Power To Go: Doubling My RV’s Battery Capacity!

In the midst of this heartache, our children were offered hope in the form of a chance to participate in a medical drug trial. An experimental drug. Around the world this trial eventually had 124 infants with SMA who were participating in this medical trial – 2/3 of the babies would get the drug while 1/3 would get a placebo. It was a blind study. It meant being a guinea pig! There are multiple drug trials happening around the world at any given time that never result in a drug that is approved by Health Canada or the FDA or whatever the governing authority is in your country. At first I was against this option – fortunately my kids didn’t listen to my objections and concerns. A blind study that wasn’t so blind because with this disease that while the progressive debilitation may plateau, improvement never occurs, Emmett started improving. This trial drug was transporting his brain’s messages to his muscles. It was little changes, but wow, they were exciting. It’s impossible to change a child’s ‘engine harness’ but this trial drug was reworking pathways to allow the message to get through. This experimental drug was so successful that they stopped the drug experiment early and all of the kids in the trial got the drug. Kids were improving on it; and literally dying if they were getting the placebo. Everyone left got the drug. Five years later and this drug is now approved in multiple countries. It’s expensive. Two new treatments have been discovered, one being a gene therapy treatment which is a one time application that is a huge step forward when treatment happens before age 2. It’s even more expensive. Emmett’s drug is given by lumbar puncture every four months. He’s had 18 lumbar punctures in his five years. If that made your spine shiver, I appreciate that. Mine quakes when I think about what this little boy goes through. While the drug company stopped the placebo part of the trial, 5 years later Emmett is still part of this study. The drug company provides him with the drug at no charge. They cover the hospital fees. So often we hear about how heartless big pharmaceuticals are; I’m hear to stand up for them and tell you how amazing I think they are. Wow. A drug that can create new pathways in the nervous system so that the brain can send messages to the muscles. I see it with my own eyes but I don’t understand how it is possible.

Emmett loves everything about camping. Well, except the mosquitoes, which he really does not like. Even though Emmett does not eat anything by mouth, he loves food. So when camping he has to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Every night for the marshmallows!

So when Emmett wants something, like going camping in ‘arvey, I’m going to do what I can to make it the best possible experience he can have. If you think that I’m obsessed, you’re right. You read that in my article about the DIY kid’s wheelchair and the backup power supply. I haven’t written about my seat cooler in MotoIQ, but as we’re in the midst of a heatwave right now, here’s a link to our blog where I describe how we made a seat cooler. Think of every wheelchair you’ve ever seen – how many of the seats are black? Almost all of them, right. Putting a person who cannot move into a black seat during a heatwave is like putting a race car driver in a firesuit in their car and doing up the windows, strapping them into their harness and not letting them out. You’ll bake. Like racing cooling shirts, commercial wheelchair cooling pads are astronomically expensive, so this is my design for a wheelchair cooling seat. This article about my RV power search actually extends what I learned and started in that article on the back up power supply; in that article I refer to installing a 300 watt inverted in our RV for Emmett. Here is what we’ve done from that point forward.

Interstate Group 27 batteries are deep cell units for marine and RV use. I had Interstate RV batteries, went to another brand, and quickly came back. The two existing ones have been in the RV almost two years; the second bank has two identical Interstate batteries. Enough power to run the 300 watt pure sine wave inverter and Emmett’s equipment for four full days.

First of all we did the most very basic upgrade. We replaced the two existing deep cell batteries with two Interstate Group 27 12 volt deep cell batteries. This was recommended by Triple E, the Canadian manufacturer of our RV. Next we needed to install a power inverter to provide AC current. Now you may be thinking, if you go camping why don’t you just plug into the power outlet at the campground. If that is available then we do. But some (most actually) of the most amazing and beautiful provincial parks here in British Columbia do not have any provision for providing campers with electricity. So we were on our own.

300 watts isn’t very much, but large capacity inverters use up a lot of power to run themselves. This meets our power requirements. We don’t run any big power items with it.

After researching we selected a 300 watt pure sine wave power inverter. The power inverter itself uses up battery power, so selecting the smallest one that will meet your requirements is key. With this 300 watt pure sine wave power inverter we have the same kind of power that you get out from your electrical utility provider. Of course, a pure sine wave inverter costs more money than the inexpensive modified wave inverter, which offer huge amounts of wattage for the same dollars as this 300 watt pure sine wave inverter. But that cheap wattage in the form of a modified wave unit provides a simple form of power that can damage complex electronics, overheat electrical motors, and basically I don’t want one. Emmett’s medical equipment requires pure sine wave output – and from the research I’ve done it is the only kind of inverter I’ll purchase going forward. Peace of mind is worth the cost.

Building cables is actually fun. The most challenging part is remembering to put the heat shrink wrap on BEFORE you crimp the end on. This is one of the cables running inside the compartments.

15 comments

    1. ERK, tons and tons of love. Not sure about the best Grandpa, but I certainly have the best Grandson! 🙂
      Thank you!
      Frank

  1. I don’t have a camper… I’m not from Canada… I don’t have anyone in my life with a similar condition to Emmett… But I really enjoyed this article. Thank you.

  2. Incredible article! I don’t understand the innards of automotive repair, but after observing my brother’s love for car-racing for years at Mosport (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) in Ontario and then after his move to BC, his love for everything Emmett I can fully appreciate all 7 pages of this article! His love for car-racing, RV Camping and Grandson combined! I love my brother Frank and so proud of him and all his accomplishments!

    1. Thank you, Janice. Love you too! I’m pretty sure that you’re going to get into car racing and track days sometime soon!

  3. Great article! Its good to be reminded from time to time that our hobbies can mean so much more and that its important to enjoy life with those we love! Thank you!

    One nit pick though: According to your diagram, if you put your battery switch into the “Both” position you are connecting you banks in parallel not series. In effect it turns both banks into one large 12v bank.

    In the marine world this position is used to charge both battery banks with the alternator while the engine is running, then you can choose between the two banks when your docked or at anchor and the engine is no longer charging.

    Functionally, this doesn’t change how you are currently using the switch, but if someone were to accidently set the switch to “both” you wouldn’t suddenly get a 24v surge that would damage any electrical components.

    1. Joel, Thank you.
      And thank you even more for your update on my battery switch. I’m going to be reaching out to you as you’re knowledge base on this is obviously way better than mine!
      Frank

    1. Rockwood, 6 volt is absolutely a longer lasting battery. But two years ago when I bought a new set of house batteries my RV manufacturer recommended 12 volt. This was the manufacturer not the dealer. I didn’t have time to research so I just went with their recommendation. (I briefly comment on this on page 4). Too bad as 6 volt would have given much better life. And with this upgrade I wanted both banks to be the same, so 12 volt is what it had to be. When it comes time to replace all four, then I will probably go to a 6 volt solution.

    2. Now you’re talking. No savvy sailboat guy would use anything but 6 volt golf cart deep cycle batteries. They work just as well in my RV, just don’t buy cheapies.

      1. JD, if only I were a sailboat guy. I don’t even need to be a savvy one! Ha ha ha. I’ve certainly expanded my knowledge base over the years and 6 volt will be the next step. But only once I’ve used these up!

  4. Given your use case, minimum of 4 batteries will be needed. Biggest bummer about 6v batteries is if one dies, you’re (you guessed it) stuck at 6v only.

    A bunch of guys are experimenting with LiFePOs, but the danger of fire is waaaaaaay too high for me. Anyone who’s seen an RV fire live will agree. They go up FAST

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