Dry Camping Advice

I am a new Prevost owner and I am getting ready to take my first Dry Camping trip (Oshkosh). I have a couple of questions for the seasoned Prevost owners.

How much fuel will my Genset use?
How long will my tanks last given some parameters (fresh, grey, black)

Is there anything I should be thinking about (or taking)

I know these are simple questions that I should know but I just do not know my rig that well yet and I wanted to be prepared for this first trip out.

BTW, I have a 2004 CC.

Thanks in Advance

Brent

Brent,

If you do a search through the forums for ("generator load fuel") you'l find some posts about this.

Basically, it seems that the generators use about 0.4 GPH unloaded, and up to 2.1 (some said 1.8) GPH when really loaded (A/C going etc)

As I remember one thread from people dry camping at a Nascar race, with A/C and generator going full-blast, they used about 12 gallon per day. Not enough to worry too much about. Much less if you're not running the A/C.


How long your tanks last is based upon how well you conserve when taking showers etc. I have camped with my wife, with both of us taking one shower per day, and lasted a full week, although the showers were around the 5 minute mark.

You can "sometimes" dump your grey in some places, which will help. Black water for me has rarely been an issue on a week camping.

Ray

Oh Ray, with 4 girls, we get about 4 days at best with the black tank. I do have the water level kinda high and we don't practice any type of don't flush stuff, I like to see nice clean water when I need to go!

Hopefully Brent is not camping with 4 girls then!! :eek:

Of course, I was only speaking for a party of two in the coach!


Ray

Kevin, were you not famous for some black tank issue?? Hmm,, can't remember :confused: :rolleyes: :p

Jello, I was just checking what the max level in the tank was. It's a need to know, I just forgot to do it in private!

Hi Brent

I have a 2004 Country Coach and I typically do a fair amount of dry camping usually from 3 to 7 days. My bus has the Lifeline AGM batteries. When I am dry camping I monitor my batteries very carefully. First - my Bus has a Crestron Control system that controls the generator Auto-Start feature. The voltage that was set by Country Coach to start the generator is way too low for AGM batteries. I NEVER use the Auto-Start feature because of this. For maximum life AGM batteries should never be discharged more than 50%. For my Lifeline Batteries the 50% discharge voltage is 12.2 volts. In addition, when dry camping I check the voltage on my Xantrex panel and never rely on the voltage as displayed by the Crestron System. Finally, it is important that when recharging the AGM battery for maximum life the battery must reach 100% charge. In other words, the 3 stage charger should be in the float mode when you turn off the generator. After dry camping a couple of times you will get an idea how long you must run your generator to fully charge your batteries. Since many campsites have quiet hours, knowing how long it takes to charge your batteries will help you determine what time to start your generator before quiet time to ensure you have a full charge for the night. I hope this helps.

Miles and Laura Circo
2004 Country Coach 45' XLII D/S

Miles is right on the money on this one. I don't use my auto-start for the same reason. My Marathon had Genmate for the auto-start and I could change the dip switches to start at 12.2.

What Miles said..........What Truk said..........

Living in the coach when hooked up to shore power, water and sewer you can live large and while you have some energy management concerns, dry camping is a whole different animal. With a little care you can minimize water and battery use and really stretch your capacities. Or you can throw caution to the wind with respect to the use of energy and run the generator as long and as much as you want so you are living in absolute comfort. (You do have a Prevost, and you did spend a lot of money for the creature comforts...)

You alone can decide through experience at what rate you wish to use the resources available to you on the coach. Others have posted excellent comments and the length of time your batteries, water and holding tank capacity have will be entirely up to you.

Be carful listening to Jon on dry camping. He dry camped for 43 days straight on the same tanks of water once. Di went home after the first week. Jon finally ran out of kerosene and white gas for the lights along with the baloney sanwiches and had to leave. Thats where he got his nick name Raunchy. Don't get too excited Jon I'm just yanking your chain.

Harry, to effectively dry camp the secret is to use everyone else's toilet and shower. I do have to admit that we use less water here at home because there are too many people in an RV park, whereas at home I just go pee off the deck.

Thank you everyone for the great advice.

Brent

The first thing I did when I pulled into my winter camp spot when I began full timing was to make sure the fresh water tank was full, the black empty and unplug the service and live a normal as we could for how many days. I started the generator for a few hours twice a day and shortened our showers a little bit. We know we can get 7 days on the tanks and we never have a fear of dry camping and don't lose any of the ammenities. take the time to know your coach.

We are out for the next six months. We are now at a campsite that has all the luxuries, S/W/E real treat. We are trying to rotate between dry camping in remote areas and treating ourselves to unlimited hot water showers.

Last week we were in Aziscohos lake, Lincoln Plantation Maine dry camping. Seven days is about right with water and sewer. A little wabasto in the morning and lite on all else.

