Battery Advice Needed & Charging Questions

brianosaur wrote:
I can't really say that we will do *a lot* of dry camping but of the few campgrounds we have within an hour from us - some don't have any power and others are a mix of dry & electric sites.

We plan on a couple of 5-7 day trips a season to further away campgrounds that will have power; but our plan is to do many local weekenders that - without reservations - may be on non-electric sites.

What you're not mentioning are those times you are camping on an electric site but lose campsite shore power, for whatever reason, and end up dry camping whether you want to or not. Believe it, it happens, so the more prepared you are to run on battery for a day or so the better. It's the reason some of us also install an inverter so we still have some use of 120 vac appliances such as a toaster, coffee maker, fans, etc, even if campsite power is out.

Recognizing that you will at times be camping without shore power from time to time do yourself a favour and cut to the chase now - start with a pair of G31 12 volt batteries wired in parallel OR a pair of GC-2 6 volts wired in series, either combination worth ~ 220AH @ the 20HR rate, half of which is usable if you stick to 50% DOD (depth of discharge). Often the choice between 6s or 12s comes down to what will fit best on the trailer tongue - 6s have the same footprint as a G24 12 volt battery but are taller by about an inch, G31s are not as high but much longer.