[VAL] Re: VAL Digest V1 #179 - Adding batteries

[waymark1@xxxxxxxx]

8 gage should be enough. The batteries in a travel trailer aren't used
for starting an engine. For that matter, modern vehicles use 6 gage
battery wires, even my van with 350 V8. My trailer has 8 gage from the
fusebox on the tongue up to the batteries and back 15 feet to the
converter-charger.
You can't heat, cool or cook with battery power anyway, at least with the
weight of batteries you are likely to have in your trailer, so the extra
batteries may not be of any practical benefit. For rustic campsites a
generator placed downwind may be the practical way to go.

"I have found that electric blankets can be used for additional heat
while sleeping."
I take it that these are 120VAC? An inverter would be required to run
them (and any other 120VAC things). Have you considered 12V bedwarmers?
They go under you on top of the mattress. Look at solar electric
suppliers like those who advertise in Backwoods Home Magazine. Turn the
bedwarmer on while you are awake, then off when you go to bed. I don't
like the idea of sleeping with an electric appliance like a blanket or
bedwarmer going. Especially after my electric blanket caught on fire in
the wee hours one night!
Al