klutchdust,
I know you want to stay with a pair of 12V batteries in parallel, but I would like to read of others who favor a pair of 6v batteries in series. Maybe you will be persuaded to consider that. I also say this because I switched from two wet 12V batteries to two AGM 6V batteries this time around. The cheapest I found are Duracell brand at Sam's Club for $170 each. I will find out later this season how well they perform. I am "all in" now with hopes of better performance rather than regret.
We exclusively vacation without hookups for 2 to 4 weeks at a time. The only charging our batteries get is when driving or running the generator.
My experience with 12Vs has not been good. They don't handle the beating we give them, one of the two giving out, then the charger boiling both because it tries but can't get them charged. I've gone through two pairs of 12Vs now, always replacing both. I get 4 years from them, but year 3 is degraded and year 4 shouldn't happen at all. I should either buy new batteries for year 4, or identify the bad battery and take it off line, but I am learning the hard way.
I figure if regular batteries stacked in-series is best for flashlights and everything else, I'd give two 6Vs in series a try for our rig. I only hope my alternator and inverter/converter can handle the AGMs. I went with AGMs because I had to sacrifice the battery tray to get the extra height for the 6Vs in the same compartment. Now maintaining acid levels would be very difficult.
