Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

not sure I follow your original post situation:

-were you drycamping at your arrival spot?

-if so, did you use your generator?
-if so, did you allow the generator to run an hour or so before bedtime?
-do you have an AGS(AutomaticGeneratorStarter) to provide charging when needed?

for the 'fridge':
-is it hot outside?
-do you leave it on a 'high' setting overnight when not in use?
-were the items you packed into the fridge for your trip already cold?
-do you leave your ice maker on during the overnight?


I've found that a fridge cycles on and off during it's power cycle, not always on as some of us might think. It powers the compressor on only when it needs to reduce the temperature. Sometimes, though, we only mention the fridge and the batteries in our complaint, and forget that there are other things we are using and that are being powered during the night, such as lights of course, but also device chargers for our phones and tablets, 12v items that run all the time like o2 sensor and smoke detectors, and the water pump, when in use.

some methods to reduce the need for fridge, or battery power, overnight:
-turn the temp level up to it's 'highest' setting, or some even turn the fridge OFF
-if using a generator, allow the generator to run for an hour or two before bedtime, keeping the fridge temp at it's lowest setting. turn the fridge temp back up right before turning the generator off. This will allow the generator to get the fridge as cold as possible right before the overnight hours, with much less need to run during the night.

Many of us 'want' the inverter and batteries, no matter how many we have, to keep us and all our appliances 'cumfy thru the night, but most coaches are probably not going to be able to always do everything we think they should. Coach builders install two 6v deep cycle batteries as a way to help provide the potential for overnight running of the fridge, but there are many times too many variables to hold them to a 'guarantee' that it will do it.

also, you mentioned your 'alarm' from your inverter. I suppose you are referring to your LBCO(LowBatteryCutoff)? if so, this provides a method to cut off your inverter(fridge power) when your batteries reach a certain Voltage level. You can set this level yourself, just like you set your AGS Voltage setting to tell the Generator when to start up. The LBCO might be too high, giving you 'less' time on the inverter. If you want, try a lower setting, and see if that gets you thru the night. The drawback is that you could have it set so low that the generator won't start, but a little trial and error will help you identify the best setting. We use 11.8 on our AGS, and 11.1 on our LBCO.

oh, by the way, we have FOUR 6v batteries, and we rarely get thru a night without the AGS running the generator during that time. The less the better, of course, but the most aggravating is when a campground with no hookups has a very strict generator usage rule. One we had in the Yukon recently, at Liard Hot Springs, was only between the hours of 8am and 9am, and 6pm and 8pm. What?? There were kids running around screaming at 10pm, and folks laughing around fires, but we couldn't run our generator?? 'Quiet Time' was posted as 11pm to 7am.