how often do you plug your wheelhouse in

[westguy]

Just bought  my first new wheelhouse and am wondering how often I should plug in to keep the batteries charged? Do most disconnect the batteries when not in use? Thanks for any input.

[Boar]

what i do after a few years of experience is....... find out how many amps your on board charger is first. i think older modles are about a 2 amp. thats not enough to keep the battery charged when using it for a weekend, it cant keep up with the draw.  there is also a parasitic drain form thinks like o2 censor that will slowly drainthe batteie if it is not dissconected. so i started doing that also. some guys wire in a switch mounted on the wall to do this with having to dig for the batterie. Im also going to do this. but one thing I did do is buy a 6 amp batterie tender to plug in while using ther house, to keep ahead of the draw. I have had generator issues to contend with and it didnt take long for the furnace to drain the batterie, which inpart was due to parasitic drain and the cold freezing it at that drain point therefore never having a fully charged batterie again. as long as ur batterie ends ends the weekend fully charged it wont freeze. Ive taken batterie home many time also.  some guys also swap out lightghts for LED also which im gona do. you have a learning curve with wheele houses for sure. When I bought my house for the first season, before I bought the honda, I had a big loud champion, it ran out at about 1 in the morning but the batterie carried the furnace till I got up in the morning about 7 or so. that was the point where ithe on board charger failed to fully charge the batterie and hence half or less charge. Ive researche this the head salesman at milaca unclaime freight, whos is my daughters boyfreinds cusin. others here might have a different point of view and experience tho. good luck

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Which furnace do you have?  Forced air?  

If you have forced air, some of the smaller ones draw between 2-3 amps, and some of the bigger ones are more along the lines of 7-8 amps.  You could probably get by with (2) 12 volt batteries for a weekend on a smaller one, but you'd need additional capacity (or a generator) if it is a bigger furnace.  With a generator you could probably run it for 6-8 hours per day to fully top off the batteries.    

I have a 6 volt setup, which will easily get me through 3-4 days, but I end up running the generator the vast majority of the time.  My Yamaha will go 12-14 hours on 1 gallon of gas, so it's pretty much a no-brainer, just for the sake of convenience.   

[Mid-Lake Rock]

I do the same as LRG.  I have two batteries and a six amp dual charger.  I run the generator almost all the time so I don't run into issues.  I'm thinking about getting an extended run fuel tank for the Honda.  12 hours is nice, but I'd prefer to run on one tank the whole weekend.  

[Boar]

So u run the two 6 volts in series? 

 

[Smoker]

I use mine year around. It is my camper in the summer time. I leave mine plugged in all the time. The converter that I have in mine only kicks in when the battery needs a charge. This will be the third year on this battery and with the lights on steady I can still go three days and the battery will only drop .5 volts in three days with the house unplugged. I just checked it last week. I have all LED lights. I can go out Friday night and go to Sunday afternoon and use the lights, ceiling fan  and TV and I will drop 1.2 volts. I do not have a furnace that take power from he battery.

[westguy]

I have forced air furnace in a ice cabin was just curious how often people plug them in there driveway. Not sure what kind of convertor I got just don't want to keep unplugging batteries when not in use but I will if need be

[Iambjm]

I changed all my lights to led bulbs and get about a week or so before I have to charge the battery. I have a direct vent furnace so I am not using juice there. I got my bulbs from Amazon, and the first two didn't work and I discovered they had reverse polarity. The rest that I bought I made sure I ordered the ones that say no polarity.  I love em, nice and bright, long lasting, and don't hot when they are on.

[garagelogic]

I also went with 2 deep cell batteries in my IC and added a battery disconnect switch (see photo below).  I run the generator (EU2000i) during the day with the batteries disconnected, then switch over to batteries and shut off the generator when we go to bed.  So basically just the furnace is drawing off the batteries overnight, and the occasional light to take a wiz.  In the morning I start the generator and keep the batteries on to recharge them, usually about an hour or so, then disconnect the batteries again. 

I also always make sure the batteries are disconnected when traveling, then when I get home I switch the batteries on and plug the house in.  If I don't want to keep it plugged in, I just disc connect the batteries and they stay fully charged.