One thing that we are very pleased about is the fact that our Bus has both Gas and electric stove. When dry camping or on 30 amps we always use the gas burners.

We also cut off the engine 12/24 volt system. Asked Prevost Quebec about this and they confirmed that it does not effect the DDEC brain, but could run down the batteries if left on.

Finally we cut off all unnecessary power drain, including all sat related equipment if no signal is available, fan motors for the tv and stero, anything we do not need to save power. Really helps and in remote locations it makes for a more quiet experience.

Just for the record, we do not turn off any electrical services in cluding the12/24 switches. We run the computer nearly all day and take hot showers each day. If we had to go more than 24 hours without a shower during the dry camp, you can kiss the dry camp goodbye.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lewpopp

Just for the record, we do not turn off any electrical services in cluding the12/24 switches. We run the computer nearly all day and take hot showers each day. If we had to go more than 24 hours without a shower during the dry camp, you can kiss the dry camp goodbye.

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We do not mean to say that we rough it, but rather when we know that we will not need certain electrical items then we try and turn them off. I am a light sleeper and in a quiet forest settings every noise can be heard, and why use the extra power if it is not needed.

We use the Wabasto heat for the hot water when dry camping, plenty of hot water and warm in the morning.

As for the computer, we need to stay in touch with our business each day, but for the first time we actually were in a location where we could not get any signals, nothing from the cell phone booster, Motosat Tv nothing, tucked along side of a 4k mountain, had to drive 8 miles up the hill to get a signal and get our emails. Was not in love with that each day but the wilderness was pretty special.

We have been doing quite a bit of dry camping and my husband was wondering about getting a CTEK battery charger. We read there web page, but was wondering if anybody has used one. Was thinking of hooking up to chassie batteries.:rolleyes:
Thanks JB

:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judi Brown

We have been doing quite a bit of dry camping and my husband was wondering about getting a CTEK battery charger. We read there web page, but was wondering if anybody has used one. Was thinking of hooking up to chassie batteries.:rolleyes:
Thanks JB

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Hi Judi. If you are attempting to use the Chasis batteries to charge the Coach batteries , I would be careful or you could end up with neither being available. I typically run my Generator for about two hours to recharge my Coach batteries & I have a seperate 120 volt chasis battery charger which I can switch on as well when the Gen or shore is on.

Anyone ever started with no hot water, fired up the Webasto and seen in real life how long it took from fire up to usable hot shower?

Trick question? Under what circumstances would you be in the coach and the HW tank would be completely cold?

If we are dry camping every time we run the generator the HW tank is getting heated because the switch is on. If it is cold out and we are using the Webasto it is heated as the coach is heated. When hooked to shore power I use the electric HW heater. Our HW tank is 22 gallons and it holds more than enough heat to still give us a hot shower up to 24 hours after we shut down the engine.

My webasto will shut off the burner in about 30 minutes from a cold start and at that point the Hw tank heat exchanger has 160 degree coolant circulating through it.

Its at least a good 30 to 40 minutes with the electric heat element before the water is hot enough, I would think it would be longer with the webasto.

Judi,

A number of us are using this charger with great results. Gary's info is spot on.

At Amazon

Attachment 2972

http://www.amazon.com/Guest-2611A-Ba...5369224&sr=8-1


Mike

Because I do dry camp at some of the events that I attend,I had Liberty install a inline water heater that only works off the generator and six 8D batteries and two 3500 watt Outback inverters that will run 2 Cruise airs.I still have the 20 gallon water heater but the inline heater is plumbed for the shower only but feeds from the 20 gallon heater,the inline pulls 38 amps on both legs that is why it is only powered from the generator.

Warren, I have had water hot enough for a shower in approx 20 minutes. From "off" to webasto shutoff (due to reaching max heat), was 30 to 40 minutes.

Ray

About 20 minutes, unless the soda cans have already exploded...:p

Thanks for the replies!

Jon, guess yo might have a point, but was curious anyway.

Truk: Bite me! :) I would rather have exploding sodas then no TP :)

Hi Mike
My husband wants to check into this CTEK charger and hook it to Chassie batteries permanetly. As we have had 2 replace 2 of the 4 chassie batteries.
The charger you show, have you got it hooked up permanetly.
Thanks JB

JB,

I've attached mine permanently to the bulkhead right above the batteries.

I used the outlet from the block heater for power.

Attachment 2976


Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MangoMike

I've attached mine permanently to the bulkhead right above the batteries. I used the outlet from the block heater for power. Mike

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I too am having problems again with my start batteries. The parasitic drain on the start batteries while it is in the barn, is unbelievable?

Mike, a little more information please for us Newbies.

This Guest charger I assume needs to be attached to the correct terminals on the correct batteries for proper charging of all start batteries, Correct?

My start system has (4) batteries, and two of these are in 24 volt series while the other two batteries are strictly 12volt.

