Batteries: Marine/RV or Marine?

If the marine/rv battery you're looking at lists cold cranking amps (CCA) then it is a hybrid deep cycle/starter battery. Nothing wrong with that but it's not a true deep cycle and will not last as long, and cannot be run down to near zero more than a few times before it's severely weakened. I have two 12v Interstate class 27s and they perform very well, but would not last as long as two 6v golf cart type batteries.

I had one to last me 9years,and to I did the bubble thing every seaon.12vo
Lt Happy camping

Thanks RoyB. The above information you furnished is tremendously helpful and I will do exactly as you have described when needed. I am deeply appreciative your help and input, along with others who have contributed.

I continue to be amazed at the depth of knowledge of those willing to earnestly help others on this forum.

If you do or plan on doing any dry camping I would get a pair of 6 volts. That being said if you are just going to have hook ups get a grp 24 or grp 27

I noticed you used the comment about using the charging cables provided with your Honda EU30001s generator to re-charge your battery..



You cannot expect much charging for your battery by using this 12V DC CHARGING OUTPUT on the front panel on your generator. I know the manuals calls this a DC CHARGING port but in reality this will take forever and probably two more days to re-charge a battery. The output here is most likely unregulated and will be only around 12VDC and only just a few AMPS output.

Yes this will charge your battery but it will take along time. I could not imagine running my generator for over 24 hours to charge up a deep cycle battery. My 2KW honda has a similar 12VDC charge port but it will only run around 7 hours on one tank of fuel haha...


What you want to do is plug your 30AMP SHore Power Cable directly into your Honda 3000 generator and allow the trailer on-board smart mode CONVERTER to re-charge your trailer battery just like you do when plugged into shore power.

Your trailer being a 2010 model should have the SMART-MODE TECHNOLOGY CONVERTER/CHARGER installed and if so so this will re-charge your battery back up to 90% charge state in only three hours run time of the generator. What makes this work for you is the smart mode converter uses 14.4VDC to start charging your battery and in about two hours will shift down to 13.6VDC for another hour which will get your battery to at least a 90% charge state. The battery will require around 12 hours of charge to attain a 100% state of charge.

The nature of the Deep Cycle Batteries is you can start using them at the 90% charge state and expect their rated specified amp hour capacity without doing harm to the battery. When I am camping off the power grid I can do around ten of the these 50% to 90% charge states cycles while camping each day but will need to do a full 100% charge routine in ten days or so to keep from doing internal damage to the battery. The deep cycle batteries are designed to do this for you during the lifetime of the battery.

The only good use I have ever found to use the Battery Charge plug for is to run some DC lights around the generator when it gets dark to see how to re-fuel the generator haha... The 12VDC charge output does not do anything for me battery charging wise.

Just passing this along FYI...

Roy Ken

Hi,

The charging from a generator would be best through a modern 3 stage converter rather than the unregulated outlet on the generator.

When we boondock at a truck stop or elsewhere when traveling we usually use our Honda 3000 if we need electricity for our AC and other electricity.

So I think will wait until this battery gets on it last legs and go to Wal-Mart and get their best battery. I believe there are charging cords that were furnished with the generator, so I will dig them out if needed.

If it gives up the ghost while we are traveling, there is always a Wal-Mart close, as mentioned above. Thanks for the help and advice, folks.

Mike

wrenchbender wrote:
Depends on your needs, and avaliable redundentcies.I like wally World group 29 since I dry camp for long periods and just run my geny a few hrs a day.If your TV can power the TT and charge the battery and you do not really depend on it get a smaller cheaper battery.

Ditto

Based on your past camping needs it looks like you don't do much camping off the power grid. This being the case I would go for the best warranty but since you are already over the warranty period now with your interstate I guess this is sort of mute as well haha...

The standard issue GP24 Interstate batteries is only a 85AH battery. I added three more of those on my OFF ROAD POPUP setup and have been using them for the past 5-years. I lost one of the of the batteries earlier on by boiling out the battery fluids so after getting a smart-mode converter/charger installed on-board I have had great luck with the remaining three. I mostly camp off the power grid so the three batteries together gave 255AHs of capacity which handled my off-road camping needs just fine.


Last season I did have another interstate failure with a shorted cell so this season I am starting off with just two interstate batteries in my bank. I too need to start getting some replacements. In my case I would love to have around 400AHs capacity battery bank. I would love to have two groups of 12VDC Trojan batteries but they are probably out of my budget. Four of the COSTCO/SAMs CLUB GC2 6V batteries is most likely what I will end up getting.

Its really what your camping needs are going to be on how much battery capacity you will need.

COSTCO/SAMs CLUB seems to have the most AHs available for the bucks spent. Each 6V Golf Cart battery cost around $80 each... Two connected in series will give you 12VDC with around 200AHs capacity.

Roy ken

Depends on your needs, and avaliable redundentcies.I like wally World group 29 since I dry camp for long periods and just run my geny a few hrs a day.If your TV can power the TT and charge the battery and you do not really depend on it get a smaller cheaper battery.