Since the last post ended with a bit of a downer, let's see if we can crawl out of the slough of despair today. Let me be a good sport and admit that I am temporarily stymied in finding an economical, high-ground-clearance tow vehicle for pulling my 3000 pound converted cargo trailer/travel trailer and storing two bicycles inside.
Usually when a problem has you temporarily beaten, it is best to put it aside and work on something else. So let's get to work on reducing the weight of camping gear and personal possessions. One way or another, lighter loads will pay off when it comes time to select a new tow vehicle, whatever it is.
After water -- be it clean, grey, or black -- batteries are the heaviest factor that an RVer has any control over. I am using four 6-volt, golf cart, flooded, lead acid batteries: model GC-2, made by Interstate. With cables, clamps and boxes, let's round off their weight to 70 pounds each.
Downsizing from 4 to 2 such batteries reduces the weight of the trailer by 140 pounds. Imagine how many clothes, dishes, and toys you would have to get rid-of to add up to 140 pounds!
Unfortunately I don't have an energy-summing device to give you exact numbers. Suffice it to say that my DC-voltage-powered refrigerator is the biggest energy-draw in my trailer, and therefore that is where the improvement must come from. (It's a 12 Volt-DC, compressor-based refrigerator: the Whynter 45 quart model, sold at HomeDepot.com.)
Let us not think of a battery as an electrochemical device, but as an example of the more general category of "energy storage devices." There aren't too many other examples of energy storage devices besides the battery, but one that we usually overlook is the heat capacity of water and the heat exchanged in freezing water.
During the day, my nearly 500 (nominal) watts of solar panels usually charge up the four golf-cart batteries by mid-morning. Then, the rest of the day, the whole system is just maintaining a full charge on those batteries. Therefore much of the capabilities of the solar system is being wasted.
Wouldn't it make more sense to run the solar system full blast, all day? If I used my Whynter refrigerator as a freezer for various jugs of water (rather than as a refrigerator for food), all of the solar capabilities will be "soaked up" during the day, freezing water. Then, at night, I could just turn off the Whynter frig/freezer, in order to get by on merely two golf cart batteries. The ice jugs would then be transferred to a common inexpensive "Igloo" or "Coleman" cooler chest, which would serve as the refrigerator for my food.
The Whynter unit has thus gone from being a food refrigerator to purely an ice manufacturing machine. I have done something like this before. Basically it works, but well enough to downsize 4 golf cart batteries to 2?
If the reader knows any success stories (or failures) with this technique, please comment.
Usually when a problem has you temporarily beaten, it is best to put it aside and work on something else. So let's get to work on reducing the weight of camping gear and personal possessions. One way or another, lighter loads will pay off when it comes time to select a new tow vehicle, whatever it is.
After water -- be it clean, grey, or black -- batteries are the heaviest factor that an RVer has any control over. I am using four 6-volt, golf cart, flooded, lead acid batteries: model GC-2, made by Interstate. With cables, clamps and boxes, let's round off their weight to 70 pounds each.
Downsizing from 4 to 2 such batteries reduces the weight of the trailer by 140 pounds. Imagine how many clothes, dishes, and toys you would have to get rid-of to add up to 140 pounds!
Unfortunately I don't have an energy-summing device to give you exact numbers. Suffice it to say that my DC-voltage-powered refrigerator is the biggest energy-draw in my trailer, and therefore that is where the improvement must come from. (It's a 12 Volt-DC, compressor-based refrigerator: the Whynter 45 quart model, sold at HomeDepot.com.)
Let us not think of a battery as an electrochemical device, but as an example of the more general category of "energy storage devices." There aren't too many other examples of energy storage devices besides the battery, but one that we usually overlook is the heat capacity of water and the heat exchanged in freezing water.
During the day, my nearly 500 (nominal) watts of solar panels usually charge up the four golf-cart batteries by mid-morning. Then, the rest of the day, the whole system is just maintaining a full charge on those batteries. Therefore much of the capabilities of the solar system is being wasted.
Wouldn't it make more sense to run the solar system full blast, all day? If I used my Whynter refrigerator as a freezer for various jugs of water (rather than as a refrigerator for food), all of the solar capabilities will be "soaked up" during the day, freezing water. Then, at night, I could just turn off the Whynter frig/freezer, in order to get by on merely two golf cart batteries. The ice jugs would then be transferred to a common inexpensive "Igloo" or "Coleman" cooler chest, which would serve as the refrigerator for my food.
The Whynter unit has thus gone from being a food refrigerator to purely an ice manufacturing machine. I have done something like this before. Basically it works, but well enough to downsize 4 golf cart batteries to 2?
If the reader knows any success stories (or failures) with this technique, please comment.
Comments
have you checked any of the smaller vehicles equipped with a "camper package" or towing package. I had a Chevy S10 that was rated same as a 3/4 ton payload.
The trailer weighs in at its GVWR. Now there is nothing exact, absolute, or god-given about that number, but it IS a useful discipline to pretend that it is. We need that discipline. So taking off 5% when you have 0% "safety margin" is a big number, in a sense.
It would have made the post too long to describe how I revere ice. Remember, I camp in the Southwest. Let me try to be succinct: have you ever watched the movie, "In Quest of Fire?" There is something primal in playing the ice game, just as they played the fire game in the movie. It captures my imagination.
But when push comes to shove, I will suppress my fun and games and choose the path of ruthless utilitarianism and frugality. Does anyone know how long a 12 volt DC compressor-based refrigerator is supposed to last when used on a daily basis? I have no idea -- this is my first one. Therefore the cautious thing is to use it as a refrigerator rather than a freezer.
now you can ditch 1 panel & 2 batteries if you switch to Lithium