Need some suggestions on upgrading batteries for dry camping

Or, Ductape, don't stay in camp at all on most days and recharge via solar.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

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Mounting more than 2 batteries on the tongue is not a good idea.
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What, What?

A lot of us have 4 GC2s on the tongue. Yes, you need a truck that can handle the tongue weight and a trailer with a decent frame ...

Thank you all for some good suggestions. I found this web site that shows the proper way to cable up multiple batteries and the generator. www.impactbattery.com Might buy solar panels at a later date.
As far as to where to place the batteries, I haven't come up with a perfect location, my trailer tongue weight is heavy with 2 @ 30 lb LP bottles there already. I do use a 15k Reese weight distribution hitch and have Firestone airbags on my F250.
Permanently mounting inside the trailer isn't going to work because tying into the existing 12 volt cables would require a lot of bending and kneeling down which is very painful for me because of a bad knee. It's either in the bed of the truck, or maybe outside in a box that disassemble and is moved back and forth into the back of the toyhauler on a dolly for use when we long time dry camp.

Permanently mounting inside the trailer isn't going to work because tying into the existing 12 volt cables would require a lot of bending and kneeling down which is very painful for me because of a bad knee...

Might have been a good idea mentioning this going in...:)

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Permanently mounting inside the trailer isn't going to work because tying into the existing 12 volt cables would require a lot of bending and kneeling down which is very painful for me because of a bad knee...

Might have been a good idea mentioning this going in...:)

And why does that bother you?
I'd just rather work of things that are easier to reach. Mounting the original one under the refrigerator seems kind of dumb to me.
It's easier and safer to maintain, and troubleshoot problems on a piece of equipment is easily accessible. So tying the new battery cables to the existing cables out on the trailer tongue just makes sense to me.

Bothered people don't smile :B

Still not clear if you have an "inverter", or meant "converter."

If you do intend to run some 120v things from inverter and the rest of the rig straight from batteries when off grid, there is another way not yet mentioned.

You can have your 2000w inverter inside the rig on a couple of AGMs (two 100w deep cycle ones is good for that-- can run the microwave and toaster and kettle and TV/DVD etc) You plug the shore power cable into the inverter and shut off your converter--run the fridge and WH on gas (do not put the fridge on "auto" or it will go to 120v, not gas)

Leave two Wet cell (two 6s is very good for that) on the tongue for normal 12v usage.

So now you have two separate systems. You can use a portable charger run from the gen to keep both sets of batteries up as needed (will likely be on different days before each reaches 50% and needs a "50-90" recharge.)

You can also have two sets of solar, one for each set of batteries. Or if your solar is portable, you can swap over between battery sets using the clamps on the battery posts, whichever needs it first .

You can get Eg, a 25 ft jumper cable set up to #1 AWG cu-al not too expensive, (unlike the cu ones) and just jumper both sets of batteries and use one charger and do them all, then return to two separate sets

Or you could set up one in the truck bed like you said and use jumper cables.

You can cart along extra batteries and set them on the ground beside the tongue battery set, jumper them all up, and then when leaving, tuck all that away and head on to the next campground.

You can do whatever works best for you! Almost anything will work, and no doubt somebody else has already tried it. You do not have to re-invent the wheel to go RVing! Glen Curtis had some good ideas that still apply :)