Boondocking this winter

I'm going to be in the mid-west this winter (job related) and I'll be staying in an Alaskan truck camper. I plan to boondock the entire time to save on costs. My water supply (toilet and shower) I will join a gym for $5 per month. I have my backpack stove for cooking. My problem I'm having is of course, electricity. I am planning on heating my camper with a Mr. Buddy heater. But I'm wanting to set up a couple LED lights and have power for charging my electronics.  The best course of action to take to accomplish this, from what I've figured out, is to have a 2000 watt portable inverter.  I can charge it up during the day while I'm at work by using the outlets I'll be working around.
Does this sound like it will work? Can you think of something else that my be better? If it gets real cold, I may have to use an electric heater or blanket. Would a 2000 watt inverter be enough?
Thanks for any help/advice,
Joe

  Using the infamous SWAG system.... electric blanket probably.  Depending upon the usable amps powering the inverter, The Electric heater ..... probably not. The inverter may  provide adequate wattage to power the heater, but I?m guessing it would deplete the battery pretty quickly.  There are a lot of unknown variables in this scenario!

A truck camper won't have much battery capacity, so the answer is probably no, not a chance. You would end up being one cold miserable dude :'(>>>Dan

Thank you, I didn't think the electric blanket would work. 

Buy a good quality sleeping bag..

jackiemac said:

Buy a good quality sleeping bag..

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This works. I have tent camped into the mid 20s with a good bag and woken up because I was too warm. Of course getting out of that nice bag in the morning sucks ...

Joe, You haven't said how much money you are willing to spend on this project.

The big key is going to be the size of your battery bank.  As somebody else here said, there isn't a lot of room for batteries in a truck camper.  But there are work-arounds to this problem.  One such are under vehicle battery mounts that attach to your frame.  TorkLift makes a nice one.

https://www.torklift.com/rv/hiddenpower

They say you can use them with any style battery, but frankly, having to crawl under there once a month or so and drop the batteries in order to check the electrolyte level and add water would be such a PITA that most people won't do it, and will probably end up prematurely killing their FLA batteries.  I would personally only use AGM batteries in such a location.  Do NOT, under any circumstance, consider LiFe batteries.  When the temperature on these is below freezing, they CAN'T be recharged!

I think I would want four of these mounts and four AGMs at a minimum for what you are trying to do.  Hence my query at to how much you are willing to spend.

Secondly, in order to recharge a battery bank that size, you are going to need a BIG Smart charger.  Something from Iota or Progressive Dynamics that is capable of 40, 50 or 60 amps.  Which may lead you to need to rewire the Alaskan to 30 amp specs.  The limiting factor here may well end up being whether you are limited to a 15 or 20 amp outlet outlet.

Jackie is right about the sleeping bag.  But you might have a more flexible sleeping system with a lighter bag, supplemented with several wool blankets or quilts layered on top.  Plus, they make 12 volt heated mattress pads, very popular with over-the-road truckers.  You could take this INSIDE your sleeping bag.  The trick is, you don't use it all night, you run it for 15 minutes or so to warm things up before you slip into the bag for the night.

https://www.amazon.com/Electrowarmth-Mattress-Non-Fitted-T36-Campers/dp/B001122SZQ/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1541078172&sr=8-9&keywords=12+volt+heated+blanket

Finally, you didn't say HOW cold it was going to get.  Go to Youtube and do a search, you'll find several videos made by people who lived in RVs in the winter while working the oil fields in North Dakota.  They may well make you reconsider the whole thing.

You didn't mention where in the midwest you was planning on setting up camp? But based on your post, I would say a 2K watt genny would be a handy addition to your journey. Don't forget that available gas is needed and should be available at all times if boondocking throughout the winter.
If possible, a battery upgrade would be a good choice. This would help. Along with the LED light upgrade. But I would not depend on this for normal living quarters.
As mentioned, cold weather camping/backpacking equipment. I live in MI. Been tenting out in the woods in the middle of nowhere during December in 2 feet of snow!
Quality camping equipment is a must in your situation! Think about it...
It will keep you warm if your heat source fails.

JoeKan said:

The best course of action to take to accomplish this, from what I've figured out, is to have a 2000 watt portable inverter.  I can charge it up during the day while I'm at work by using the outlets I'll be working around.

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Joe,
Could you give us the manufacture and part number of the "inverter" you're thinking of getting. I don't know of any "inverter" that can be "charged".

As others have mentioned, where you're located will help with our answers.

If you are just looking at powering a single controller electric blanket, worst case power consumption on high is about 70 watts, though it is common for people to run electric blankets even in colder rooms on 50% level.

Assuming you can fit two 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series for 12V you will have about about 105 amp hours of electricity available to the 50% discharge point (draining deep cycle batteries below the 50% mark greatly shortens their charge cycle life).  With no accounting for conversions losses (most better brand inverters are around 90% efficient, though that other 10% goes to waste heat, which in theory would be inside your RV so not so wasted here.  105 X 12 = 1260 watts roughly available between recharging.  In other words enough to power an electric blanket over night with enough extra to spare to operate some LED lights, charge a cell phone, etc.

