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Old 04-28-2018, 01:15 AM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 2015 ACE 30.2
State: Florida
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THOR #1287
Rental RV, one house battery, and boondocking 3 days.......

We will be in a rental RV--a Class C Sunseeker model 28-30 ft--that will only have one house battery. We will be camping in a National Park with no hook-ups, and limited generator use. Fortunately A/C will not be needed, but heat would have been nice and we can't run the furnace either!! Lighting should not be an issue, as the sun will be up later than we will be, and I can heat water with propane, ditto for fridge, and can make the tanks (fresh and waste water) last for three days. But I have never dry camped with only one house battery.

If I can only run the genny 2 or three hours a day, will I be able to run fridge and the ancillary RV current draws on just one battery without falling below 50% battery level between daily genny charges?

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Old 04-28-2018, 02:21 AM   #2
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Our old 1998 Thor (with one battery) could go a couple days running lights, propane fridge and other small items. If you run the furnace at night, no.
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Old 04-28-2018, 02:30 AM   #3
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Why can't you run the furnace? If it's a rental why do you care if you run the bat below 50%? If you have a spare batt or 2 you could temp hook it up in parallel with house batt with jumper cables. Or cheaply make some short cables with thick wire and some batt terminals.
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Old 04-28-2018, 12:33 PM   #4
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You should be okay...
But couldn't you sneak in some "quality time" with the alternator; once generator hours have ended?
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Old 04-28-2018, 01:13 PM   #5
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I can see all kinds of potential issues here. You have no idea how old, or how good of a battery is in that rental unit. One thing you can be sure of it has not been properly taken care of no matter how old it is.

Don't they have something with at least two batteries in the house bank?
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Old 04-28-2018, 01:22 PM   #6
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Thanks. No genny or motors allowed except during listed hours---standard in many of our National Parks. The rental is in Alaska so I will not have access to spare batteries or pull one from a toad. I do not want to abuse the one battery I have because I need it to get thru the two week rental and where we are going won't have many replacement opportunities.
Glad too know that I should be able to go day to day, as I was not planning on running the furnace on the battery. I do plan on bringing some of those 6 hour hand warmer packets to keep warm at night. It should be in the 40's at night but cannot rule out colder weather.
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Old 04-28-2018, 01:31 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe-FL View Post
I can see all kinds of potential issues here. You have no idea how old, or how good of a battery is in that rental unit. One thing you can be sure of it has not been properly taken care of no matter how old it is.

Don't they have something with at least two batteries in the house bank?
I know that many rental places remove one of the two batteries that are standard for that size unit from the house bank because of well, their experience with renters and batteries. I frequently provide assistance to renters at campgrounds, and I can understand why (as in EVERY light is turned on, all TV's running, and the hairdryer...). The rental company will only provide one house battery, but they know we own our own RV and are experienced, so I will try to talk them into another one when we go to pick it up. I will also check the age of the one in the coach before signing our rental out.
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Old 04-28-2018, 04:53 PM   #8
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Good luck! I hope that you can convince them that you're worthy of a second "can of volts"!

And have a safe and fun trip too!!!
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Old 04-30-2018, 07:40 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by jeeepz View Post
Why can't you run the furnace? If it's a rental why do you care if you run the bat below 50%? If you have a spare batt or 2 you could temp hook it up in parallel with house batt with jumper cables. Or cheaply make some short cables with thick wire and some batt terminals.
why care? Only because if the renters before had the same attitude (or an innocent lack of knowledge), then you'll be left without much capacity to begin with. Why do that to the next renter if one knows better?

I agree with Bob, get some alternator run time. We've gone 3 nights or maybe even more, off grid, just driving every day, and some genny use. If you are going to park and not moving, then it wouldn't work quite as well, but I suppose some idling time on the chassis engine would help some....

Actually, that makes me wonder.
I think my converter charges at 13.4V, but I think my alternator charges at a higher voltage. I don't know what it is off hand, but let''s just say it's 14V for the sake of discussion.
Would 1 hour running at 14V put more amps back into the battery than 1 hour at 13.4V? Seems like it would....
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