# Battery life while wild camping



## chrisndeb (Feb 7, 2007)

Hi All
Being a caravaner for many years now converted to motorhoming "wild camping is new to us" the thought of not being hooked up concerns me a bit, the unknown if you like. We have a brand new 110 leisure battery how many days roughly can we live on it the only real extra maybe a 12v tv? How long roughly (miles/hours) would it take to recharge via the alternator? please dont give me amp hours x daylight hours x etc etc sorry I dont get it or too lazy to work it out lol. 2/3 days? 20 miles ish 20mins on tickover ish great answer. Thanks Chris


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

chrisndeb said:


> Hi All
> Being a caravaner for many years now converted to motorhoming "wild camping is new to us" the thought of not being hooked up concerns me a bit, the unknown if you like. We have a brand new 110 leisure battery how many days roughly can we live on it the only real extra maybe a 12v tv? How long roughly (miles/hours) would it take to recharge via the alternator? please dont give me amp hours x daylight hours x etc etc sorry I dont get it or too lazy to work it out lol. 2/3 days? 20 miles ish 20mins on tickover ish great answer. Thanks Chris


Hi Chris

Welcome to the converts. :roll:

Suggest you use the search facility. There is a load of information on just this question, much of it very recent. I'm sure you will find a dozen very expert answers if you have a look.

Cheers


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## oilslick (Oct 3, 2007)

*battery life*

when we had one 85 amp battery we could last 2.5 days with 6 hours telly a day + some lighting (led) + 20 minutes of water pump a day. We now have 2 leisure batteries and a solar panel and have no problems...

When we ran our one 85amp battery right down it would take upto 3-4 days to come back on hook-up, depending on the amount of stuff we were using, the more lights etc the slower the battery charged back.

Grant


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

Chris, before you go away in it, leave a few bits switched on for a few days? or put everything you can on, on a day, and see what happens.. 



John


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## tokkalosh (May 25, 2006)

When wildcamping I usually move around in the daytime, thus topping up the battery anyway.
If I was to stay 2 or 3 nights without moving I would expect to be alright but I am always careful, about 3 hours tv, minimum lighting, fridge, cooker and heating on gas.
I believe you can run the engine for about 10 mins to top up the battery.

I used advice on here and trial and error, it's all part of the fun :wink:


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## drcotts (Feb 23, 2006)

Hi
With 1 x 110amp hour battery which is in good condition and just TV and lights on you will easliy get through the night. Any MC rally will see plenty of people with no hook up ther all weekend so its not usually a problem. If you are moving on each day it will be topped up anyway.

The things which will drain the battery are highpower inverters (500w +) 12v powered heating and hgh consumption items.

If you can fit it in connect another £110 ah in paralell or at least carry a fully charged one with you if in doubt.


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## davidcampervanstuff (Nov 24, 2007)

If you are running things like heating which uses blown air, that can be a significant drain in cold weather. But even so, if your only other 'extra' is 12v TV you should be fine for overnighters (remember that if you plan to run satellite TV and therefore a satellite receiver this uses more power). 

Don't count on two nights without having a good run to put charge back in. I would say that a good run is at least two hours; your leisure battery can't absorb charge at a high rate; probably a two-hour run would put about 30-40 amp hours back into your battery. Ten minutes would be all but useless. 

It's easy to extend your duration by running down the leisure battery much too far; but doing so will only shorten the life and capacity of the battery for the future. You should aim to discharge your battery no more than 50 per cent (so really you have 55 Ah from a full battery) and then it should be left in that condition for as short a time as possible. 

As a rough guide, a battery at 50 per cent will have a voltage reading of 12.2; however this is hard to gauge because the reading should be taken after the battery has 'rested' for a while - the voltage will recover to a degree once any heavy drain is turned off. 

A fully charged, rested battery should settle at around 12.9v; an 70 - 80 per cent full battery will read around 12.7v - a level which is the minimum you should allow when your vehicle is being stored for a while. 

David


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

Hi,

we also have a single 110 Ah battery. And in summer, when the Trumatic C gas heating is only used for hot water, we can get along for 3-4 nights without any problem. We have no TV, but do watch the occasional DVD movie on a laptop running from an inverter. 

This all under the condition that your fridge runs on gas!

In winter, under the same conditions, but with the heating on as long as the thermostat requires it, we still can do two nights in a row. 

The time the alternator needs to recharge the battery depends very much on how strong it is (there are different alternator models), and how many other consumers it has to feed (fridge, headlights, etc.). But, in standard motorhomes, do not expect the alternator to charge the leisure battery to more than 80-90%. 

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## Sonesta (May 10, 2005)

Another idea for when you are wild camping or on a rally with no EHU is to buy a small suitcase generator. We have a Honda EU20i and that has been worth its weight in gold for us on many occasions and means you can use items such as hairdriers etc too. The only thing I would say is that be careful where and how you use them as a lot of folk complain about fellow campers using generators and although ours is relatively quiet compared to some models we only ever use ours when we are not going to disturb others or if we are at a meet/rally/show where others have theirs on too and only then during certain permitted hours.

As for lesiure batteries we ourselves are having issues with ours at the moment and are looking to fit 3 x 110 Ah batteries as the 2 x 85 Ah batteries that came fitted with our new twin axle Auto Trail Cheyenne do not seem adequate enough for the power it takes to run our particular vehicle and we only seem to be getting one night out of them when we are not hooked up. Maybe we are not being careful enough I don't know but we turn off all lights and apart from the 12v tv and satellite system we have installed the only other major drain is our blown air heating. Unfortunately, during this time of year you need to keep warm so our generator has been essential whenever we have had cause to wild camp.

We hear so many stories from other motorhomers about the success they enjoy with their leisure batteries that we think we must either have faulty batteries or we are doing something badly wrong somewhere along the line as we had similar problems with our Swift Kontiki although, saying that we could manage for more than the 1 night that we curently struggle ti get from our Auto Trail.

Sue


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Hi, Chris

Just to add our experiences to the pot:

Our old van (Autosleepers Pollensa) had just one 85Ah battery. We used it mainly in the summer, and had no blown air heating (gas heater only). We could happily go away after work on Friday and camp without hookup until Sunday afternoon. We would use the shower (2 people X 2 days), bits of water pump for filling kettles / cooking etc. We would have probably no more than 2 hours of TV a night.

We have a different van now, and at the moment, we're choosing to use Caravan Club sites in the winter, with hookup, as we're watching more TV and has the blown air heating on.

In our new van, we have 2 X 110 Ah batteries, and will be fitting a solar panel in the spring, and expect to be able to to self-sufficient in electricity in the warmer months.

Gerald


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