confused about my RV house batteries

classctioga73 wrote:
pnichols
whats the brand and make of the true deep cycle batteries you have in your coach. could yo possible give me the dimensions to see if they would fit in my battery storage compartment.

I'm have a couple these under the entrance step in our Itasca's battery compartment wired in parallel with each other. I use (large guage) double cables between their positive terminals and between their negative terminals just to make sure that there is never any voltage difference between them, as I want them to function as close as possibe as one large battery:

http://www.fullriverbattery.com/product/batteries/DC115-12

Here's some comments about these batteries and how I use them:

1. They aren't inexpensive ... but you get what you pay for (sometimes).

2. My last set of two AGM batteries in our Class C lasted around 8 years and weren't completely bad by any stretch, even then, when I took them out.

3. They require no maintenance other than dusting them off so that they keep their pretty blue color.

4. Their recommended float voltage is 13.6 volts, so I just keep them hooked up to our RV's stock single stage 13.6 volt converter all the time and it doesn't shorten their life at all.

5. AGM dry (suspended acid) batteries charge faster than liquid acid batteries for any given voltage you apply to them, so my AGM batteries get both floated and charged (fast enough for our camping style) on the same stock single stage 13.6 volt RV converter. I don't see any need to spend another $150-$200 just to replace our perfectly good stock converter - since these batteries do just fine with the stock 7345 Parallax converter that came in the RV.

6. These two batteries of couse get hit with greater than 14 volts from the engine alternator whenever were traveling, so they do occasionally see more volts than 13.6 from the converter.

7. They have no fumes, so they could be kept inside an RV's living area if needed.

8. I have them permanently wired to both an ammeter and a voltmerter that are Velcro'd onto the cab dash so that I know what their condition is at all times - even when going down the road because then the voltmeter will jump up to 14.XX volts - showing that they are getting properly charged from the alternator. (I have had this reading be too low at times when driving - which has been an advance warning of a serious trip-impacting problem that has occured twice in 10 years of owning our RV.)