dry camping house barrery issue

[jerry mcguire]

we love to dry camp in the national parks but seem to have a problem keeping our house batteries fully charged.
we are very frugal with our lights etc but after 3-4 days the charge falls to a level even the generator wont start;. Our barreries are new and I'm told the converter only gives a trickle charge to the house barreries. I just hate to worry about this all the time.Any suggestions?????? Thank you very much...j.mcguire

 

[RanCarr]

Doesn't your generator charge your batteries when it runs? Am I mistaken about that? Can there be a ghost drain on the batteries such as a light in a cubby that's staying on?

 

[H2H1]

How old are the batteries? if they are 5-7 yeras old then they are getting where they will not hold a charge to long. I recommend new batteries, I think that will solve your problem. However if you do have a drain it will show up later.

 

[akjimny]

Jerry - You said your batteries were new - how new? Are they RV deep cycle batteries? 12 volt or 6 volt? You could have a battery with a bad cell or like RanCarr said, you could have a ghost drain somewhere that is pulling current even when you have everything turned off. You could install a manual disconnect switch and see if that increases your battery life. It would be a PITA to turn on and off again when you needed power in the RV but it might help??

 

[LEN]

How long are you running the gen. And how much charge is getting to the batteries. I run at least an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening with no trouble keeping the batteries up. If you are talking cold weather and run the furnace a lot or hotter and the fans you might need more charge time. You could buy a charger and run it off the gen to help the charge.

LEN