Post by grice on Mar 15, 2011 10:46:03 GMT -5
Last Oct in Ga went to help my brother on his property. We have to park on the gravel road beside it until cleared for driveway. Until I have the gas lines checked out not using the stove in my camper. I did not "feel" the steep climb with food in hand to cook or warm up and since I am also into the survival mode of whats to come in the future I bought two deep cycle batteries from WalMart, from pep boys a solar charger for RV and an inverter. I daisy chain the batteries and connected the charger to one of the batteries and set the solar panel on top of the roof corner. I was in the sun most of the day-glad it was cool weather.
Had no problems running my lights inside, played/charged my DVD player (forgot to charge before I left home) and for 3 1/2 days I made "Mr. Coffee" in the morning and used a hotplate (single burner) to warm my food. The coffee and hotplate really pulled on the batteries. From what I am understanding the more direct sun on solar the better but any sunlight still will charge the solar panel. In this scenario had I been able to have my campfire or use the camper or my Coleman stove, my battery bank would more than likely lasted all 8 days and than some for light and small entertainment. Even though I could no longer use the coffee pot and hotplate I still had enough with the solar charger working the sun to have lights for the rest of the week.
I have since added a second solar charger to add on when I go camping again and when I can I want to add two more batteries.
I mainly want to be able to light the camper on rain days or at night so I can read and do small entertainment or use very small fan if needed. Who knows, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Bear will see someones home and leave me alone. ;D
The charger I got has about 10' of length and you can order or have made longer if needed. It is good to use to keep your batteries charged when not in use-just attach for a few days so batteries don't die out.
grice
Had no problems running my lights inside, played/charged my DVD player (forgot to charge before I left home) and for 3 1/2 days I made "Mr. Coffee" in the morning and used a hotplate (single burner) to warm my food. The coffee and hotplate really pulled on the batteries. From what I am understanding the more direct sun on solar the better but any sunlight still will charge the solar panel. In this scenario had I been able to have my campfire or use the camper or my Coleman stove, my battery bank would more than likely lasted all 8 days and than some for light and small entertainment. Even though I could no longer use the coffee pot and hotplate I still had enough with the solar charger working the sun to have lights for the rest of the week.
I have since added a second solar charger to add on when I go camping again and when I can I want to add two more batteries.
I mainly want to be able to light the camper on rain days or at night so I can read and do small entertainment or use very small fan if needed. Who knows, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Bear will see someones home and leave me alone. ;D
The charger I got has about 10' of length and you can order or have made longer if needed. It is good to use to keep your batteries charged when not in use-just attach for a few days so batteries don't die out.
grice
