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Hello all,
Since I started this thread and benefitted greatly from all of the responses I thought the least I could do is fill you in on how it went on our first long trip.
You may recall we first went approximately 14 miles from the dealership to our site so we had no experience with a residential unit on a long trip. Since then we have logged about 1,500 miles spread over 6 travel days. Total time off shore power on travel days was 6-8 hours.
On travel days we placed inside the 'fridge two Tupperware containers filled with frozen water (about 2 quarts each). The unit was left on all the time on or off shore power. We also had quite a bit of frozen items in the freezer. While I did not install a battery monitor we do have a volt meter in the ground control system. Whenever leaving camp the voltage level was 13.6 (within a few minutes of disconnecting from shore power). During stops I would check the volt meter (truck engine off) and it was usually in the low 13's once at 12.7 but never lower than that.. Within a few minutes of hooking back up to shore power it was 13.6. The 'fridge always felt as cold as when we left and none of the ice melted.
Since I started this thread and benefitted greatly from all of the responses I thought the least I could do is fill you in on how it went on our first long trip.
You may recall we first went approximately 14 miles from the dealership to our site so we had no experience with a residential unit on a long trip. Since then we have logged about 1,500 miles spread over 6 travel days. Total time off shore power on travel days was 6-8 hours.
On travel days we placed inside the 'fridge two Tupperware containers filled with frozen water (about 2 quarts each). The unit was left on all the time on or off shore power. We also had quite a bit of frozen items in the freezer. While I did not install a battery monitor we do have a volt meter in the ground control system. Whenever leaving camp the voltage level was 13.6 (within a few minutes of disconnecting from shore power). During stops I would check the volt meter (truck engine off) and it was usually in the low 13's once at 12.7 but never lower than that.. Within a few minutes of hooking back up to shore power it was 13.6. The 'fridge always felt as cold as when we left and none of the ice melted.
The amp draw for the unit according to the nameplate is 3 (AC). I figure the alternator was able to deliver 8 amps DC to the trailer batteries (maybe as much as 10 but using 8). So if the 'fridge ran 8 hours at half duty that's 3 x 8 x 1/2 = 12 amp hours AC = 132 amp hours DC. The alternator was able to replace 8 x 8 = 64 amp hours DC leaving 68 amp hours DC to be made up by the batteries. I don't have the battery specs with me right now but I believe that's well within their rating and should not be significantly degraded.
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