Hello from Port Aransas

[amt]

Boondocking on the beach for a couple nights

[VASpartan]

Nice! Congrats!

[MusicianTrader]

welcome to my nick of the woods. Im a Corpus Christi Resident! I never even thought about taking my coach to the beach, Thank you for the inspiration!!!! Which site is this in Port A?

[amt]

We are right off Port Aransas Beach Road, half way between Ave G and Beach Street. Sand is well packed and easy to drive on. Permit I think is $12 for a year, but did not need one as the 2021 permits are gone and 2022 are not sold yet.

I definitely need to be more prepared for sand. I need some kind of platform near the door with a wash/shower station, so we can rinse off before entering the coach

[Ck2hans]

Put a pail of water at the entryway and an old carpet at the door. Step in the pail of water, agitate your feet, step on the carpet and into your coach.

[Gil_J]

Wow, a place with a view.

[Hoffman]

Love to see the boondocking with style.
We just spent 5 days at a beach and love the water bucket & carpet idea. I only wish I could teach our big dog to use the bucket.

[WinterStorm]

Hi Joe,
For Dessa you’ll more likely need a horse water trough. Just imagine how much sand she could conceal in all her fur!
Still, she’s the friendliest, sweet big girl of a pup. :-)

[amt]

I wish I got a picture, but the sunrise on the horizon each morning was perfect and could be seen from the stateroom when waking up. I am really liking the boondock lifestyle.

This was actually our first bookdock ever. I have only tested the generator once before, but did not have any experience with the auto start/stop from the trace inverters. Luckily it went without a hitch. Both nights it kicked on around 3 am, and while it did wake me up, it was because I was nervously anticipating it while I was sleeping. Once started, it was hardly noticeable. I have no idea how much diesel we used for the generator, but I am guessing it was not too much.

We took a mostly non-interstate way back to Austin, which was nice to go through some small towns, get some good BBQ in Lockhart, and as It turned out, was able to dump tanks for free at Austin wastewater treatment plant, right along our route, just 20 miles before arriving home.

Port Aransas is really great for boondocking. There’s tons of space on the beach, it’s clean, quiet, and friendly. If you are not too far away, I recommend it.

The only small hiccup with boondocking was my daughter taking a 45 min shower and using half the fresh water :)

[Hoffman]

Andrew, I laugh at your daughters shower situation. I also deal with that challenge with my family. Some people get it, some don't.

But I raise concern about you waiting for your generator to auto-start. On my coach, the auto-start is triggered by a voltage level that's just too low for my preference. So I run the generator at 'convenient' times of day, a bit in the morning, then a bit in the evening. The type of batteries we have for house batteries prefer minimal discharge cycles. Unless you've upgraded to Li-Ion.
Do you know what your autostart trigger voltage is?

[MusicianTrader]

I will definitely be headed to Port A when my coach is returned from service! I enjoy boondocking at truckstops so I can only imagine at the beach!

[Smith]

We live in Lockhart Texas, and my wife have stayed at the Gulf Waters Resort in Port Aransas and it's on the beach. Nice place.

Home - Gulf Waters Beach Front RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX. (gulfwatersrvresorttx.com) (https://gulfwatersrvresorttx.com/)

[amt]

Joe & Diane: I do not recall the exact voltage levels, but it is whatever the default is for Trace 4000w inverters. They have several triggers, depending on a voltage and a minimum time. I am pretty sure the trigger levels are set for lead-acid (which I have), but I think they can get kins of low, like 22v, but I'd have to look at the documentation to be sure.

Terri & Trey: Yes, Gulf Waters is where I want to try next! We tried Pioneer during Thanksgiving, and it was OK, just a bit tight. Gulf Waters has some sites which appear really roomy, even some with cabanas and outdoor kitchen, for what I thought was very reasonable daily rates. While I'll still like the boondocking, I would not mind mixing in some resort style accommodations once in a while.

