We're new to RV-ing (we have a small travel trailer which we've taken on three trips so far). We dry camped for the first time on our last trip, and had some battery issues. The RV and battery are new. We were fine the first night. Our friend lent us his generator and on the second day, we charged the battery via the generator. The battery display seemed to read full when we unplugged the generator, and we tried to be very cautions with battery usage (just turned on a couple of lights for about 10 minutes plus ran the water pump briefly). However, the battery didn't last through the night. In the middle of the night, noticed the fridge (which was running on propane) light was red (which we believe means not enough power to run the control board of fridge). And then at about 5am, the propone/CO detector started beeping (which we believe meant no power to it). Another night we tried charging the battery via the generator as late in the day as possible (we turned it off just before quiet hours started), and didn't use any "extra" battery power - no lights, no water pump, etc. So it was just what the fridge, detectors, etc. needed. And the battery still didn't last through night.
We know we have a small battery, and it wasn't going to last long, but we would expect it to at least be able to make to through the night (especially with limited power use).
Did we just not charge the battery long enough with the generator (even though it looked like it showed fully charged)?
How long should it take to fully charge the battery with a generator?
We were camping with my brother-in-law, who has a pop-up. They also have a group 24 battery, and used their lights (and often a had a fan running as well) much more than we did, and their battery lasted over three days. Why so much difference? Can there be that much difference in amp hours between two different group 24 batteries?
Is there a chance that there is something else drawing power from the battery that we're not aware of, and if so, what could that be?
Thanks!
We know we have a small battery, and it wasn't going to last long, but we would expect it to at least be able to make to through the night (especially with limited power use).
Did we just not charge the battery long enough with the generator (even though it looked like it showed fully charged)?
How long should it take to fully charge the battery with a generator?
We were camping with my brother-in-law, who has a pop-up. They also have a group 24 battery, and used their lights (and often a had a fan running as well) much more than we did, and their battery lasted over three days. Why so much difference? Can there be that much difference in amp hours between two different group 24 batteries?
Is there a chance that there is something else drawing power from the battery that we're not aware of, and if so, what could that be?
Thanks!