questions/tips camping without elelctric/water

[duhfur]

My husband and I's second trip in our travel trailer is going to be without water/electric.? It's going to be Wed evening - Sun morning.? There will be 6 of us but I dont expect will be using the camper during the day as we will be out and about.? I got a couple questions.?

I guess we can fill the fresh water tank before leaving...I know it won't be enough water for showers but it should be enough for flushing the toilet at night don't you think?? (I heard there is a couple water faucets on the farm) There are also porta-potties but I would like to use campers at night when it's dark.

Our refigerator and water heater will run off propane.? 60 gallons should be enough propane for tha time frame right?

I expect it will be in the 90s during the day, and humid at night.? We discussed renting a generator so we can run the air conditioner but I dont know if that would be worth it, thoughts?? How much gas do you think it would need?

Also, our battery isn't working.  It's 5 years old.  When we went camping and hooked it to electric 2 weeks ago, it got never lit up the last light to show it was fully charged.  So my husband is going to go buy a new home.  He said it's can't be eqaulized, it's maint free.  Does that sound right guys?  Also how long will battery last?  What all will it run?  Refrig? lights?

Any advice for a newbie?

 

[Jeff]

1. After 5 years your battery is very likely ready for replacement. I would suggest you get an RV deep cycle lead acids, not the combination RV/Marine variation. You also need to charge the battery to last very long if you are using lights-TV, etc.

2. Your refrig  and water heater will use 4-5 gallons of propane max .

3. Without knowing how much water and holding tank capacity you have I can't help on your water questions.

 

[Carl L]

With out knowing tank capacities, we cannot judge how long you can run.  My own experience with 40 gals of black and 35 gals. of gray water capacity is that two can run 5-6 days on the black tank, 2-3 days on the gray.  Water is highly variable.    Use paper plates as much as possible and as you say, foreswear showers.

Your battery is kaput.  Get a new one.  In fact, get two and hitch them in parallel.  Make sure that they are pure deep cycle units and not the cockamammy 'dual purpose marine batteries', which are neither fish nor fowl.

For as long as you plan to be there, a gen set is not a bad idea just to recharge your batteries.  Rentals are noisy contractor units.  Plan to run it daytime only lest your neighbors learn to hate you. 

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Our refigerator and water heater will run off propane.  60 gallons should be enough propane for tha time frame right?

I doubt if you have 60 gallons of propane onboard. 60 pounds is more likely (two 30 lb tanks). That's about 15 gallons of propane and more than enough to last. You probaly won't use even one full tank of propane.

A generator will burn 0.5-1.0 gallons of fuel per hour, depending on the electrical load.  The average will probably be nearer 0.5 than 1.0 unless it is extremely hot/humid.    You will want a 3000 watt  model to power the genset and a few other things in the trailer.. Rental gensets are usually very noisy. Your neighbors won't like you very much if you run the genset for hours at a time. And they will probably resort to sabotage if you run it at night.

 

[duhfur]

Thanks, so muh, you put my mind at ease!? I just didn't want to buy a new battery if there was something else we could do.
yes it's 45 gallon fresh water and I think the gray holds 45.

So what will a battery run?  How long would one last let's say not running air/furnace but running other stuff?

Do I need a battery to run water/show/toilet?

 

[Shayne]

You nee it to run the water, even in the commode.

 

[Carl L]

So what will a battery run?  How long would one last let's say not running air/furnace but running other stuff?

That depends on the battery nature, capacity, age, and state of charge.  It also depends on your uses.    Your water pump requires 12VDC to operate, as does your refrigerator, and, of course your lights and stereo.  You would have to calculate your load in amps from the various appliance specs.  Then you apply the total times the number of hours operating against the amp hour rating of your battery.