Cardinal RV Club

Olbird wrote:Gary,

The dealer installs the battery so you will need to know the battery amps you have and use this calculation chart to determine battery drain.
I would guess that your residential refrigerator requires 700- 800 watts to run.
Click on (How long will the battery last)
http://www.inverters.com/pages/FAQ.html
The LP 5500 Onan generator uses about .8 gal per hour on 1/2 load, and 1.1 gal per hour at full load, 7-8 hours on one 30# tank in the 3850RL.
Two batteries will charge at the same time, you may want to get a rapid stand alone charger to run off the generator, solar charger will be the best thing because that refrigerator is going to pull a 27 group 500 amp battery down in a few hours.

So...if I have TWO batteries would I have 1000 Amp hrs. and last twice as long???

Would it be easier to get a small gas gen. (Honda 1000, 2000 or equal) and a separate charger? I'm thinking easier to take/go fill up a 5 gal. gas can that lug 30# LP bottles to get filled...?

Gary,
If you have two batteries it will increase the time use, on that calculation form put in the total amp per hour and it will calculate total hours of use pulling watts needed to run your requirements.
Like I said the dealers install the battery, I do not know if FR requires a certain battery size, but I would hope that the dealer considers and understands the requirement Watt use on these new units that has a factory inverter.
A 8D size deep cell battery is recommended for inverters pulling high Watts 1500 and over, the problem is that a 8D group battery is a lot larger then the Group 27 and FR,s factory battery box will not take a large size battery.
A very good high AMP 27 group battery can cost $300 and higher, so do you think the dealers are going to install a $100 battery or a $300 dollar battery.
Look at your inverter book and see if it has a battery AMP requirement for inverter size, although I love the residential refrigerator I did not order one in my camper just because of dealing with the 110 volt only requirement.
If I ordered another new Cardinal unit today I would most likely get the residential refrigerator due to I never dry camp and would depend on the truck charger to maintain batteries while driving.
I did install two batteries in my unit just to have the extra voltage drain, I also have a small Onan 2500 LP generator just for emergency use or rest stop usage for the microwave, it uses about .3 gallons of LP running at very little load for charging batteries light use.

Unless you have a gen set in your trailer I would not go to the residential type fridge. They are very nice until the power goes out for any length of time. Never paid much attention to it until the power went out here this winter and people in 5th wheels that had them were running extension cords to their closest motor home friends.

Gary & Misty wrote: Would it be easier to get a small gas gen. I'm thinking easier to take/go fill up a 5 gal. gas can that lug 30# LP bottles to get filled...?

That would work.

Rob

I just wanted to update this post,since I posted in 2011 I added two more six volt batteries and figured out how to adjust the regulator so the LP tanks get used up before the switchover goes to the other tank. I still carry a 40 lb tank for long weekend summer camp outs but rarely need it. I have become good friends with my Onan 5500 LP genet and don't miss the gas gen at all, especially the exhaust fumes. Cheers!