I have a 2012 Cyclone 4014. My question is, I know my heater runs on propane but requires electricity to run the thermostat and fans. Can I run my heater on my 12v battery or do I need 110v shore power or generator to get heat? I will be on the road in 2 weeks and stoping for the night a few times at truck stops and was wondering if I could run my heater if it got really cold. If not I will need to get a few blankets and lots of alcohol, lol lol lol.
Heat While Boondocking
- Thread starter TXTiger
- Start date
danemayer
Well-known member
Hi Tony,
The furnace and thermostat depend on 12V DC and will run without shore power. However, the furnace does draw a lot of power from the battery. If your battery is in good condition you should be ok for an overnight stop. Keep in mind that the refrigerator, water heater, and lights all draw battery power too. If you haven't replaced the original battery in your 2012 unit, now would be a good time.
The furnace and thermostat depend on 12V DC and will run without shore power. However, the furnace does draw a lot of power from the battery. If your battery is in good condition you should be ok for an overnight stop. Keep in mind that the refrigerator, water heater, and lights all draw battery power too. If you haven't replaced the original battery in your 2012 unit, now would be a good time.
olcoon
Well-known member
Hi Tony, been a while!!! We volunteered for the USFS in WY after the Gillette rally a few years ago. In Aug. it started getting cool at night (frost on the ground cool). We only had electricity for 4 hrs in the morning & 4 hrs at night. We ran our furnace at night and survived just fine with 1 battery, but before we left, I added another battery, not because we were having problems, but I didn't want any! As long as it isn't too cold & the furnace isn't running an awful lot, you should be fine.
beasleyrl
Well-known member
As others have said, you're probably okay with a good battery depending upon how high you run the heat. However, 1 suggestion I highly recommend doing... If you are leaving the truck/trailer connected, make sure you at least disconnect the pigtail to your truck. Otherwise, it is possible that you may pull enough power from the truck battery to be stuck there the next morning...
szewczyk_john
Well-known member
So far everyone is saying that you would be good for one night and I would agree with that. I have 2 6 volt batteries and I can make it through the night with the furnace running with no problems. The issue you might run into is recharging of your battery bank for the second night. This is where it gets dicey and depends a lot on how much recharging time you get and the condition of your batteries to begin with. I also agree that you should disconnect the trailer from the two vehicle, that way you will have a battery in the tow vehicle. This will also allow you to use the tow vehicle battery to start the gen set if you do run your battery bank so low that you don't have enough juice left to start the generator.
Lynn1130
Well-known member
You don't say what battery/batteries you have. I made a turkey hunting trip right after buying our Cyclone. I had not had time to make the switch over to 6 volts and was still on the one 12 volt that came with the trailer. The temps were not really cold, probably into the 30s at night and I generally keep the temp inside at about 55 at night. At about 2 AM I woke to the furnace fan struggling to run and knew that the battery was giving up. The battery was so drained that I could not get the genny started and had to start the truck up and hook up jumpers to get it going.
You may do fine one night with very light use of the furnace but you take your chances with just one 12 volt.
You may do fine one night with very light use of the furnace but you take your chances with just one 12 volt.
travelin2
Pennsylvania Chapter Leaders-retired
We have 2 group 27 deep cycle marine batteries and we're ok for one night when we turn the furnace on to run all night. But we need to run the Honda to charge up the batteries for subsequent nights. If we're traveling the next day my SD will fully charge the batteries during the day.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you all for your responses. I have only one 12v battery. It is not the original. The original one died after about 2 years of ownership. I replaced it and the new battery is just less than 2 years old. I guess I should be ok on battery power each night and the battery will get recharged every day as I travel. I never thought of unplugging the pigtail from the tow vehicle. That is a good idea.
