We’re going to discuss what will work in your trailer while you’re dry camping. When you’re dry camping, you’re not going to be plugged into power, so that does mean that there could be some items in your trailer that you won’t be able to use, and it’s no big deal as long as you plan ahead. So I just want to go over what will work and what won’t work in your trailer while you’re dry camping so you have a clear idea of what to expect.
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What Works While Dry Camping
In general, anything that runs off your battery is going to work while you’re dry camping. So anything that runs on the 12 volt system, which means that it can be powered off of your battery. Things like the standard household outlets require shore power and they would not work. In addition to that, anything powered by propane would work while you’re dry camping.
Now, we’ll go over the items one by one just to make it a little bit more clear.
Lights
Your lights are on the 12 volt system powered by the battery, so those will work while you’re dry camping.
USB Outlets
USB outlets, for the most part, should also be on the 12 volt system, and so they will work off of the battery and be available for dry camping.
In our trailer, the one exception to this is there is a pop-up tower on the front bed and that pop-up tower has standard household outlets and it has some USBs on it, but that entire tower is plugged into a standard household outlet, so nothing on that will work unless you can power that outlet.
But in general, your USB outlets should work while you’re dry camping.
TV
In our trailer, our TV, which also powers our outside speakers, all of that works off the battery because we have a 12 volt TV. So if you also have a 12 volt TV, then that will work off-grid while you’re dry camping.
Furnace
The furnace, so your heater, that is something that will work while you’re dry camping. That primarily runs on propane, so as long as you have propane, you’ll be good.
Ceiling Vent Fans
The ceiling fans in our trailer, we have one in the front area and then one in the bathroom. Both of those ceiling fans run off of the battery, so those will work while you’re dry camping.
Water Pump
The water pump, that will work off of the battery, so that will work while you’re dry camping.
Water Heater (Gas)
The water heater has two different options. You can heat it with gas or electric. The gas option will work while you’re dry camping because that’s going to rely on your propane.
Stove
Your stove will work while you’re dry camping because that works off of your propane.
Fridge
Your fridge will work while you’re dry camping. There are two different types of fridges. If you have the 12 volt fridge, that will run off of your battery, so that will work while you’re dry camping. If you have the two-way fridge, then that will work while you’re dry camping, but you’ll want to make sure that you have it switched to use propane.
The two-way fridge can run on either electric or propane. And while you’re dry camping, you’ll want to use the gas. You’ll want to use propane because otherwise it requires 110 power.
Awning & Light
The awning and the awning light, so your powered awning, that will work off the battery, so you’ll be able to use that while you’re dry camping. No problem.
Power Tongue Jack
The power tongue jack at the front of the trailer, that will work off the battery, so you’ll be able to use the power tongue jack while you’re dry camping.
Quick Connect
And lastly, the quick connect connection outside to plug the Blackstone or any kind of grill into the trailer. That will work while you’re dry camping. That just relies on the propane.
So those are the items that will work while you’re dry camping.
What Does NOT Work While Dry Camping
Now, real fast, let’s talk about what won’t work while you’re dry camping.
Standard Outlets
We did mention this earlier, but standard household outlets, so those are powered with shore power, they’re 110. Those will not work while you’re dry camping.
Microwave
The microwave won’t work while you’re dry camping. That requires one of those standard household outlets and therefore the microwave will not work while you’re dry camping.
Air Conditioner
The air conditioning won’t work while you’re dry camping. The air conditioning takes a lot of power and also requires shore power, so the air conditioning won’t work while you’re dry camping.
Water Heater (Electric)
The water heater with electric won’t work. Like we said earlier, the gas option that will work. That is what you’ll want to use to heat up your water when you’re dry camping. The electric option won’t work.
How Does Solar Help
The solar panels recharge your batteries, so anything that runs off of your batteries will be able to last longer if you have a solar system. So the solar system helps with the length of time that you can dry camp, so it can help you stay out longer because it’s recharging your batteries.
How Does an Inverter Help
If you have an inverter, then you can use any of your standard 110 outlets with the inverter. So what the inverter does is it acts as if the trailer is plugged into shore power. So all of the items that you would use on shore power you can use while the inverter is turned on.
Now what you can use depends on the size of the inverter and the more simultaneous devices that you’d like to run, the larger the inverter that you’ll need. So in general, just real rough estimates, but to give you an idea, if you want to be able to run your microwave, you’re looking at about a 2000 watt inverter. If you want to be able to run your air conditioning unit, you’re looking at about a 3000 watt inverter. And also you’ll need to get a soft start onto your air conditioning because when it first turns on is when it uses the most power. But there is a little device that you can add to it to make the start up to a little bit less power, and then it could be powered with an inverter of about 3000 watts. But the length of time that you could run it will depend on how much battery power you have.
This can get pretty complex, and I really don’t want to get too technical here. If you’re interested in learning more about inverters and which one we chose and why check out our solar upgrade.
How Does a Generator Help
Now, we don’t have a generator. Because of our solar upgrades we don’t have any power issues, and so we’ve never purchased a generator, so we haven’t actually used one before.
But yes, a generator can help you recharge your batteries, and it also allows you to use your 110 devices while it’s plugged in. While the generator is plugged in, similar to if you’re using an inverter, it’s making your trailer act as if it’s plugged into shore power and similar to the inverter, the size of the generator will help determine what devices and how many devices that you could run, but while it’s plugged in, the trailer will act like it’s on shore power.
Another thing worth mentioning about generators is one of the reasons why we wanted to go the solar route instead of getting a generator is because there are some limitations to generators. They are loud, so it’s something that you might not enjoy having on all the time. But also campgrounds normally have some restrictions. There’s normally certain hours that you’re allowed to run a generator, and sometimes it’ll be most of the day, like eight a.m to eight p.m. Other places we’ve been, I’ve seen that there’s five hours throughout the day. There’s two hours in the morning, one hour in the afternoon, and then two hours in the evening, and you’re not really supposed to run the generator any other times. So there’s just some restrictions that you have to pay attention to if you’re planning to use a generator.
Conclusion
Battery power is the key to successful dry camping. When we did our solar upgrade, we knew how important it was to have enough batteries, and so we made sure that we had a large enough battery bank that we could comfortably camp for an extended weekend, so like three nights, even if they didn’t get recharged at all, we knew the battery bank was large enough that we’d be able to camp for a long weekend and not have to worry about it whatsoever. So when the solar panels recharge our batteries, that’s just a bonus and it’s great to have that system, but it’s not something that we rely on.
