Thor Forums

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by Marine By Choice

My wife uses a BiPAP machine nightly. Wonderful machine!

Today I bought a 300 watt inverter to run it when we are not on shore power. I am considering a third house battery and wiring it to the batteries under the steps. I would put the battery in the outside storage bay on the drivers side under the bed.

Here are my questions:

1. What size wire should I use between batteries? And do I just hook to one of the two batteries under the steps, or do I hook to one positive and one negative on the two different batteries?

2. My plan is to then install a 12V plug near the bed to plug the inverter in. I would have the plug wired to the battery in the storage bay.

3. I purchased a portable 150 Watt solar panel kit to recharge when boondocking. My thought is to hook the solar to the battery in the storage bay to keep the battery topped off. Your thoughts?

4. We are joining a 7 vehicle caravan February 8th for a tour of Baja, Mexico of 28 days. We will be boondocking for several (3-4) days a couple times and really don't believe I will need the generator. Again, your thoughts?

I have a 2016 Vegas 24.1.

Thanks!

Keith,

Depending on the make and model of the BiPaP machine you may be able to get a battery pack or 12V power supply and use the machine in travel mode. For instance ResMed machines can be hooked to the RPSII power station for 13 hours of power when camping. Have you considered that route?

I believe in the Vegas you are running 12 volt batteries so connecting a second or third battery will have to be done in a parallel configuration. You will connect positive to positive and negative to negative. The size of the wire will be determined by the distance between the batteries.

Also, you mention solar charging, keep in mind that unless you isolate that battery, the solar will charge all of the batteries connected in parallel.