# Prepping For Boondocking Project



## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

Over the past year I've been getting the 5er ready to do some boondocking. I started with replacing all my lights with LED's. In my case, this reduced draw from lights from 350W to 87W. Of course, that's if I turn them all on at once. Battery charger was difficult one. I had decided on a converter at first, then an inverter/charger, then back to a converter. I got a separate inverter. A replacement LCD TV (for the living room) is in the works that will give me another ~35Ah per day. I had originally wanted a solar setup but after a ton of research, questions, advice, and discussions, a large battery bank made sense as it's the heart of the RV and boondocking can't done without batteries. The battery bank was sized for 3-4 days of camping with a draw around 100-150Ah per day without a recharge needed until returning home. I have no generator and would only consider one for long trips in shaded areas (like Yosemite). Solar is still in the works but tentatively delayed until next year. Now for the fun part!!

1. Four Trojan L16E-AC 6V batteries at 740Ah total.
2. Go Power 300W PSW Inverter
3. Parallax Paramode 55A Converter with temperature compensation - for floating and charging at home.
4. LED's - Great thread for these is KendalP's My LEDs thread over on RV.net.
5. Blue Sea 6006 Battery Switch
6. Two Blue Sea 2104B 600A Bus Bars
7. Victron BMV 600 Battery Monitor - got it because you can set the Peukert exponent. It will come in handy in the future when LiFePo4 batteries get out of the stratosphere.
8. Blue Sea 5165 and 5124 ANL fuses for the inverter and converter/charger.
9. Assorted wiring from Genuinedealz.com. 1 ft each of 4/0 for the battery interconnects. 5 ft of 4/0 from the batteries to a pair of bus bars. 2ft of #6 for both the inverter and standalone converter to the bus bars. Used a leftover #2 wire from my old batteries for the Victron and the existing chassis ground wire for the other side of the Victron. Used #8 for the chassis ground wires for the inverter and converter.

In the truck bed








Batteries in the 5er Front Tray








Bus Bars and Wiring, Fuses, Standalone Converter, Inverter and Battery Switch
















Victron Battery Monitor and Inverter Remote On/Off Switch


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

You've done your homework, looks like a good setup, noticed the batteries are not in boxes and vent to the compartment. Does that compartment vent well can it reach the bedroom area at all?

I saw one guy do a comparison of Solar vs using a Honda 1000 generator, the small generator seemed to have the upper hand partially due to his location and weather. Worth looking at at least.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

Wow - 400 pounds and $1,000 in battery power - I'm jealous! You do realize that the only place to go with this project is up? A nice Xantrex 1800 watt inverter with auto transfer switch hardwired into your electrical system is definitely in your future, along with three or four 200 watt solar panels. You could boondock indefinitely as long as the beer didn't run out. Ok, maybe you'd need a little water too just to make sure the batteries don't run dry...


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Wow. Great Mod. Looks like you have done your homework. Looks very professional. I decided to go with 4 deep cycle RV batteries and solar panels.

Thor


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## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

Y-Guy said:


> Wow. Great Mod. Looks like you have done your homework. Looks very professional. I decided to go with 4 deep cycle RV batteries and solar panels.


Thanks much, I'm pretty stoked about it!!


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## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

Performed a test yesterday to make sure everything was running properly. Basically, I ran both of my TV's (23 and 26 LCD's), blu-ray player with movie, and a sat box. Total amp draw with a movie playing was 16 amps and without the movie, 14 amps. All of these were running through the 300W inverter. Ran that setup for 12 hours straight. Only two of that was with the movie playing. Let me back up a little. I took the batteries off the charger and let them sit overnight with powering just 5ers parasitic loads (5.4Ah total overnight) then I ran the above test. Total draw was 171Ah at the end of the 12 hour period. SOC on the battery monitor was 80.7%. I was going to let them sit overnight again and run the test the next day but I'm quite satisfied.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

mena661 said:


> Performed a test yesterday to make sure everything was running properly. Basically, I ran both of my TV's (23 and 26 LCD's), blu-ray player with movie, and a sat box. Total amp draw with a movie playing was 16 amps and without the movie, 14 amps. All of these were running through the 300W inverter. Ran that setup for 12 hours straight. Only two of that was with the movie playing. Let me back up a little. I took the batteries off the charger and let them sit overnight with powering just 5ers parasitic loads (5.4Ah total overnight) then I ran the above test. Total draw was 171Ah at the end of the 12 hour period. SOC on the battery monitor was 80.7%. I was going to let them sit overnight again and run the test the next day but I'm quite satisfied.


That's not bad for two TV's and a satellite box. I usually pull about 7-8 amps with just a TV and a DVD player, with most of that being for the TV. Since you probably won't be running the TV's for 12 hours, it looks like you should be able to get a good 3-4 days out of the batteries and still use all of your toys. Good job!


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## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

Insomniak said:


> That's not bad for two TV's and a satellite box. I usually pull about 7-8 amps with just a TV and a DVD player, with most of that being for the TV. Since you probably won't be running the TV's for 12 hours, it looks like you should be able to get a good 3-4 days out of the batteries and still use all of your toys. Good job!


Thanks! Two TV's, sat box AND a blu-ray player.







And 3-4 days is right where I'm looking to be at for this setup. Unfortunately, it won't be until September before I can put this stuff to use but still have a few things to finish up so this will give me plenty of time to get things right.


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## Outbacksydney30rls (Jul 4, 2011)

great inputs, i'm interested in solar powering and am learning.


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## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

Finally got a boondock trip in to test out the new setup!! See the post HERE.


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