Coach Battery

Do you have room for two batteries? If so, two 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series to give 12 volts will serve you much better. There are virtually no 12 volt wet cell batteries that are truly deep cycle. Don’t go by CCA when selecting a deep cycle battery. Amp Hours is what you want to use as comparison. Frankly I’m surprised there is only one coach batttery in an RV your size.

CCA is important for chassis batteries - amp hours is what you focus on for the coach battery.

Some Class C RV mfg provide a single class 24 battery which maybe insufficient depending on how you use your RV. Many add a second battery. You can always get a bigger battery upgrading to type 27 or type 31 battery if space is available. Once again the focus is amp hours which might be 80 in type 24 increasing to 125 in type 31. Some replace the 12 volt batteries with two six volt deep cycle batteries which might provide 225 amp hours. In my case space (height) was an issue so my Class C has two type 24 which I purchase at Costco.

The larger cold cranking amps may also indicate more amp. hours. I do pay attention to cold cranking amps, as my house battery also starts my generator.
Brian

Cruisee,

If there is any way you can fit a pair of GC2s in that house battery space, do that.

If you aren't sure, find some boxes and packing tape and make some. We did a lot of boat electrics before the depression, and I used to keep a pair of cardboard (much lighter than the real thing) in the coach just to used for show to owners.

The other thing to be aware of is that 12V real deep cycle batteries are both rare and expensive. Marine batteries are not. CCA and CA can have little to do with actual capacity. If there is no Amp-Hour number available, look at the Reserve Capacity. That is the number of minutes you can leave the headlights on and still hole to start. This is a real number.

Matt

Looking at the brochure for your coach I see they refer to "the battery". I would be curious to see the actual battery area and see if there was room to have another batter carrier installed and then throw 2 Trojan 6 volt deep cycles in there. I upgraded to them and the difference is remarkable.

I didn't have space for two. Just bought a deep cycle at batteries+ for about $200 based on what I'd understood from previous conversations here. I think it was this one: https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/sli24magmdc

I have been very happy with my 12 volt Deep cycle batteries from Costco, now about 7 years old.

I killed the pair that came with our used MH. Somehow I got the idea that I could sort of trust the three light battery indicator and that all was well if the voltage was higher than 12.5. In fact, with only a little charging the battery goes way over 13 volts and the idiot lights indicate a full charge. It can take hours for the temporary surface charge voltage to reach its steady state and provide a decently accurate state of charge. Below 50% charge, damage begins. Only a battery monitor showing the % of full charge for counting amp hours going in and out provides a really good indication. Even my $25 eBay one works very well. It was a bit complicated to install because all current to and from the battery(s) must flow through it.

Cobra21 wrote:
The larger cold cranking amps may also indicate more amp. hours. I do pay attention to cold cranking amps, as my house battery also starts my generator.
Brian

It is not a direct relationship because CCA indicates surge capability for heavy short loads. A generator starter is far from that.

Dakzuki wrote:

Cobra21 wrote:
The larger cold cranking amps may also indicate more amp. hours. I do pay attention to cold cranking amps, as my house battery also starts my generator.
Brian

It is not a direct relationship because CCA indicates surge capability for heavy short loads. A generator starter is far from that.

The generator starter is a reasonably heavy load. Mine averages somewhere in the vicinity of 100A when it's cranking, according to my panel ammeter, give or take a fair bit. Compared to other typical house loads if one doesn't have a largish inverter, it's certainly an outlier.

klutchdust wrote:
Looking at the brochure for your coach I see they refer to "the battery". I would be curious to see the actual battery area and see if there was room to have another batter carrier installed and then throw 2 Trojan 6 volt deep cycles in there. I upgraded to them and the difference is remarkable.

I "second" this advice if your rig can accommodate two 6V batteries.

I did not buy Trojan batteries but rather Duracell brand 6V AGM batteries at Costco for $170 each. The batteries prior were two deep cycle marine 12V batteries from Walmart. The difference is night-& day. The difference would be bigger yet if we had only one 12V battery.