Cold weather tailgating

[scarletbison]

Hi all. As you may know I'm a new owner of a 2014.5 lounge ext. I'm going to practice tailgate today at our neighborhood Turkeybowl gathering. Temperature is a balmy 28 rising to 40. I'll be running the furnace a bit to provide a "warming hut". Do I need to run the generator or just keep an eye on battery level. And at what point should I crank up the generator?

Thanks in advance for this community of users

SB

[mandolindave]

With a full battery charge, you should be good for 8 hours. The furnace blower depletes the battery more than any other stock equipment. Know that a battery reading 12 volts is considered dead. A resting voltage( about 8 hours after charging ) of at least 12.6 is considered full. While charging…your batts could be around 13.4 volts.
In answer to your question, crank up the jenny when you get close to 12 volts. I have a little cheap meter that plugs into the cigarette lighter style socket.
I recommend having two batteries, and unplug the trailer from the tow vehicle so you won't run down it's battery

[UKDUDE]

Just keep an eye on the solar controller display panel..... press the black button repeatedly until it displays the battery charge in percentage. It's a matter of opinion, but my opinion is not to let it go below 50%.


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[RangerJay]

Hmmm ..... tailgate gathering ..... warming hut - I'm guessing door open and shut a lot - tours of the trailer - door left open a lot - pretty much all lights on - water pump running more than usual ..... I think I'd be running the generator from the get-go - then forget about any monitoring of the voltage and join the party .....


Jay

[scarletbison]

Thanks everyone for your hints and suggestions, There were a lot of tours and showing, there were other warming sources (patio heaters, fire pit). At one point the batteries appeared to be down at 65% so I cranked up the generator to give it some exercise. All in all a great afternoon.