Winter rally without hook-up.

[Wildge]

Being the idiot .......so says MBH .............who thought it would be a good idea to book a rally over New Year without hook-up how long can we expect the Truma C6002EH blown air heating to perform without completely flattening the leisure battery'

We have an 07 Swift Bolero FB with 85W solar panel and inverter and the battery is 85 amp. Neither of us are techie's so please keep the answers simple.

Or do I just give in and cancel >:-(

Thank you for any help.

[Big Momma]

Allowing that you will have enough gas for the duration of the rally, and anticipating that you do not have a standby generator, solar panels etc (not that there will be much sun anyway but you never know), I would suggest that if your van is not too big to make it inconvenient to move, that you consider taking it out for a run. Once the vehicle battery is fully charged then it should switch over to charging the leisure battery.

 

I too am booked to go away on 28th December returning on 2nd January. This will be the first time that we have used the van over the Festive period, really looking forward to it as we have also booked to go to the New Year Eve Festivities at the local hostelry. Our kids, who are young adults now are descending on us as usual on Christmas Eve and departing on 27th. So, the van will be packed ready to go so this will be the first year that I won't be hoping for a White Christmas, you watch us go and have one now and us get snowed in until February :D :D

[Randonneur]

In the distant past, when we were caravanners, we always went to Scotland for the New Year. We never had a hookup as it was always a Rally and never had a problem with using the blownair heating, using the TV and all the 12v items needed, but always made sure we had plenty of gas and an old duvet that we used to cover the gas bottles up with in the gas locker, even though they were propane.

[Brian Kirby]

Wildge - 2010-10-26 3:43 PM Being the idiot .......so says MBH .............who thought it would be a good idea to book a rally over New Year without hook-up how long can we expect the Truma C6002EH blown air heating to perform without completely flattening the leisure battery' We have an 07 Swift Bolero FB with 85W solar panel and inverter and the battery is 85 amp. Neither of us are techie's so please keep the answers simple. Or do I just give in and cancel >:-( Thank you for any help.

Where is the rally, UK or farther south?  What would you plug into the inverter while away?  How long is the rally?  But, with 85Ah battery of unknown type/condition, you'll have maybe 40Ah to use safely.  In summer, with no telly, using lights sparingly, and only using the water heater, maybe 72 hours.  You have a solar panel of unknown parentage so, if the sun shines, you'll get some benefit from that, so allowing for longer, darker, winter evenings, still maybe 72 hours.  If it snows, no gain from solar panel, so maybe 60 hours, maybe less.  If you watch telly, depending on the consumption of your set and other equipment (satellite?) even less.  The question is, in reality, highly technical, and without the necessary inputs the answer, really, is "how long is a piece of string?"  Even with all the technical inputs, weather being the main determining factor and being inherently unpredictable, the answer is still "how long is a piece of string?"  The short answer, I think, with a single 85Ah battery, is that you'll be pushing it!  :-)

[747]

You have plenty of time to fit a second leisure battery. Providing you are not wasteful, you should be OK. If your present battery is the original one and has not been abused, it should still be of reasonable quality. You can always remove it when the warmer weather arrives if necessary. If you are always on sites (which it sounds like) then 1 85 Ah battery is fine.

 

We wildcamp all year round but have 2 x 110 Ah batteries, a 90 watt solar panel and a wind turbine. We can get 3 days in the worst of conditions and longer with a bit of sun and wind. I never drain my batteries below 50% as it can drastically shorten the life of them.

[Caroline]

Hi

 

We have camped for the past 8 odd years over New Year we attend a 5 day DA meet with out hookup, the first time we went we had blue gas!!! yes it froze so make sure it is propane gas (Orangie Colour) or we use BP Light. For our first motorhome a Bessie 735 we had Blownair heating, (no gas fire) with 2 110 amp batteries, a solar pannel (does not do a lot in the winter) we had the heating on low to keep the chill of the van, spent most of the time in the School hall and not in the van, we found that the batteries lasted 3 days before we got concerned and then had to use the dreaded Genny to charge them up.

 

Were we camp they have a batterie charging facility which helps if you are desparate.

 

I am sorry to report that we got rid of the van after 2 winters and the main criteria for the new lovely, superdooper, wonderful van was a gas fire, something that seems to be going out of fashion, we asked a lot of people about wintering with out hook up and were often told it is not a problem, but we think it is! especially as most of our time at these meets was spent out of the van and in a lovely centrally heated hall.

 

I am sorry if I have put you off, give it a go and see how you get on, we are all helpful souls I am sure some one on site would be only to willing to help you if you need it.

 

Good luck (lol)

[JohnP]

I have run a rally of four nights duration over the New Year for nearly ten years. A mix of caravans and motorhomes.

On rare occassions members have suffered from a flat battery. I think that socials in a hall each evening prolongs the charge in batteries. Heating may be left on, but TV and lights are only used for a short period.

 

If you are on a meet where a hall is used you can usually plug in a portable battery charger or you could purchase a second battery.

 

Take an extra duvet so that you do not have to leave the heating on at night.

[Wildge]

Thank you for all the replies folks. Lets hope it will be a mild Christmas and New Year.

[MandyAndy]

We did rally with S. Lincs last year and the car park was packed ice, don't think anyone ran out of anything even without hook up as most of the time is spent in the warmth of village hall or the like.

 

Solar panels still took some charge in the day so kept the blown air heating going when we needed it, which wasn't often over the 4 nights.

 

You will have a great time and you can always get more gas if you need it.

 

Have a great time

Mandy