Empty Nest, Soon wrote:
In the TT with 2 T-105's I charged a couple of hours every couple of days, when the batteries got down to about 50 or 60% soc. I would bring them up to about 85 or 90%. I would stay out in the forest for between 2 and 4 weeks. Properly charge them when I got home. That seemed to work well enough.
I plan to use the same criteria in the motorhome - recharge when down to 50 or 60% and try for a target of 85 or 90%. Since I'm only guessing how little power I can get by with in the motorhome, and how much the solar will replace, I'm sure experience will be instructive. We plan on going camping in the mountains beginning this weekend for maybe 2 weeks.
Wayne
I am sooooo jealous! :)
... That's perhaps one more reason to split that bank, if indeed your usage will remain as low as you have stated. As I've been instructed by those wiser in the ways of battery maintenance than myself, letting the batts drain down slowly for several days is not real healthy for them. It will give them time to sulfate. Those t-105's were a little over half the capacity of your new ~400ah bank, so every other day could turn into every four days, and this is not desirable. And if you do charge the larger bank every other day, you'll be doing much slower, higher soc cycles.
Just something to think about. And believe me, I've been flip-floppin' on splitting my bank for weeks now. Fortunately, my bank is pretty easy to access, so if things don't pan out one way, it's just a matter of adding or moving a few cables around.
