to having short stops in any one place then I don't think you'll need a generator. We have a similar setup with our Ultimate camper and find we can
camp OK for a few days and get by with using a solar panel to keep the fridge running and occasionally run the car a bit. If I was going to be in the one spot for a week or more then a small generator would be useful.
Peter
AnswerID:
249476
Reply By: Patrol22 - Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 17:05
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 17:05
Just remember 'The Birds' that there are many many
places you can't use a generator...the vast majority (if not all) of national parks are in this category.
AnswerID:
249479
Reply By: drivesafe - Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 17:14
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 17:14
Hi Birds, just a suggestion but for around the same weight and less money, you may be better off fitting another battery in your camper.
Assuming the isolator you have, isolates the cranking battery when you turn off the motor, your alternator can easily handle charging three 100 A/H gel cell batteries at the same time.
The advantage is that while driving, for every hour travelled, you will effectively be getting 3 hours of charging.
This also is the case when idling, although you will need to up the revs while idling, you will be getting 3 minutes of charge for every minute of idling.
Cheers.
AnswerID:
249481
Reply By: Tony - Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 20:09
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007 at 20:09
I have two 100amp battries in the Camper and a 80amp aux battery in the vehicle and still carry a 1kva gennie.
Most of my touring is either remote camps, National
Park's (where I don't use the gennie) or towns. A 20lt drum of fuel will last a couple of weeks as I only need to run the gennie every third day, rain hail or shine.
AnswerID:
249542
Reply By: meandet - Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 08:54
Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 08:54
Hi Birdy
Have you bought the fridges yet? If not, without stirring up a hornets nest, you will find that Engel fridges draw less power at the end of the day than Waecos do. I once worked selling fridges and tested them comparitively. Engels proved to be more reliable in the outback too. When you travel and talk to people as to what fridge they use and how they perform you will find out for yourselves.
We just use 2 x 40 watt solar panels for our long stops to run our 40 litre Engel and lights etc.
Generators cause a lot of fights out there.
Enjoy your trip, you will love it.
Cheers
Peter
AnswerID:
249614
Follow Up By: Member - Greydemon (WA) - Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 13:29
Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 13:29
Yay lets talk fridges !!!! (Go Engel!)
Better still.... lets ban generators !!!! (Yes please!)
I'm not going to contribute, I'm waiting for the Coopers thread.
8-)
FollowupID:
510651
Follow Up By: The Birds (WA) - Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 22:18
Thursday, Jun 28, 2007 at 22:18
On ya - Go eat a calzone.
FollowupID:
510774
Follow Up By: Member - lyndon K (SA) - Friday, Jun 29, 2007 at 15:39
Friday, Jun 29, 2007 at 15:39
Yes, engels are good, we have 40ltr, also have a 73 ltr Auto fridge which is even better! The Auto fridge will per day draw the least current of any fridge.
We use a 80 Christies charger to charge up the batteries, run time aprox 1.5 hours/day to provide all the power we need.
Cheers Lyndon
FollowupID:
510913
Reply By: Mainey (WA) - Saturday, Jun 30, 2007 at 01:41
Saturday, Jun 30, 2007 at 01:41
So what actual type (and brand) of 100ah Gel batteries are you looking at ?
Can I say 6B&S cable may be too thin for the distance to the trailer ?
Consider an extra 100ah battery (2) in the trailer and Solar panel ?
AnswerID:
249970