Mikemike’s shanty

[cracker]

must be a slide-in truck camper issue.. never had similar issues with my horse trailer campers or RV... hmm..

[mr.mindless]

wind pattern might be different on a truck camper but this is a large RV fridge as big as anything in the 90s and 2000s. could be a big difference being on a slide and not having a roof vent, but a wall vent.

[cracker]

Starlink mini went on sale last week, so I ordered one.. will be trying it out this weekend,  I also bought this adapter to run directly from a battery https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9W5YR2K
I am no electrical engineer, so I have no idea how long I can expect to run off my batteries, but I have a generator and a solar panel that I can use to help keep them charged.

[mr.mindless]

if you're still on lead-acid batteries, put a couple hundred bucks aside for lithiums and a charger for them (need slightly higher voltage to charge fully), it'll be the best upgrade you'll do if you camp without hookups often. With 2x deep cycle lead-acid group 34 batteries, I could make it through the night - and only mostly if the furnace was running (had to leave everything shut down for 15 minutes to recover enough to crank and start the generator). Now I can go for DAYS with the same weight and not much more space in Lithium. Probably 6x the capacity. I never have to think about power if I'm not running the air conditioning. which I CAN DO overnight!

I haven't used a Mini. I know they draw a lot less, will probably work well 🤞🏻

[cracker]

The Starlink mini worked great all weekend.  I had it wired to a separate battery and it would run almost 24 hours before killing the battery.  Hooked the battery to my generator 12v DC built-in charger for a few hours and the battery was recharged.

I would definitely like more info on your lithium batteries & charger as the the 2 lead acid group 29's I have would barely run the furnace all night.  I also found that my solar panel does not work so that was no help either.

[mr.mindless]

the furnace was what immediately pushed me to upgrade too.
a diesel heater is WAY more power efficient, but I probaly could have skipped that entirely with the capacity.

There's only a couple things you need to keep in mind with lithium batteries
- they want to be warm. the lead-acid battery compartment will be well vented to the exterior due to the offgassing they do, that needs to be insulated and possibly flipped to being part of the interior. They must not charge below freezing. Most have onboard battery management that'll prevent that.
- they run at a slightly higher voltage, so the charger should be switched to lithium mode if it has it, or changed out out for one that does. Otherwise they'll only charge to about 80%.

I went with all Victron stuff, which is relatively top tier. I think I have more $ in chargers and controllers than in batteries.

a tiny little factory solar is only good enough to keep things topped up when sitting idle, it's likely not going to do much for actual use.