All I am doing is recharging the camper’s battery at the storage lot while I am fiddling around for half an hour or so. Just extending and retracting the slideouts. Other things use power as well - CO2 monitor, ceiling lights, monitor panel, etc… I don’t need big time charging for the short amount of time I’m there, I just don’t want the battery to be dead when i leave and have to retract the slides.
The SNOWMAN actually came up with an intelligent answer will wonders never cease.
Yep, google ‘solar battery tender’, lots of options.
When the alternative is running a 6 cylinder engine for half an hour, this is one of the few situations where photovoltiac solar pays for itself rather quickly. Unless of course the charge controller (or lack thereof) over charges the battery on the camper, and you need a new battery in 5 years instead of 10 years. Then it might end up costing more than running the truck. When charging, the float Voltage should be 13.3 maximum for summer and 13.5 for winter, and that’s with solar only working during daylight hours. Over charging is often is often what happens with battery tenders. You have to go back to the 1990s to get a good one!
Why do you say that? I’ve had good luck with the ‘Battery Tender’ brand, it controls the charging.
Wrong again .
Partially because of my tendency to get cheap new stuff from eBay China or Harbor Freight. And APC uninterruptable power supplies, and a friend with a solar charge controller that ruined a $120 battery a few years too soon. What’s the float Voltage of your tender?
What’s wrong with an APC power supply? I’ve got three of them. One for wifi and router and the others for computers.
They reliably ruin the battery in 3 to 5 years due to over charging. You could get a couple more years out of a battery with proper charging.
just replace the batteries when they go bad. I just did mine. 2 batteries for under $50.
How should I give you my contact information so you can send me the $49.99 for new batteries? It’s under $50 it’s not much.
Isn’t spending $50 on new batteries cheaper than spending a couple hundred on a new battery back-up.
From what we have seen of the SNOWMANS comments math is not one of his strong suits.
I just figured I’d have to replace power supply batteries every 3 years or so anyway. Unless you have a huge system, power supplies are not going to keep you running for very long in a power failure but long enough for a safe shut down, and the clean power will save more expensive computer equipment.