So I need new batt... 1,2 or 3?

You also really need to research your on-board CONVERTER/CHARGER. This is probably why your original battery has gone KAPUT in the first place. You need to replace your on-board converter/charger with a SMART MODE unit.

Going with two 6VDC GC2 Batteries from COSTCO/SAMS CLUB wired in series will give you a good 220AHs of battery capacity which is great for the camping off the power grid. These batteries will need a good 45AMP Converter/Charger unit or bigger if you like in case you add more batteries later on.

The SMART MODE converter/charger like the PD4600 or PD9200 series will take great care of your batteries for you. All you need to do is occasionally check your battery fluids.

The other big battery killer is running your batteries down below 12.0VDC (APPX 50% SOC) and not recharging right away. I watch this very closely when camping off the power grid. What I did was plan out all we wanted to use to use in a one day/night camping run off the batteries so that the battery bank would drop down to around the 12.0VDC charge level at 8AM the next morning. Then we re-charge the batteries by connecting the trailer shore power cable directly to our 2KW Honda Generator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A adapter (WALMART) and use the on-board smart ode converter/charger to recharge our battery bank up to its 90% SOC in a quick three hour generator run time. We like to do this during breakfast so we can also make our fresh coffee supply poured up into a thermos carafe which only takes about five minutes being connected to the 2KW generator.

This is what we do when we camp off the power grid...

Roy Ken

Thanks for the great advice people. I'm going out today and will price some of these items.

Piano tuna... thanks for that link! Quite interesting! As far as the extra posts he is mentioning, is it simply a bolt that all the others a connected to or some special piece of equipment?

As fAR as the 6v setup, I'm not too keen on that for various reasons, the most obvious being if a batt goes bad in the middle of your trip well that puts a damper on things. It is something to consider though. I do get what they are saying. I'm more inclined to keep it simple, with redundancy.

Hi,

If the goal is to maximize dry camping ability then pick what ever voltage will result in the greatest number of amp-hours that are available.

2 golf cart batteries may give you about 232 amp-hours. 3 twelve volt jars may provide up to 375 amp-hours, depending on their "group". However the twelve volt batteries need to be wired in a balanced manner. The only effective way to do that is method #3 at the smartgauge site.

correctly interconnecting multiple twelve volt batteries

Here's some good get-started stuff:

Batteries:
Battery FAQ
battery faq page
6v battery recommendation

12v tutorial:

12v side of life.


Solar:

Forum members solar
Solar basics


Inverters:
Don Rowe site Inverter FAQ
Inverters by Phred
inverter thread
MSW v. pure sine

your best bet is to buy two 6 volt golf cart batteries and wire them together in series to get 12 volts. These batteries are true deep cycle designed and will outperform and outlast any of those 12 volt marine/rv batteries 2 to 1. Good luck and happy trails!

Torklift has a battery box with a built in solar charger on the top of it. I don't know the price but their regular battery boxes are quite pricy.
Barney

You don't have to have top of the line stuff to learn with for a few camp outings a year. Full time RV living requires higher end stuff because its used every day.

How do/will you camp what is your rig? If you are going to spend several days in 1 spot the more amp hours the better. If 3 group 24 batteries give you more amps than 2 group 27's and you can afford it go for more amp hours. Connecting cables should be as thick as possible 4,2,0,00 gauge and just slightly longer than needed to make the connection with the battery box covers or tie downs in place 1 maybe 2 inches per cable. Buy 2 inverters if you are going to do small and big loads 400w for tv, computer, tablet, cell phones and a 2000w for the microwave, coffee pot or toaster. Harbor freight has a 2000w for 129.00 this month add 24 month plan for like 30 bucks and you can tell in 2 seasons if the investment is worth a $600+ inverter. there is a whole lot more to it but short simple sweet is as many amp hours per dollar spent as possible and thick connecting cables in as short of runs as possible.