basic electrical knowledge and generators.

[samsonjohn]

Hi guys i have been a fan of Teardrops for a long time but have recently been researching and learning more and more about them.

i went camping for the first time in a RV. i have always tent camped. my question is about the basic electrical system of RVs and teardrops. there were two batteries and a 3000 wat gen. how does that work does the generator charge the batteries and the batteries run everything or can the generator do both charge and run all electrical system? can some one explain what all this is and if i am missing something. AC DC 120 220 12v and anything in between what is the normal power, i thought it was 110 or something? how do most systems operate? do they run off batteries? how do you chose a generator?

What sort of electrical systems do you have on your teardrops and what size generator is enough for most teardrops?

i will ask more questions as i learn more about electrical.

Thank you
John

[bobhenry]

Boy what a can of worms......

You will get 2 dozen answers on this topic and all will be correct.

You can go cheap and uncomplicated or you can get as crazy as you can afford $$$$$

How often are you off grid and for how long ?

95% of our camping is in a state park so 120 ac is my primary with a simple 12 volt battery on board for the occasional boondocking overnight. No on board charging no recharge connection to the tow vehicle but it works for us.

[madjack]

John, on a typical commercial RV with both AC&DC power, the DC powers your lights and the generator/shore power are for such things as running a microwave, air con or other high amp draw appliances...the gennie provides power for those AC appliances as well as charging for the batteries and/or 12vdc power for the lights as well...on a typical TD, a 2000watt gennie is enough power...I like to use the hair dryer/coffee maker/microwave/AirCon test on a gennie...it needs to be powerful enough to run any one of those appliances at a time...a 2K gennie will provide around 13-15Amps................
madjack

p.s. as Bob stated, you can get a kazillion answers on this subject...my best advice is to read the stickies in the electrical section and figure what kinda camping you are going to do and how much power you absolutely HAVVTA HAVE (as opposed to maybe want)...........mj

[Shadow Catcher]

Two batteries implies that there is enough power to run with out using the generator all of the time when you are off grid. Yes the generator should if there is a converter charge the batteries, if there is an inverter 12VDC to 120AC they will power whatever from the batteries. However the care and feeding of deep cycle batteries means they must be used carefully, monitored and not allowed to discharge more than about 50%.
A great deal depends on usage/load. You will be running the generator for high loads i.e. AC if you have LED lights etc. then you may only need to run it only occasionally.
There is quite a bit of information and I recommend http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

[Dale M.]

I found these sites, more information just to confuse the issue....

http://rveducation101.com/Articles/Basi ... _Savvy.pdf

http://www.myrv.us/electric/

http://www.rv-dreams.com/rv-electrical.html

http://www.smithae.com/rv.html

All I did was used GOOGLE search phrase "electrical for RV" to get myself into a heap of trouble (information)...

Keep in mind that anything in large RV can probably be "scaled" to TD use....

Dale

[Toytaco2]

These two links helped me out a lot when I built my teardrop. Parts one and two of the "12 Volt Side of Life".

http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm

http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volta.htm

Good Luck,

Mike