Improved Boondocking Experience 2020 T@B400 w/ New Lithium Batts, Relocated Charger, Honda Generator

TNOutback

The electrical distribution panel in our 2020 T@B 400 Boondock was curiously, inexplicably located under the front door-side bench seat, while the batteries were in the very rear of the camper, with something like 30 feet of 6 AWG wire between them.  As documented on this site in other posts, that’s a terrible design if you do any kind of boondocking, given the distance and wire size there is too much resistance, voltage drop to effectively charge the batteries.  I’ve had experiences where my generator would run for 4+ hours and it would only move the State of Charge up 4 percentage points over that time.  Very ironic for a unit called a “Boondock Lite” !

Fast forward to my recent mods which included installing two Battleborn 100 Ah batteries and a new lithium-specific Progressive Dynamics 60A charger mounted and located right next to the batteries in the back of the camper.  (I removed the built-in charger from the distribution panel in the front of the camper.). I can report after our first boondocking trip last week after the mods, it’s a massive improvement!  With a 51% SOC on the batteries, I can connect the shore power cable to my generator, and in less than 90 minutes, I am back to a full 100% SOC charge on the batteries!  According to my Victron battery monitor, I am getting the full 60 amps going into the batteries.  Massive improvement.

Also, after a failed attempt at using my Wen generator last summer to charge the batteries while camping at 4900’ elevation (it didn’t like the altitude and would trip on overload), I decided to buy a Honda 2200.  I also installed an EasyStart on my air conditioner, and I was able this week to recharge the batteries and run the a/c at the same time on the 2200!  I can also run the a/c from Eco mode on the generator.  I will be checking the performance at altitude in a few weeks, but I’m confident it will work as last year while camping at the same place, a camper next to me was running a 13,000 BTU rooftop a/c off of a Honda 2200.

N7SHG_Ham

There is a reason the Honda costs more