Lead Acid Battery - 2 Cells No Float

BFL13 wrote:
The higher SG (more acidic) sitting there for so long could have eaten plate so maybe not much left? If you got 1.3 up top where the hydrometer can reach, what was the SG like near the bottom all those years sitting there?--it would be higher. You might remember my tipping the 27s days to de-stratify them.

I have run mixed banks of various combos no problem while camping, then recharged them at home by type to their own specs and combo again for floating them if not enough floating chargers handy.

I have done two 6s and a 12, three 12s and two 6s, four 6s and a 12, and for lots of AH two 12v T-1275s and four 6s. Then I got two 12v AGMs and mixed them with the two T-1275s. Now I am back to four 6s in the Class C and two 12s in the TC.

I did try it without mixing batts, using one set for inverter only and the other set to run everything else. That worked with two solar sets one on each set of batts. It wasn't a good way because the "RV" set would get low and there was still plenty of AH left in the inverter's set, but no way to get at those AH to run the furnace. So back to mixed bank to spread the wealth.

What is the converter in the new to you rig?

Man, it's clear I've been outa' the game too long.

OK...

1. I DO recall the tipping days... now.

The readings were taken after a 500 mile trip on some pretty bouncy pavement. So not sure how much stratification. And why none on the other 2 sitting right next to it?

2. Yeah, I had forgotten about your battery mixing also. Hard to beat those 4-6s! And 2-12s in a TC is better than most people have. And it's clear you've expanded your employment of that strategy since I was here last. Sounds like I should have no problem if I should decide to go that route. I would surely have to make some modifications to the hold-down bracket(s) in the tray, but I could maybe keep the best of the 3-hybrids and pick up a couple Costco GC2s for 200 bucks. The GC2s should give me less PCL and do more of the heavy lifting following successive 50-90s, right?

3. The easy route is to use that funky battery for it's core and drop a "whopping" 90 bucks on an Everstart 29DC to get me by. Then regroup when the 2 older ones degrade much further. According to the chart, measured the day after the hard equalization, the SG readings put one of them at 100% of new (1.275-1.280 at 60F.) The other a good 95% at 1.265-1.300. With these I would have a slightly larger bank than the old girl (3-27s,) though with more electronics... I'm guessing I'll get noticeably lesser performance. That said, with the bank switched off at the helm, there seems to be virtually no draw.

4. Again, I would have to make some modifications to the hold-down bracket(s), but yeah... another consideration would be 2 Costco GC2s and that single T-1275 for about twice the skrills over the Everstart. I should think I could top them at home as one bank and I'm guessing they should charge comparably to each other on the road and... hopefully... lead to less PCL than the hybrids would, yes?

5. Apparently the previous owner blew up the old one, so she has a fairly recent Xantrex Freedom 458 with the basic controller. I haven't tested the inverter function yet. I picked up a clean 1093DBD off ebay awhile back. So I should be able to make up for anything the Xantrex lacks in speed, right?

I've also, finally joined the solar community. My old man hooked me up with a couple 120W, portable solar panels with some parallel connectors and a basic, 20A controller for Christmas 2019. Portables have their obvious pros and cons. These fold up easily, so I can quickly stow 'em when we leave the campsite to be sure they don't go walking off. Portables are better for finding sun in a shady campsite. But no charging while we're at the beach.

One of these days I'll look into mounting solar panels on an older, fiberglass roof.

That reminds me... she does have a solar float charger... which could explain why the batteries were in as decent a shape as they were with only the occasional engine startup... and generator startup... until the diesel tank got too low. The thing had 6% when I first looked at 'er. Fortunately the BIL went and grabbed 5 gallons to get me to the nearest filling station.
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