WHICH BATTERY DO YOU HOOK UP THE GUEST CHARGER too, for correclty charging your entire (4) battery system? Thanks for the answer.



Gary S.

Gary, it sounds like you need to buy some new house batteries, don't you think? How long have you had them in that bus anyway? If they are over two months old, you should change them out. :) :) cash boy!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dalej

Gary, it sounds like you need to buy some new house batteries, don't you think? How long have you had them in that bus anyway? If they are over two months old, you should change them out. :) :) cash boy!

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Alright Dale I give up.... What do the house batteries have to do with the start batteries ??

And since they are all new, the only batteries I have left to change out are in the 6 cell flashlight in the drawer.... Dang it anyway this is such fun. :confused: :D

Gary S.

Attachment 2977



Gary,

The Guest is a high tech 3 stage charger, so it won't cook the batteries when fully charged. It will go into a float charge mode.

The guest charger as shown should have 2 sets of wires to charge two 12v batteries at one time. Or one 24v set.

Simply take one pos and one neg from each set, cut and wire nut together.

Your 4 chassis (start) batteries will be interconnected with wires in some fashion to produce 24v. You need to find the final positive and the final negative (ground) of the set.

Take the Guest positive from one set and secure to the final positive on your battery set. Do the same with the negative. You can always put a meter on both sets on the battery to make sure you're dealing with 24v.

Good luck.

Mike

Note: From personal experience I can tell you that if a cell in a battery goes dead, sometimes the guest charger will not go to float and will continue trying to charge up that battery in the bank. With that you will notice a very strong sulfur smell in the bus barn, and you'll be forced to change the batteriesl

[QUOTE=Gary,Dang it anyway this is such fun. :confused: :D

Gary S.[/QUOTE]

Gary,

I was just messing with you since I knew you just changed out the chassis batteries.

I still feel bad that you did all that detail to our lincoln, you drove it so little!

Gary,

Actually what you probably have is two sets of 12v batteries in parallel (still 12v), wired in series which gives 24v.

Truk posted a different wiring diagram vs. Mikes.

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/...4&postcount=55

The difference here is the Guest charge appears to have 2 12v charging circuits. Mikes is wired such that the charger is wired in series to create one single 24 circuit, and the charger leads are across the 24v and ground.

In Truks diagram, they are effectively using two 12v circuits, and attaching one each to the 12v parallel batteries.

I would assume that both modes are just fine.

Ray

I don't think so. If the charger does not go through the Equalizer the diagram as shown will not allow batteries subjected to a parasitic 12V load to maintain a charge.

If they would maintain a charge then we would not need our equalizers. We could hook our 24 alternators up exactly as the charger circuit is shown.

The connections as shown are OK subject to some assumptions being correct. First, all batteries have an equal charge when the charger is activated, and second if there are any parasitic loads those loads are applied to each battery equally. Those are big assumptions.

I think Tom's approach is correct because he charges 2 12V sets equally.

Regarding long term dry camping and generator use and keeping the batteries topped off and that, I but myself in gear to come up with an aux. generator sollution. I won't recount the entire discussion but you can search for post by me and it should be one of the last 3 or 4 post I made where I finally solved it (with some help from John while bicycling in the Florida mini ralley). My goal was to have a small aux generator for when all I wanted to do was keep my batteries topped off or use the webasco at night w/o having the batteries go below 12.2 volts or if I wanted to dry camp and just run one A/C. I also wanted a back up generator in case my main generator went down. I also didn't want to worry about fire at night since I had a close call with my generator before and I wanted the generator outside the bus at night so I could sleep more sound and not worry. Long story can be found as above by searching the prior threads, but the short of it is, I got a 2,600 watt quiet run Yamaha. It fits in the small bay on the passenger side of a 45' XL. After driving myself nuts drying to figure out how to hot wire into the main power panel, in the end, the easiest way to make it work was to plug it in right to the shore power cord. After it keep throwing the breaker on the small gen over and over I finally did enough trial and error and figured out to turn off one of the two inverters. Even if there is no load (ie, the charges are off on both inverters), it was still tripping it because the inverter itself (when on) was pulling some power. By turning the inverter off at the remote, it FINALLY worked ! In my case, the one inverter I left on worked the fridge and the rear air in the bedroom at night. Other's might have to move a breaker or two around to get what they want to work on the single inverter. If you were in good weather and didn't need heat or air, you could use something as small as a 600-800 watt genertator just to keep the batteries topped as an alternative to letting the auto start charge the batteries and cycle them. I've had rotten luck with battery life and it's probabley me and not the batteries but I can't get 12 hours of life from the batteries to run a few lights and the fridge unless their brand new. So just keeping them topped off with a tiny generator works for me even if I'm in good weather.

Some members think this is foolish and they just say run the main generator but in my case, I like having the back up and peace of mind of having the generator outside at night while I'm sleeping. I use a thick bike lock cable to lock it to the bus.