camping--inverter power from auxiliary battery--need guidance

First, 360 watts is 20 amps at 12v so your 18AH battery could be drained in 1 hour. Just leave your Prius in ready mode and you can pull 360 watts for weeks without running out of gas. Use a secondary battery to jump your (or other's) car if required.

JeffD

 

This one should work: 12V 150 amp DC battery isolator and split charge relay for RV, car, and truck
applications

JeffD

 

You will only want to draw down a 18 amp battery to 50% depth-of-discharge, so only plan on using 9 amps (about 100 watts) between charges. One thing you will have to watch out for is the baseline draw of your inverter - even if you have no loads it will probably use an amp while on. An isolator will work as you want, allowing you to charge the extra battery while not drawing down your Prius battery.

However, with all of the benefits of the Prius I do think you should just leave it on and forget about adding on the extra layer of complexity. Basically you would then be using the massive traction battery to power your stuff for a few hours each night - the 12 volt battery just sits there passing through the amps being supplied by the DC-DC converter. Turn off the AC system, turn off the screen, turn off the radio, and dial down the speedometer brightness. With the light loads you have the engine will only turn on for a few minutes every hour or two. If I were car camping with a Prius this is exactly what I would do. I would even sleep inside to take advantage of the AC in the summer. Oh, and I am one of those using mine to power my house...

 

My Prius 12V battery usually runs at significantly lower voltage than the household's non-hybrids, so I suspect it is usually well be full charge. Thus, even drawing 9Ah repeatedly is risky. Just leave it in 'Ready'.

 

This is the flaw in your plan.
Leave your car in Ready and all is good. If you insist on turning it off, bring a jumpstart box every time.

Schumacher IP-55 Instant Power Portable Jump Starter : Amazon.com : Automotive

I predict that you will still replace your 12 volt battery twice as often as someone who treats it well.

 

Ahhh.....12k.....a bike snob

 

We are talking about his secondary 12 volt battery, not the Prius' own 12 volt battery. I agree he should just leave the car on in the evening, but when using his secondary battery a 50% draw-down is considered normal for a deep cycle battery.

 

Again, he's talking about using a secondary 12 volt battery so he won't harm his Prius' 12 volt battery.

 

If anyone stumbles over this thread like I did, I want them to know that YouTube has excellent videos that cover these topics. One is by PriusStealthCamper...

I have a 2012 Prius V and am modifying it to be a stealth camper. Yes I own a nice home and other nice minivan car.

We have owned a total of 4 Prius cars and given 2 to our now adult kids - and a 3rd was totaled in a wreck which I survived because of the fantastic passenger side metal bar that protects the passengers from side impacts.

The 2012 Prius V was pursed to replace the regular Prius. The Prius V is a car we love when car camping. It is a second home to me because I glampnwhen I camp.

I have added a 1 1/4 inch hitch. I am adding a riser bar with a 2 inch receiver for a metal rack so we can sleep in the Prius in bad weather or extreme temps and tent camp in good weather and chain and lock our stuff outside.

I have not bought a bike, but with the tray I will have more storage locked and chained outside the car.

Also, I bought racks for the top of the car for storage, and am planning to install solar.

We have almost 150,000 miles on the car and have had zero battery problems.

I hope the OP had a great trip.

My favorite trip so far was beach camping at the Texas National Seashore near Corpus Christi, Texas and watching the stars at night while climbing inside to escape the weather and heat on one night and cold on another night. Recently, we visited Florada’s Emerald Coast and loved it.

We have figured out how to add air conditioning to our huge lightweight tent.

The Prius is a great car for camping. Please don’t let people scare you from following your plans.

The Prius is a workhorse - and sometimes I think “he” wants to travel too

The key is pack as if you are lightweight backpacking. Everything I have in the Prius is designed for lightweight camping - even my tent.

The company REI is my go-to for all things good quality and lightweight. My tent is huge yet weighs less than 25 pounds. Some tents are as small as 2 pounds - maybe lighter.

In addition, I study bushcraft techniques on YouTube to let the environment work for me.

We stay in nice hotels like Hilton Home2Suites - but had a break-in when using our minivan as a camper so now we are using the Prius again because in the same hotel parking lot, no one touched our Prius. (We we’re moving one child from a college apartment and stayed overnight at a hotel.)

Always cover your stuff with a blanket or sheet - always. I use black. After the other car was broken into, I had all the windows on both cars tinted with ceramic UV protection as dark as legally allowable. I am still working on Stealth. Not to live in my car but to protect my stuff. The thief sole my large capacity recharger. I highly recommend a car battery recharger like Suaoki, powerful inverter (at least 300 watt,) and long extensions so you can work comfortable while recharging gear.

As others recommended, I have been running my engine all night to stay comfortable but for recharging, I recharge while I drive. I think the OP was planning very long bike rides maybe camping away from the car, so did not want the car running all the time. We ran the AC all night and lost about 2 bars. I totally understand why the OP did not want to leave the car running unattended. If Stealth is used, no one can see inside the car. I have become an expert at stealth. Try at home first and cover ALL sources of light. In the front seat area. Those extra lights caught me off guard.

If you stumble over this webpage - please be encouraged that there are many ways to camp in a Prius. Adventure is awaiting you! Happy campus in your Prius mini RV.

 

The way he wires the batteries in his video in parallel isn't that great. Can ruin the original battery. How did you wire your 2nd battery?

 

You keep asking questions on years old threads.

Start a new thread and ask questions instead of tagging years old threads.

 

Is there a rule against it? I find the threads on Google & I prefer to message people in the thread who started it since the contents & discussion are relevant. That's the whole point of a forum – sorry I don't spend all day long on forums raging over any every new post. Perhaps spend less time all day on the computer, & not get your panties in a bundle & if it still bothers you, you can kindly ignore the post

 

If you tag on to an old thread and you mention the screen name of an older poster with an @ in front, then they will get a message that you have mentioned them (if they still have an active PriusChat account and they check it). Otherwise, you haven't really messaged anybody, just put new content on the end of an old thread that the original poster may have long forgotten about and might never see.

 

The post I responded to was in August 2018 - not even a year ago. By pinging the user in question, he will receive an email notification, as well as see which thread he posted in. I find the complaints redundant.