Walmart Battery Comparison
Roughly 5 years ago I installed three 12V Marine batteries that I purchased from Walmart. I can fit a maximum of 3 batteries on board, so I decided to go with 3 12V batteries instead of 2 6V batteries...
Forum Discussion
The first year I owned my travel trailer, I did 10 extended trips. Being it's only just me in it, I was able to manage my electrical power consumption. The 21 foot trailer got a Group 24DC Walmart battery, evidently the manufacture thinks you'll camp on the grid at a RV park all the time, however, what's the point of having a little trailer if you aren't going to dry camp with it off the grid?
That Group 24 battery had no business on my trailer. It could not make it 1 day with the original incandescent lights dropping that battery below 50% and burning up 37 amp hours out of the 75 the battery made, when brand new. It lost capacity like crazy in 5 or 6 days. The stock WFCO 8955 was woefully inadequate to recharge the battery properly.
First thing I did was get a proper deep cycle battery with double the capacity of my walmart battery. A true deep cycle. I picked up a Trojan T-1275, but a pair of T-105's or going to Costco or Sam's for a pair of GC-2's would have served me just as well, if not better.
Second thing I did was read as much as I could on here about My Screwy 31, and BFL13's adventures with batteries, as well as mexwanderers post, as he was in the consulting business for batteries being proprerly used, not abused, and proper recharging.
Then I bought a solar panel that put out almost 7 amps, and bought a separate, good charge controller that I could adjust the bulk charge voltage setting to 15.0V, so that the battery would at least get very close, if not completely top charged, daily. I am talking 97 to 98% charged daily, seeing Specific gravity making 1.265 to 1.270 on a daily basis, and at the end of camping trips, bringing it back up to a full 1.275 to 1.280, never letting them sag to 1.250 at the end of the afternoon.
I also, concurrently, bought a Mega Watt switchable Power Supply Unit, the 30 amp version, and set it up to charge at 15.0V also, for those days where the voltage was low, and cloud cover for the day was going to interfere with solar being able to top things off for the day. Mega Watt also makes a 36 amp version.
The point I am making is that you'll have to read a LOT, test your Specific Gravity a LOT, in the beginning, and figure out what works for you. There are no short cuts with batteries for dry camping, or charging them... It's solely up to you to stay on top of the monitoring of them, and setting your charging system up correctly to get the job done.
I find Wal Mart Deep Cycle batteries a royal PIA to keep top charged and get them up where they belong after a week of camping. YMMV, there are a lot better batteries out there for that kind of money, that are true deep cycle batteries by design, not deep cycle batteries masking as car batteries in poor shape configurations for the job that really needs to be done. Get GC-2's and save the time and grief that taking the easy way out and just going to Wal Mart will cost you when you are out in the sticks camping.
That Group 24 battery had no business on my trailer. It could not make it 1 day with the original incandescent lights dropping that battery below 50% and burning up 37 amp hours out of the 75 the battery made, when brand new. It lost capacity like crazy in 5 or 6 days. The stock WFCO 8955 was woefully inadequate to recharge the battery properly.
First thing I did was get a proper deep cycle battery with double the capacity of my walmart battery. A true deep cycle. I picked up a Trojan T-1275, but a pair of T-105's or going to Costco or Sam's for a pair of GC-2's would have served me just as well, if not better.
Second thing I did was read as much as I could on here about My Screwy 31, and BFL13's adventures with batteries, as well as mexwanderers post, as he was in the consulting business for batteries being proprerly used, not abused, and proper recharging.
Then I bought a solar panel that put out almost 7 amps, and bought a separate, good charge controller that I could adjust the bulk charge voltage setting to 15.0V, so that the battery would at least get very close, if not completely top charged, daily. I am talking 97 to 98% charged daily, seeing Specific gravity making 1.265 to 1.270 on a daily basis, and at the end of camping trips, bringing it back up to a full 1.275 to 1.280, never letting them sag to 1.250 at the end of the afternoon.
I also, concurrently, bought a Mega Watt switchable Power Supply Unit, the 30 amp version, and set it up to charge at 15.0V also, for those days where the voltage was low, and cloud cover for the day was going to interfere with solar being able to top things off for the day. Mega Watt also makes a 36 amp version.
The point I am making is that you'll have to read a LOT, test your Specific Gravity a LOT, in the beginning, and figure out what works for you. There are no short cuts with batteries for dry camping, or charging them... It's solely up to you to stay on top of the monitoring of them, and setting your charging system up correctly to get the job done.
I find Wal Mart Deep Cycle batteries a royal PIA to keep top charged and get them up where they belong after a week of camping. YMMV, there are a lot better batteries out there for that kind of money, that are true deep cycle batteries by design, not deep cycle batteries masking as car batteries in poor shape configurations for the job that really needs to be done. Get GC-2's and save the time and grief that taking the easy way out and just going to Wal Mart will cost you when you are out in the sticks camping.
