Finally a trip for reason I bought Chinook:)

[68camaro]

Last year I bought Chinook for one main reason, to be able to get home from work, have dinner with family, do my housey stuff and at 8-9pm drive a couple hours to river, boonedock, then wake up and start fishing without getting up at 4-5am for a 2-3 hour drive to get on water early. And do it with NO tent but with the luxuries of home!

My ultimate goal is to do this for a weekend a month but too busy with life so "one-nighters" will have to do, already have next trip planned.

Tuesday night went as planned, arrived at camping spot around 11pm in 27* temps, spend hour getting organized for next day and sipping some single-malt to end the night. Woke up regular time at 6am, but lounged until 7. Had furnace on all night set for 66* and I was very comfy, woke up and rearview mirror temp gauge said "Ice"......What was cool from the time I arrived at night to time I got out to fish at 8am was I never left the rig....

It was so nice driving only 1 mile to the river all refreshed and organized with my hot coffee, and getting dressed in warmth and just having "room" to spread things out in temp controlled environment. Day was mid - high 30's, overcast, strong wind gusts and off-on sprinkles. For lunch I went inside Chinook; relaxed, had warm lunch, coffee and re-organized fly stuff all in temp controlled environment out of elements.

Fishing was great, here is pic of first rainbow and Chinook "at home" besides a river.

[Blue~Go]

That's great! I can tell how much you are enjoying your comfortable palace (Chinook) for spending the prior evening and then getting ready for the next morning's fishing. It's so much easier to get out and enjoy cold weather activities when you are starting from a base of warmth. Here's to many more fishing trips.

[68camaro]

That's great! I can tell how much you are enjoying your comfortable palace (Chinook) for spending the prior evening and then getting ready for the next morning's fishing. It's so much easier to get out and enjoy cold weather activities when you are starting from a base of warmth. Here's to many more fishing trips.

Blue-go, I have to thank you for helping me with electrical/battery usage, especially your PM tutorials. Before buying this I never had experience with RV so I never thought about battery and boonedocking, but with your help, as well as others here, I know know how to manage battery and understand what I can do and for how long....this adds to the pleasure when your not woken up at 4am because your Low Voltage alarm starts singing in 20* weather (ask how I know...haha)

[chin_k]

Well, may be you should get up at 4am and get going on catching the trouts instead of lingering around inside the rig until 8am!

[Astrodokk]

So tell us here how, in a nutshell, it's done, not hearing the low voltage alarm. I surmise it's keeping the thermostat at 66* and not using many lights?
Are you using the stock propane furnace and fan ?Wondering minds may like to know.
I'm always worried when I turn on just my overhead lights for two minutes!

[Blue~Go]

I'll answer for now, because, as we know I'm bored out of my skull on the couch; but also, 68 and I talked over his use case and then he implemented his chosen setup.

So his use case is pretty much a consistent single scenario (he's not trying to do ten different things that all have different power scenarios). It's mostly to boondock, for a weekend at a time, with pretty much no solar opportunity (huge trees at campsites, and no ground panels because of shade plus moving every day for fishing). His electrical needs were listed out one-by-one and a total amp draw figured out. They are relatively minimal (save for the furnace). AND, at the end of each weekend, he has a place to plug in to re-charge the house bank.

Given those givens, a plan was made to not make solar panels part of the charging scheme for now. So instead it was basically as follows:

.5) Change to energy saving items as possible (LED lights, DC computer charging, marine fans, etc. - but also keep the Fantastic, the furnace).
1) A house battery bank sized such that it will pretty much cover the needs of a weekend with 50% of it's amp hours even if no charging is possible.
2) Good alternator charging (wire/fuse/etc.) for when driving to and fro, and between fishing spots; might as well use it, even though it won't be enough time to charge a lot.
3) Good shore charger which is the main plan for re-charging.
4) Meter for seeing things (I think?)
5) Repeat the next weekend

(Generator if absolutely necessary.)

If you had big electrical needs, or were going to be out longer, this would require a pretty large bank. But the combination of smallish electrical needs, a relatively short time out, a consistent use pattern, and a solid charging plan for just afterward, made it look like a viable plan.

I'm sure 68 will chime in to correct anything I'm off on and to flesh it out a bit.

[Chinnin-about]

I just spent 5 nights in the mountains boondocking, with 20 degree temps at night and 36 during the day. The furnace ran all night keeping me toasty at 68 degrees. The other power demands were minimal, only occasional lights. I ran my generator for about an hour in the morning, and again for about an hour at night before bed. My two 110 amp hour maintenance free deep cycle AGM batteries did great.

[68camaro]

I'll answer for now, because, as we know I'm bored out of my skull on the couch; but also, 68 and I talked over his use case and then he implemented his chosen setup.

So his use case is pretty much a consistent single scenario (he's not trying to do ten different things that all have different power scenarios). It's mostly to boondock, for a weekend at a time, with pretty much no solar opportunity (huge trees at campsites, and no ground panels because of shade plus moving every day for fishing). His electrical needs were listed out one-by-one and a total amp draw figured out. They are relatively minimal (save for the furnace). AND, at the end of each weekend, he has a place to plug in to re-charge the house bank.

Given those givens, a plan was made to not make solar panels part of the charging scheme for now. So instead it was basically as follows:

.5) Change to energy saving items as possible (LED lights, DC computer charging, marine fans, etc. - but also keep the Fantastic, the furnace).
1) A house battery bank sized such that it will pretty much cover the needs of a weekend with 50% of it's amp hours even if no charging is possible.
2) Good alternator charging (wire/fuse/etc.) for when driving to and fro, and between fishing spots; might as well use it, even though it won't be enough time to charge a lot.
3) Good shore charger which is the main plan for re-charging.
4) Meter for seeing things (I think?)
5) Repeat the next weekend

(Generator if absolutely necessary.)

If you had big electrical needs, or were going to be out longer, this would require a pretty large bank. But the combination of smallish electrical needs, a relatively short time out, a consistent use pattern, and a solid charging plan for just afterward, made it look like a viable plan.

I'm sure 68 will chime in to correct anything I'm off on and to flesh it out a bit.

Blu pretty much nailed it so I won't repeat, but bottom line is with his help I learned how much each creature comfort drew in ah, how I could make these more efficient, how much power I needed to keep me off-grid for one day or weekend, and how to monitor and managing the usage.

First step was to see how much power I really expected to use and for how long, this was really important as it allowed me to properly size battery bank and develop realistic recharge options.

Now with better knowledge I know what I can do and what deviations from my plan will mean in battery capacilty.

Really, the understanding of the system and its constraints is more important than the battery size.

[68camaro]

Well, may be you should get up at 4am and get going on catching the trouts instead of lingering around inside the rig until 8am!

Haha...so true, the Chinook is so comfortable its tough stepping out and into sub-freezing weather.....

[Blue~Go]

Haha...so true, the Chinook is so comfortable its tough stepping out and into sub-freezing weather.....

This is a variation of why I can't decent time on roadtrips with the Chinook: It's just too darned comfortable "back in the living room" With the car there's nothing to do but drive. Such problems we have