goducks10 wrote:
Two rules of thought here. 6V do offer more run time, but if one goes bad then you've only got one 6V.
SoundGuy wrote:
The devil is in the details - a pair of G31 12 volt batteries in parallel offer similar capacity to a pair of 6 volt GC-2 batteries in series but if one of the G31s suffers a failure one always has the choice to continue on with the other, with a failed GC-2 you're dead in the water.
westend wrote:
I'd suggest to look at the situation of 6V vs 12V long and hard. Your 12V grp 31's, if a standard marine hybrid, will have far less durability than GC2 batteries.
If you compare pricing, I think you'll also find that a pair of grp 31's will be 50% more than a pair of 6V's.
As a newbie the OP understandably has asked a simplistic question - "which battery?" - but unfortunately has neglected to provide any other details that go hand in hand in selecting the right battery for the task he has in mind. Those would include his frequency and duration of dry camping, his anticipated loads, whether he intends to use an inverter, his method of recharging, whether he's intending to invest in a generator or solar, what type of converter / charger he might use for maintaining these batteries, or even the space he may have available for mounting batteries. These are
all factors that need to be considered, with no one single answer suitable for all ... but since the OP hasn't provided any of this detail the best I can do is offer
my own situation to which he can then compare his own.
In our case we're not what I would consider "dry campers" as we normally would pay a few extra $ for an electric site if available. During the spring and fall that's easy but during the busy summer months, especially on weekends, about the only way one can be guaranteed an electric site is to reserve months in advance, which we're increasingly loathe to do, for a variety of reasons. About the only time we relent is when we'd like to camp with friends over a particular weekend in a particular loop at a particular campground, otherwise we'd just rather show up and select from what might be available, whether traveling or camping here near home. That often necessitates taking a non-electric site but especially now that I've installed a 1000 watt inverter we've found there really isn't much drawback other than not being able to run A/C ... but we at least can power a couple of fans. The second circumstance that commonly forces dry camping is something that
no one can control - loss of campground power - be it equipment failure somewhere in the system or because of severe weather ... seems to happen to us at least 2 - 3 times each season, though on one recent occasion we couldn't get on to our reserved electric site because it was so wet and we had no choice but to move to a non-electric site, the only option available that busy holiday weekend.
To date my single G27 has served the purpose pretty well but with a new inverter recently installed increasing battery reserve would no doubt allow it to do it's job more efficiently and for a longer duration between battery recharging. Like many, our rig is equipped with the ubiquitous WFCO converter, in my case a WF8955 which I've
never seen go beyond 13.6 to 13.7 volts. It's only 2 yrs old, otherwise works fine, so although replacing it with something like a Progressive Dynamics that could properly bulk charge at 14.8 volts would be the proper solution when investing in a pair of premium batteries the ROI is simply not worth it to me considering how infrequently we dry camp.
My options - retain the existing G27, add a second 12 volt battery, and run them sequentially OR invest in two new 12 volt G31s which can be run in parallel, retain the G27 for back up, and recharge when we return home OR invest in two new GC-2 6 volt batteries, retain the G27 for back up, and also recharge later at home. With two new batteries of either flavour plus my existing G27 along as back up I'm sure we could easily do 3 - 4 days considering our limited draw but on the rare occasion that we may plan
beforehand to be dry camping or may plan to be away for an extended period I can always drag along my EU2000i. I've got the trailer tongue space for a dual battery setup, can toss the spare G27 in the back of the truck, so it's just now a matter of deciding how I'm going to mount a dual set of batteries on the tongue. My preference is a Stanley 28" Fat Max toolbox but the G31s are too long, the GC-2s are too high. It's an issue that can easily be solved with purposed designed aluminum boxes but it's not a viable $$$ solution considering my limited use for these batteries so I may have to resort to conventional plastic battery boxes designed for the purpose ... not my preference but it'll work.
As for cost I personally have no issue with any difference between a couple of G31s or a couple of GC-2s as long as the solution chosen meets my particular criteria, which as I said at the beginning includes not just the batteries themselves but how they're going to be used, how they're going to be mounted, and how they're going to be re-charged. Miscalculate on any of those details and I've probably picked the wrong battery ... just as will be the case for the OP if he too doesn't consider all these other related details. ;)
