Forum Discussion

brholt's avatar
brholt
Explorer II
Mar 21, 2018

Another Battery Thread :-)

It looks like I made need to replace my batteries as well. I have a pair of Interstate series 29 batteries and they are discharging faster and not fully charging (voltage) anymore. They are 5.5 years old and I would estimate something over 650 cycles so maybe they have run their course.

Questions:

- I thought I remember posts (couldn't find them) from people who have squeezed bigger batteries into the Arctic Fox battery compartment. Anybody have experience with this? It looks like it would be really tight. We dry camp a lot and batteries are important.

- Costco batteries: Are they really deep cycle?

- Torklift's Hidden Power. I was also thinking about the idea of adding their Hidden Power to the truck (would force me to get AGM batteries I guess) to create a three battery system. What I can't figure out from their site is how it wires up with their harness. It almost seems to be an added truck battery. Does anybody have any experience?

Thanks
  • The AF811 battery compartment is big enough for dual group 29's with the tray and even bigger without. The AF990 uses a smaller compartment and 29's barely fit without the tray. I don't know about the bigger models.
  • Our last camper was a 2006 Arctic Fox 1150 and the battery compartment was not big enough for 6v GC type flooded batteries. I have seen people mount 6v AGMs in there sideways after removing the sliding tray though.
  • Costco Marine are a hybrid battery. Designed to start boat motors, and to provide for electric motor drain too. Golf cart batteries are designed to drain slowly and are a true deep cycle.

    I just put two golf cart batteries in my rig. They are taller than the 12 volt units, but should provide many years of service.
  • I think 5.5 years is pretty good. One thing I noticed is that battery dimensions of groups are a "range". Be sure to measure the actual batteries.

    Hopefully, you've already switched to LEDs. That helped my batteries a lot.

    If you are thinking about adding a couple or one battery, I think the idea of putting them into the bed would be good idea with Anderson connections with heavy gauge wire. I think that's what you would need to do with the Hidden Power kit.
  • I would measure compartment and see if Costco 6 volters will fit. They are deep cycle!