[Hoffman]

Andrew,
This opens up a great question: Are the inverters default voltage trigger levels appropriate for long term health of our house batteries (Lifeline)? I realize (as Andrew mentioned) there are several trigger conditions based on voltage level and time duration. But none of them make me comfortable letting my batteries get to those voltage levels.
Here's my inverter settings where generator start is triggered:
24.6v for 24hrs+
23.6v for 2hrs+
22.6v for 15min+

A key reason for my opinion is that number of cycles that a AGM battery can handle are directly related to the depth of discharge that it encounters. According to Concorde Battery Corp, a Lifeline battery will handle about 5000 cycles if never dropped below 90% charge. Consequently if the same battery sustains a 50% discharge level, the number of cycles reduces to 1000. Simple lesson: Our batteries will last longer the less we discharge them.

Thoughts from the community?

[Joe Camper]

Those points r not too low because there r loads on the bank when u observe that. That's why time is also factored in. When they get down to 22. whatever that is not a resting voltage and if u pulled all loads away when they show 22 they would bounce back to a higher resting voltage. If u set the limits higher that won't hurt but it may make a gen start before u wake when it otherwise would not.

12.2 and 24.4 r where u start to deep cycle but these r resting numbers with no loads. If u r trying to keep the bank from deep cycling under load your gen run cycles will be quite frequent.

I think regardless of the way u fashion your settings the total amp hrs available till all used up comes out about the same u either get longer cycles or more of them. Make your settings to suit your style.

Usually people rarely use auto start if those settings r a tic off unless u boondock all the time it's going to be insignificant.

[Joe Camper]

Hey Joe

If I was boondocking alot and my normal loads and draw were all very small ones like lights and television only I'd want to get that setting higher than default but they kinda got that worked out with the time factor.? Right?

If my normal loads were frequently bigger like toaster microwave blow dryer toe kick heat, I'd set lower but again they have that time factor at work again.?.?

U could also manipulate things too like when u r getting close if u know what your time variable is set at u wouldn't for example use the microwave for a time setting as great as what is set to trigger start. When u step out the shower and your toes r cold u could use the heater just don't run in for a greater time than your setting.

Did u ever consider that?

I got it bad don't I.

This is the kind of concerns poor bastards like me have to contend with not u guys with 20 k gens that r whisper quite. Sheesh.

Boondocking. Or when parked without any driving or idling the vehicle. I run generator 4 hrs when I wake up and 4 hr before I go to bed. This not only keeps the fridge cold but regardless of season keeps me pretty comphy too.

Spring and fall maybe reduce run times to 3hr.

If it's blazing hot mid summer there's always exceptions too.

[Joe Camper]

If u r going to be boondocking comfortable u will use kitchen and bathroom stuff when u get up and probably want heat or ac watching tv before bed and running the gen early and late does this and keeps a battery bank just fine.

If u get your batteries to float right before u go to bed the battery bank should have no problem running the fridge without low voltage before morning. 3 hrs runtime should be enough time to get even very discharged banks back to float.

[Gil_J]

Andrew,
This opens up a great question: Are the inverters default voltage trigger levels appropriate for long term health of our house batteries (Lifeline)? I realize (as Andrew mentioned) there are several trigger conditions based on voltage level and time duration. But none of them make me comfortable letting my batteries get to those voltage levels.
Here's my inverter settings where generator start is triggered:
24.6v for 24hrs+
23.6v for 2hrs+
22.6v for 15min+

A key reason for my opinion is that number of cycles that a AGM battery can handle are directly related to the depth of discharge that it encounters. According to Concorde Battery Corp, a Lifeline battery will handle about 5000 cycles if never dropped below 90% charge. Consequently if the same battery sustains a 50% discharge level, the number of cycles reduces to 1000. Simple lesson: Our batteries will last longer the less we discharge them.

Thoughts from the community?

The AGS system you are using and most everyone else is, does not measure the battery bank's state of charge. That's the best method for triggering generator start and stop cycles. Those numbers only appear low because there's an assumed load. If the coach was in storage, those numbers would be too low. The best thing for you to do is bump the 15 minute timer up to 23V and see if the generator cycles too frequently. After all, the start trigger is a compromise between actual discharge (that's an unknown) and how often it triggers the start. If it doesn't start too frequently under normal use, bump it up a bit higher.