Camper battery question

[vanhea20]

I just bought my first popup camper. It's nothing special but will do the trick for my family and me. I do have a question though. I need to buy a battery so that I can use the heater when I'm not at an electric site. Also, the fridge in the camper is a dorm fridge so it only runs on electric. What type of battery would be best to buy. Will I be able to find one that will run the fridge and heater or will I need to not use the fridge if I'm not at an electric site. Any help would be great.

[Ryan_V]

A good deep cycle battery is what you want, check with your dealer. Are you sure your fridge is going to be 110 only? If it's a camper fridge, in a pop up they look like a dorm fridge, but they also generally run on lp. If you do lots of camping with no electric hookups and want the fridge, check into getting a 2 way fridge, that will run on lp as well as electric, if you indeed only have a 110 fridge. Otherwise it's just a cooler for you, which will work as well.

[woodsmanmn]

I don't think you'll have much luck running a fridge off a battery. We freeze water in half gallon juice bottles and mix them in with the food and use the fridge as a cooler. No problem keeping things cool for 2-3 days that way and having the water frozen in bottles keeps things dry. For a battery, I buy the deep cycle battery at Fleet Farm in pairs, over 20 years, have always gotten good service out of those. I mark one battery 'A', the other 'B' and rotate back and forth. When I had a camper that needed a battery for heat, I made sure I had a charged spare battery all the time. Now I also have a Honda generator, which is really sweet to have.

[vanhea20]

Thanks for the info guys. I figured I would probably have to use the fridge as a cooler. As far as the battery goes, are there different sizes for the deep cycle batteries? If so, what size would be best to run a small furnace on?

[upnorth]

Depending on how long you are going for, I would suggest getting the biggest one you can afford. A few extra bucks will give you some piece of mind on long weekend camping trip.

[Powerstroke]

If the fridge is 110v then you will need an inverter. If its really for the camper then its 12v and most likely should run off LP also. My dad just refinished a pretty old popup and it has the dual mode fridge. Its worth checking into because it won't last long running in electric mode on a battery through an inverter.

As far as batteries, try to get a true deep cycle battery. If the battery lists CCA then it is a combo deep cycle/starting battery typically used for boats.

[fhj115]

The fridge on our pop-up runs in 3-modes, 120vac, 12vac (battery) and LP. We (I) found out the hard way, that the fridge will quickly drain the battery in about an hour. Also, if you have interior lights and depending on the time of year, they can also be a big power drain on the battery. I seems like the furnace fan, is pretty low draw and would last 3-4 days in addition to the interior light use. Nice when it's summer with longer daylight. On our setup, there is a "charge" line in the wiring harness to the vehicle, so when you are driving you are able to trickle charge the camper battery. We also plug in the 120vac to the camper several days before we go on a trip with refridge on 120vac to get it cooled down, and the battery fully charged. Have fun.

Brian