Furnace and battery?

[janetpowell]

Morning! We are leaving tuesday for our first trip of the year, yeah!!! We will be spending at least one night "boondocking". Our question is this: can we run our furnace using the battery? It may be a simple question, but we have not had to consider it until this trip. It will most likely get down into the high 30's and low 40's overnight. thanks!

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by janetpowell

Morning! We are leaving tuesday for our first trip of the year, yeah!!! We will be spending at least one night "boondocking". Our question is this: can we run our furnace using the battery? It may be a simple question, but we have not had to consider it until this trip. It will most likely get down into the high 30's and low 40's overnight. thanks!

Janet,

If your battery is in good shape and fully charged, it should handle one night's boondocking with the furnace. A couple of hints on battery conservation while boondocking:

1. Make sure the heater strip on your refrigerator is OFF.

2. Use only the lights you really need, and turn them off when not needed. If you can safely use candles or oil lamps in place of lights, do so.

3. Avoid excess use of the water pump if possible.

4. Pull the fuse on the on-board AM/FM/CD radio. It draws juice even when turned off.

5. Set the thermostat as low as you can and still be comfortable.

Have fun!

[JohnB]

I fully agree and 2nd Steve’s list. He nailed it.

A few adders:

Fully charge the battery before this trip. You will at least start out toped off.

If this is a night stop over, make sure you unplug the 7 wire plug from the TV if you are still hooked up. Or pending TV brand it will drain the TV battery too.

Your system is sort of safe guarded on the Furnace. If the battery does drain the battery too much, the motor will slow down, the sail switch in the furnace will then not make electrically closed and shut the furnace down on safety.

Bring flash lights for lights.

Good luck and happy camping. Hope this helps

John

[janetpowell]

Thanks! The battery is on the charger, fortuately that was a thought early this year. The check list to conserve the battery is very helpful! Fortunately, we don't like to sleep in a warm environment. Our bedroom is kept about 62 degrees. Now we don't have to worry!

[pwb01]

Having two batteries mounted on the a frame, I've been three nights using the furnace at night without a problem. If you're boondocking, be sure to unplug from the tow vehicle so you're not using your vehicle battery. Don't want any surprises in the morning.

[purplesuebug]

My wife and I save some battery power in cold weather by using a NEW propane radiant heater during the day time and onlt while we are in the camper. This keeps the camper pretty warm but I do not trust them at night. We just turn down the thermostat to keep from getting too cold overnight and then use the radiant heater to warm the room for cleaning and breakfast.
Mine is ventless & safe for indoor use and has tip-over safety switch. It runs for ~5 hours on a 1lb propane bottle on low and actually does a great job heating the camper. This way I can use the battery for water and lights as we usually boondock for 4-5 days at a time.
This was an old pop-up lesson as we had no heater in that and had to rely on an old coleman fuel radiant heater.................better leave the flaps open for that ons!!!!! Marshall

[Sunline1]

If I'm boondocking in a walmart and it's pretty cold outside when i pull in, I leave the truck run, go in the camper turn the furnace on, set the thermostat and let the camper get warmed up, while the truck is running. Then go out side shut off the truck and pull the plug so I can't run the truck battery down. i think this might help a little. Sunline1

[janetpowell]

Actually, we most likely will spend a night at a Walmart, so thanks for the trip! There's nothing like experience!

[Sunline1]

Just don't do what i did. It was raining and mid 40's temp. I went to get out of the truck opened the door, hit the electric door locks, locked the doors, then decided to leave the truck run, and shut the door and locked the keys in the truck, with the motor running, and the wipers on. Lucky the camper was unlocked, went in turned the furnace on and called Good Sam Roadside assistance, about 5 minutes after the call remebered I have an extra key to the truck in the camper. Oh well everything worked out okay. i was a little embarassed to call Roadside assistance back to tell them, I had found and extra key. Sunline1

[janetpowell]

Great story! We've all been there at one time or another!!!

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by janetpowell

Great story! We've all been there at one time or another!!!

Janet

There is an error in your sig picture and we cannot see the pic. Take the quotes out after the img] and of in front of the http: and then it will work. (I put the whole thing in quote so it will for sure not post and you can see your error.)

"[img]"http://www.mrspowell.com/_wp_generated/wpe658291c.png[/img]"

Looks like this when right


Nice campeing rig

John

[janetpowell]

Thanks for pointing out the mistake I had in the signature. I have moved my web sites from FrontPage to Web Plus and the code wasn't working. In between working on three sites to fix what didn't translate from FrontPage I hadn't gotten back to fix my signature. In addition I got a new cell phone. I guess I like challenges, thanks!!!

[JohnB]

Yup, looking good now.

I knew I saw that pic a while ago on your sig, but then it stopped working. Now know why.

John

[janetpowell]

I thought I'd update on our use of our furnace with the battery. We spent the night in the London, Ohio Walmart. Our first time and we would do it again. We pulled in during a heavy rainstorm. We parked and went into the store to check where we might park. The person in Customer Service didn't seem to know and suggested we could park anywhere away from the building. We found a level spot away from most of the lights and traffic. We kept the truck running and ran the furnace to heat up the camper. It was probably about 10pm before we stopped. We set the furnace at 65, it was probably about 40 degrees outside, and fell soundly asleep. I was awakened by a strange smell about 7am as the battery level fell too low to run the fan and the furnace shut off. We started the truck and got warm and toasty once again.
We could have brought our generator but didn't want to have to store it while we were in St. Louis. No matter where we put it I don't like the gasoline smell.
On the way home we stayed at Alum Creek State Park with electric as the weather was predicting colder temps and snow. Our battery was too low to support the fan anyway. This brings another question, is there a way for the battery to charge while driving? All these details to learn.

[Sunline1]

Janet
I'm sure you'l find someone to answer you question in more detal than me.
Yes, your truck should charge your camper battery, while your driving if things are wired up correctly. You can check that by, measuring the voltage at the camper battery, with both the truck not running, and with it running. The camper battery voltage should increase with the truck running. another way I kinda check that is the light on the front outside of my camper, the one that is used for hooking up at night, will be brighter with the truck running than not running. Of course, you need to have your trailer plugged into the truck while checking thss out. Good luck. Sunline1

[Sunline Fan]

Janet,

I am surprised your battery drained that quickly. It should have lasted through the night, assuming you weren't running anything else (like a light).

Jon

[PTHutch]

Janet,

Have you checked the water level in your battery lately?

If you battery is not holding a charge, your water level may be low, or you may be in the need for a new battery.

Hutch