FWC Hawk Shell power suggestions

[tothemtns]

Yo!

I have a new FWC Hawk Shell, dual 6 volt batteries and 160w solar panel. I want to be able to hook up a generator to power everything as well, just in case. What are my options? The Hawk Shell does not have a shore power connection.

I’ve looked into the NOCO Genius to accomplish charging with a generator, but was informed that if you are actually using the power in the camper, the NOCO will overheat and shut off; so you can basically only use the NOCO if you’re not using the camper? Solutions? I’ve read through a few of these threads that mention the use of an Iota, but I’m not understanding what exactly I need to do to just plug my camper in and get power. I’m not the best when it comes to all this. Break it down for me! lol

What do I need to do to plug my camper in and charge my batteries, without damaging or inhibiting my solar.

I haven’t had any power/charging issues yet, but we do a lot of winter camping in WA | OR, just want to play it safe.

Thanks,

B

 

[DavidGraves]

Yo Back

Just use the camper some first and determine your electrical needs.

Your truck can do a lots of charging of your camper house electrical system.

Unless you want to stay in one place for many weeks, your driving may keep the system charged nicely.

And you have the solar for summertime !

We have a small NOCO Genius charger and take it along to BAJA in order to charge the batteries on the rare time we will pay to camp in a commercial campground.

I use a small portable 1500 watt inverter from the truck to power the NOCO to charge the battery if we stay back country for a very long time.

Welcome to WTW.

David Graves

 

[astropuppy]

+1 on what DavidGraves said: Use it.

I have the same camper. This winter I've been using a 100 watt portable panel. Plug it in and point at morning light. I also installed a $20 a/c port in one of the battery vent holes. At home I hook up a charger.

We have dual 12v batteries and run a 75L dometic, furnace, phones, laptop... w/o issue. Always figured, If I got real disparate I would pull a battery out of the camper and hook it up to the truck for an hour with jumper cables. Then rinse and repeat with the other.

I'm a big believer in keeping things simple. Simple things break less.

 

[astropuppy]

David, Do you connect your inverter up near the truck battery and run an a/c chord back to your charger? Sounds alot simpler than taking a battery out. I just happen to have a 1500 watt inverter.

 

[Adventurebound]

Agree with the other posters. I also have a shell. With your set up of solar and dual 6 volts you might be surprised by how little of "juice" you use. I would get a victron monitor first so you can monitor the power you actually have/produce. https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/bmv-712-smart

 

[PaulT]

Another possibility with the Noco Genius is to turn off the camper master power switch and attach the charger directly to the battery posts. (or to the circuit side of the battery monitor shunt if you do that.

The Noco comes with a short cable with two ring connectors that can connect to the battery and a Noco dual connector that plugs into the charger. Doing that allows you to have the Noco connection already hooked up and simply disconnecting the battery clamps cable and plugging into the ringed terminal cable gets you charging quickly without tools or mistakes.

Paul

 

[larryqp]

tothemtns,
Welcome to the group
you didn't state what sort of electric demands you will have in your shell. I agree with much written above. Generators are best for powering 120 volt items. So I wired a 20 amp 120 volt circuit into my Hawk shell and have a outside RV plug for shore power. My National Luna refrigerator is plugged into it, I have a 120 volt outlet on each side of the shell, the factory AC and small NOCO charger is pugged in as well. I don't use a generator, but sometimes plug into shore power. Your generator would be the same as shore power.

When plugged into shore power or using a generator, the 12v/120v compressor refrigerator automatically switches to 120 volts, the AC only runs on 120 volts, and I carry a small 120 volt cube heater, so the furnace isn't needed. The NOCO charger then charges the batteries and once they are charged switches to trickle charge. Other than lights there is no 12 volt current drawer, so I'm not "running" my camper on the NOCO charger, if and when I plug into shore power.

BY THE WAY, I rarely plug into shore power. I just got back from a 3 week trip in Big Bend area of Texas without ever plugging in to shore power and even with 3 days of cool, cloudy weather, my batteries never got below 70%. I ran the furnace, a Cpap, my National Luna has dual zones and one zone was set as a freezer at 0 degrees F. My solar is 200 watts with 2x 6 volt 240 ampHr AGM batteries.

 

[tothemtns]

Can you hook the NOCO Genius 10 up to dual 6volt batteries? Just wire it up to one (+) and one (-), correct?

 

[tothemtns]

+1 on what DavidGraves said: Use it.

I have the same camper. This winter I've been using a 100 watt portable panel. Plug it in and point at morning light. I also installed a $20 a/c port in one of the battery vent holes. At home I hook up a charger.

We have dual 12v batteries and run a 75L dometic, furnace, phones, laptop... w/o issue. Always figured, If I got real disparate I would pull a battery out of the camper and hook it up to the truck for an hour with jumper cables. Then rinse and repeat with the other.

I'm a big believer in keeping things simple. Simple things break less.

Ordered the NOCO 10 - with the NOCO external plug, going to try and go through the battery vent as well. Did you just put the screws back in the siding since the battery vent is 4” and the NOCO plug is only 3.1”? Or, did you back the NOCO plug up with something?

Ordered these too, since I have bolt down style battery

GC008 X-Connect XL Eyelet Terminal

 

[astropuppy]

I sealed the raw wood in the old screw holes with a drop of ca glue before screwing the screws back in with a dap of silicone. Drilled new holes/new screws for the for the Norco.

 

[astropuppy]

Here's the plug I used because I had it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ANV81S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Currently use it with a household power strip.