We spend quite a bit of time using our camper, typically 3 weeks or more at a time. We are members of the Elks, Harvest Hosts, are Boondockers Welcome hosts when we are home, and we prefer not to have to plug in if we don’t have to. Since we are using a truck camper with very small holding tanks, we do have to find a spot to fill our fresh water and dump every 3 or 4 days. We try to conserve water and power as much as possible, but we also have four bodies that require water and I try to cook at least two meals a day, which requires dishwashing. Then there’s laundry that has to be done. So we do look for some sort of park with hookups once or twice a week if we aren’t “moochdocking” somewhere.
One of my blog posts was about the solar panels that I installed and the new electrical system to go with it. Those work great…when the sun is shining. We took a trip to the Midwest to see family and friends in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Oklahoma, as well as visiting Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arkansas. It rained about half the time, the wind howled for several days, it was hot, and it was cold.
The solar wasn’t enough to keep the batteries charged in the declining fall sunlight hours and cloudy days, so we decided to install a battery to battery charger.
This is the one that we installed:
We fused at the truck battery with a fuse block and fuse, ran 4 gauge wire directly from the truck battery, under the truck chassis, through wire loom to a set of Anderson connectors into the truck bed, then through a cable gland in the side of the camper, to terminal blocks, then the smart charger, which was installed under the kitchen sink. It is connected and fused to our battery system through the Victron Lynx Distributor. We disconnected the little Lance charging cable and the battery isolator. I like the Victron products and have had no problem with any of them.
Currently our electrical system is:
Two, 206AH 12V batteries: SOK Batteries. We cut part of the floor of the battery compartment to fit them into the original battery location. Since LifePO batteries don’t need exterior venting, we removed the battery boxes and venting.
Victron SmartSolar Charge Controller (150V 70A Tr) – Our charge controller for 600W of panels wired in series/parallel.
Victron Multiplus 12/3000/120-50 120V VE.Bus – The inverter/charger. We removed the converter from our power panel. We can actually run our rooftop AC with our batteries and this inverter.
Victron Energy BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor (Black) – I cant even read this little thing with my old lady eyes, but it talks to my phone.
Victron Energy Interface MK3-USB (VE.Bus to USB) – Connects to Multiplus so you can program it with a PC.
Victron Energy VE.Bus Smart Dongle (Bluetooth) – Connects to the Multiplus so you can control it via the app.
Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 12-Volt 15 amp Battery Charger with NEMA 1-15 Plug (Bluetooth) – This is just in case we need to jump start the batteries for whatever reason. But it works great if we accidentally leave stuff, like our Haloview camera system, plugged in the truck.
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