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jarata1's avatar
jarata1
Explorer
Jul 06, 2016

Battery life

I'm sure this has been answered before but anyway

Camping with no hookups and just regular incondcent lights ,tv and water pump as needed thats all. How long can I get out of a fully charged deep cycle battery
  • As stated, too many variables to answer your question......but you can do some things to help the situation. When you initially park the trailer, if you have an electric tongue jack, any slides or an electric awning, operate all these items before disconnecting the tow vehicle (engine running).

    Tidbit:.....Years ago, when we had a truck/camper, I made an additional umbilical cord (power cord from tow vehicle to trailer for turn signal, lights and 12volt power) using the same connectors on the tow vehicle and trailer, but only installing the 12 volt line and ground. I made the cord about 15' long. This allowed me to connect my tuck to the camper (which I often removed and set on the ground) from a distance and charge my battery(s) with the tow vehicle alternator. Your tow vehicle will actually charge your battery(s) very quickly.
  • my 12 year old camper has 1141 bulbs. and I just replace them with LED's 20 of them were less then 30 dollars and took 15 minutes to replace all of them...
    they have the same base as the old bulbs. so its just like replacing one with the other.


    cut the power usage by one forth.

    I know no one runs all 20 lights at once.. but you get the idea. saving power so battery last longer before recharging.
  • not enough info.

    you probably don't have a true deep cycle battery. it's probably a marine dual-purpose Group 24, if it was installed by the dealer.

    if you don't run the furnace, you can get 2-3 days IF you conserve.
  • Just to give you an idea, we can use as little as 18ah per day while using LED lights, the water pump and misc. small battery drainers. We can camp for just about 7 days at that rate (outside most all the time - and no TV) and discharge the batteries to about 50-percent. First thing I did was test all the different 12v items to see what uses what. Use my cheap digital battery tester and in my own un-scientific way my batteries are still hanging in there after 8 years.
  • G-24, or do you have a G-27 or G-31 battery?
    LED lighting, or incandescent?
    Fridge and water heater? The control boards run on 12V even when using propane.
    Scratch the TV.
  • Too many variables to give an accurate answer.

    How many lights, for how long each day?

    How many hours of TV watching?

    The water pump will not play a big part in your calculations.

    It's all about the 'amp/hours' of your battery and its loads.