Killed my battery in 1 season. What happened?

I still have the GP24 standard issue 85AH deep cycle INTERSTATE batteries that came with the trailer in 2008. I am running three of these batteries in parallel giving me 255AHs of battery capacity.

I think what helps me the most is I use smart mode converter/charger and monitor my battery bank DC VOLTAGES all the time when camping off the power grid. I follow the rule to not let my batteries get below 12.0VDC over night and then re-charge them the next morning. My inside BATTERY MONITOR looks at the 12VDC for each bank and also measures how much DC current is being drawn by the battery bank as well as how much the battery bank is demanding when being charged.


My older trailer had to inspected for battery fluids every week so I still do that with these batteries but since I now use the smart mode converter/charger I never find them low on fluids.

Nothing fancy here just three batteries connected in PARALLEL using BLUE SEA battery switches...


I am just now starting to see performance fall off for these batteries which have been cycled alot between their 50% and 90% state of charge when camping off the power grid like we do.

Found out early on you got to take care of your batteries if you want them to last.

I imagine around 5 years of use is pretty much normal for still getting full performance out of them... Some guys go alot longer...

Roy Ken

Also, killers are letting it drain down and sit discharged, overcharging boiling water out and letting the plates go dry.

This wouldn't be a standard car starting battery would it?

What kind of battery?

What are you using to monitor its charge?

How low do you let it go?

How are you charging it?

Have you checked the connections and water level?

Either a large power draw, discharging the battery to almost empty over and over and then recharging, or just a bad battery.