2007 starcraft M-2412 how long?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Isoldmysaturn

Member
Joined
May 11, 2017
Posts
21
How long should I be able to go without plugging in? It has a fridge, water pump, heater (won't use unplugged), two inside lights (changing to LED), and vent flap (possibly changing to fan tastic vent) how long would a single (dealership said was a "standard" battery, I'll have the info tomorrow) battery typically go for? how long do they take to charge driving? thank you for any info.
 
Run time solely depends on the Age & Condition of the battery. Being used, and New To You.. Load Test the present battery@ a fully charged state. Go from those results.

If it's Marginal at all.. replace it.

As a Rule of Thumb: Any TT/FW that will be used for any Weekend+ Dry Camping at all.. TWO Deep Cycle batteries are a Must.. for piece of Mind ?
 
You can't run a fridge that long off a battery. Your setup it meant for your fridge to run while your driving then you plug into 110 at the camp site. Your trailer connection also needs to be wired in a way that your car charges the battery while driving. I'm assuming that has been done.
 
The battery is new,  part of how the dealership makes money,  but I know what I'm getting that way,  so I don't mind too bad.

Before posting on here even we already decided to probably use a cooler most of the time. The vehicle will be configured to charge the camper while driving.
 
A typical "standard battery" in an RV  is a size 24 12v marine/RV battery which has a capacity of about 85 amp-hours (when new).  You don't want to use more than about half that to prevent deterioration of the battery capacity. That means if you when discharge the battery much below the 50% level, it doesn't quite recover to 100% at the next charge. Do that repeatedly and eventually it won't "hold a charge" at all.

It's difficult to say how much power your particular RV usage will draw.  Avoiding the heater is a major step - the heater fan draws a lot of amps. The vent fan, however, is probably more modest and maybe 0.5-1.5 amps/hour. The water pump usage is negligible, and Led lights are tiny too, maybe 0.1-0.2 amps/hour per bulb. 
The fridge can be small or large, depending on the type.  Most such fridges have an LP gas mode and only a tiny bit of 12vdc amps are used to power the circuit board. Some, however, have a 12v operating mode that uses a lot of battery power, maybe 20A in even a small fridge. Don't use a 12v-only fridge on battery power alone - it will kill the battery quickly.  However, if the tow vehicle is providing 12v, it will last longer.
 
The brochure for the 2007 Starcraft 2412 shows a 1.9 cf 3-way fridge as an option, which yours apparently has. When camping, the fridge should run a long time when it's set to propane, and should draw very little DC power. As Gary said though, running the cooler on 12 volts will drain the battery in short order. That 12 volt feature should work fine if it's getting power from your vehicle's alternator while driving, but make sure to switch it back to lp when you get to your campsite.

Kev
 
the interior lights use .26 amps, the stair light .2. Not sure how much we'll use the fridge, it seems overall the cooler will be cheaper than the fridge to run. right now I don't have a fan, and we're going to try this first trip without it, but we bought a cover so we can use it in the rain.
 
How long all depends on what all you run off the battery. Try to minimize as much of possible electronic gear, and you might be able to go the entire weekend on a single charge. Run the fridge off propane, or use a cooler with ice. Run the furnace as little as possible if you need to. Warm clothing uses no battery power at all, and would be a better alternative. And if that doesn't help, start a campfire in the morning to take the chill out of your bones. LED lights are a good thing to have. But even though they use little power, it is still power used. Make sure they are turned off when not needed. If you're sitting at the table playing a game, no reason to have the lights on the other end of the camper. And check into these - Pop-up Gizmos. I've never used them myself, but a lot of people swear by them to help keep the inside of the camper cooler in hotter weather. No power for them, and you wouldn't have to run the fan as much. If you do run the fan, make sure you turn it off when no one is in the camper.

Another thing you might want to do is a test run. Go camping with an electric site, but don't hook up. It is a few dollars more than a non-electric site, but you can see how long you can last on just the battery. If it runs too low, you can plug in and look at adding solar to help charge it back up some, or add a second battery.
 
thank you all for your responses. how efficient are these 3 way fridges on propane? is it pretty much a waste of money to run it that way? I think a fan is definitely in our future, this thing got unbearably hot yesterday, and AC is out of the question for me. it says in the manual all 2007 fold down models (mine obviously is) are AC ready. does this mean there should already be wiring for a fan where the vent is? or would that mean something completely different?
 
Isoldmysaturn said:
How long should I be able to go without plugging in? It has a fridge, water pump, heater (won't use unplugged), two inside lights (changing to LED), and vent flap (possibly changing to fan tastic vent) how long would a single (dealership said was a "standard" battery, I'll have the info tomorrow) battery typically go for? how long do they take to charge driving? thank you for any info.

You won't be needing the water pump if the tank is leaking like you said in an other post.
 
Back
Top Bottom