See https://www.trojanbattery.com/tech-support/battery-maintenance/

Based on the above link, your battery charger should be between 23-30 amp capacity at 12V for a pair of 6V golf cart batteries wired in series.  So I would therefore suggest something like this Progressive dynamics 30 amp converter, if you don't already have a converter in this size range to charge the batteries while your are at work https://smile.amazon.com/Progressive-Dynamics-PD9130V-Inteli-Power-Converter/dp/B002OR41J8

Though I would be concerned with how fully you could charge during a typical 8-10 hour work day, and what you would do to recharge when you have a day off.

Make sure to have a working CO detector while using that propane heater in such a small space. Plan on leaving a window open for ventilation as well.

Utclmjmpr said:

A truck camper won't have much battery capacity, so the answer is probably no, not a chance. You would end up being one cold miserable dude :'(>>>Dan

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) )Winter and RVs do not belong in the same sentence. Renting a small apartment would be cheaper and more comfortable.

SeilerBird said:

) )Winter and RVs do not belong in the same sentence. Renting a small apartment would be cheaper and more comfortable.

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Amen.
Anything below 10-15 degrees and the camper will get cold real fast. A wind at that temp would have me shivering in the middle of the night.

Rent a room

JoeKan said:

I'm going to be in the mid-west this winter (job related) and I'll be staying in an Alaskan truck camper. I plan to boondock the entire time to save on costs. My water supply (toilet and shower) I will join a gym for $5 per month. I have my backpack stove for cooking. My problem I'm having is of course, electricity. I am planning on heating my camper with a Mr. Buddy heater. But I'm wanting to set up a couple LED lights and have power for charging my electronics.  The best course of action to take to accomplish this, from what I've figured out, is to have a 2000 watt portable inverter.  I can charge it up during the day while I'm at work by using the outlets I'll be working around.
Does this sound like it will work? Can you think of something else that my be better? If it gets real cold, I may have to use an electric heater or blanket. Would a 2000 watt inverter be enough?
Thanks for any help/advice,
Joe

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If you can get electricity in the daytime recharge your house batteries then and also your electronic.  LED lights sip power and should not be an issue.  Not sure what you mean by "electronics".  Laptop, phone, camera should not be an issue for week days.  Week ends????  We have the small Mr Buddy and I wish it was twice as small for 20f-32f weather.  Our extended van the small Mr. Buddy is fine.  We travel in the daytime but camp at night.  Have it on for the evening and turn it off when we go to bed.  In the morning my job is to get up turn the heater on and climb back in bed for another 15 minutes.  We NEVER sleep with it on.  It does seem to drink those little  $$ one pound cylinders.  You might think about running it off of a 20lb tank.  With two of us the inside air temp of the van is about 10f above the outside ambiant.  All depends of wind, number of people, vehicle insulation, etc.  You should get a bag that is at least 20 degrees F warmer then the expected night time temperatures.  if you need heat during the night an electric heater powered by a small generator would be the solution.  800w-1200w heater in our van will raise the inside temp about 40f.  So 20f outside gives us 60f-65f inside with thermostat set accordingly.  If it is really cold a generator might be more cost effective then Mr. Buddy.  Good Luck  Question is what will you do on days off to stay warm all day?

Hello sir.

Thanks for the tips on Torklift and the AGM batteries.  I actually saw the Torklift youtube
video on the under vehicle battery mount.  I was thinking of adding 1-2 of these
mounts to my Starflyte class B+ (V10, E350 van chassis) ... expensive, but seems like
a great idea.  I found at least one RV shop that was familiar with the idea.

The clerk at the RV shop thinks that the alternator could probably charge the 1) engine battery
and 2) standard 12V AGM house battery plus 3) one to two more 12V AGM house batteries. 

Would you think that my Ford V10 350 alternator can handle 3-4 batteries? 

Thanks in advance for you help.

Utclmjmpr said:

A truck camper won't have much battery capacity, so the answer is probably no, not a chance. You would end up being one cold miserable dude :'(>>>Dan

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When we had our truck camper, I installed 3-100AH lithium batteries, never a problem with not enough battery capacity and we are full-timers, though we did not use an electric blanket.  Electric blankets can draw about 6-amps for one side, double for both sides.  Considering we never dropped below 60% we could have deployed an electric blanket over a 6-8 hour period.

x2 on the generator. You could use it to charge up the batteries, and also run a small electric heater. It would also be handy for cooking etc. Maybe getting a spot in a rv park might be more of your liking. At least you would have electricity. That is, if you can find one open. This sounds like it could be a long miserable winter for you. Gyms must be a lot cheaper where you are going, because there sure aren't any gyms around where I live that you can join for five dollars a month. Good luck and be safe.

There is no doubt that the truck alternator will charge the battery bank,,,but using a ten cylinder engine to do it for the time needed to complete the process is nuts.  You may get up in the morning and find you can't start the truck engine..>>>Dan
  (Do a study on how long it takes to charge a battery bank back to full charge.)