Off grid camping

[homebrew]

Kind of off topic but had a question about off grid camping. We are going to be taking our new pop up trailer out for four nights. Wanted to ask what "you" would recommend for maintaining the trailer battery? We'll be gone most of the day, and only at the trailer at night. Any options that would allow me to use the fridge?

 

[clh1220]

You should be able to use the fridge on gas. Get a solar battery charger at harbor freight.

 

[ZCR1]

Swap as many lights to LED as you can. One 12 watt incandescent bulb pulls 1 amp; a LED of similar light output will pull only about .2 amps. I ordered the cheap 10 packs (yeah, made in China) from Amazon and havent had one burn out since Iinstalled them over a year ago. They put out a lot less heat too.

 

[sbarron]

Does "off-the-grid" mean you'll leave the cell phones behind?

 

[14hemiexpress]

You should be able to use the fridge on gas. Get a solar battery charger at harbor freight.

What he said.

 

[xrsman]

Yes definitely swap to LED's. We went LED at our hunt camp and saved 350 watts! When you're running the camp off a generator it really helps.

I 3rd on the solar panel suggestion

 

[homebrew]

Offgrid'ish we are going to a country music festival. The trailer is a 2010 but has little to no use. My inlaws bought it 2 years ago and it has sat in their garage the whole time. Is it safe to run the fridge on propane for extended periods of time while we are away? And what size solar panel should I get?

 

[smurfs_of_war]

You can run it on propane for as long as your tank has propane in it- won't hurt a thing. You wouldn't be up in our neck of the woods heading to Craven would you? If so- don't bother with any of these suggestions because it will all be stolen/ smashed by the time you leave anyways :/

 

[6.7CumminsDrvr]

Should be fine running the fridge off the gas, that what they were designed for. The fridge in my previous camper ran off either gas or electric.

 

[PippinAin'tEasy]

Ditto the fridge on gas. We'll be in the boonies for a week or so at a time and never had issues. Keep in mind it still runs off of the 12v system so a dead batt will mean a dead fridge (usually). Unfortunately a single 12v batt won't give you much more than 24 hrs regardless of usage thanks to the myriad parasitic draws these TT's have. Have a genny? Champion power makes a great 2500w model that runs right off of the propane.

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[clh1220]

Mine runs off gas or battery or electric. It doesn't need battery or electric to run off the gas.

 

[PippinAin'tEasy]

Mine runs off gas or battery or electric. It doesn't need battery or electric to run off the gas.

Where you getting spark for the burner? Full time pilot?

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[clh1220]

Push button igniter. No full time pilot light. It's in a Coleman pop up.

 

[PippinAin'tEasy]

Sweet.

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[Andy578]

another thing you could do is just get a small generator. you wouldn't need much to recharge a battery or even run all the lights if you want. a 2000-2500 watt generator is fairly cheap but if noise is an issue there a few more expensive ones like this that claim to be very quiet but i've yet to see them running so can't support their claims

they are also very handy if like me you ever suffer power outages

 

[clh1220]

another thing you could do is just get a small generator. you wouldn't need much to recharge a battery or even run all the lights if you want. a 2000-2500 watt generator is fairly cheap but if noise is an issue there a few more expensive ones like this that claim to be very quiet but i've yet to see them running so can't support their claims

they are also very handy if like me you ever suffer power outages

That's a big generator to just charge a battery. I have a small 2 stroke 900. I've only used it a few time it worked for running the furnace fan.

 

[Andy578]

That's a big generator to just charge a battery. I have a small 2 stroke 900. I've only used it a few time it worked for running the furnace fan.

yeah just for the battery you can go smaller but if you wanna run everything on the generator a 2000 is usually good. i only pulled that 1 up because i see them advertised a lot and they claim to be nearly silent

 

[clh1220]

On a popup there is not much to run on there. Unless you have a ac unit. Which if he is going off the grid I'm going to assume he doesn't have to have the ac. He will probably be hiking and cliff climbing and that cool outdoor ****. I camp different I will be the one sitting on my ass drinking a beer listening to my ryobi radio. When that wears me out I'll go inside in the ac and take a nap. Best thing IMO for the op, would be to run the fridge on gas. Maybe get a extra battery and get a decent solar charger.

 

[PippinAin'tEasy]

Totally missed it's a popup. Go drop $300 on a pair of good 6v's and they'll power that thing for a week.

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[homebrew]

I ordered an 18watt 12volt solar panel with controller from Home Depot. It had good reviews and I can add additional panels if I ever need more juice.