Battery life

I just went out for the first time with my new 2 6v golf cart battery set up. What an improvement over a single 12v! It was a 3 day two night trip and we could have gotten by without recharging at all. And that was not using power sparingly either. Listened to the radio for a while, my daughter watched a few cartoons, water pump usage including showers, ran the heater at night, even ran the amber porch light at night for a few hours. The lowest it got was 2/3 full on the battery level indicator inside the trailer. I did run my generator for two hours on day 2 just to charge them back up. I am going to try and be good about not letting them get lower than 50% SOC. It seems to me that I would be able to camp for extended periods of time with running the geni about 2 hrs a day or probably every other day if I used power sparingly. I don't like running the generator more than necessary which is why I upgraded to the two 6v's.


My experience this trip was a perfect example why. My wife daughter and I headed out to a local reservoir dispersed site last week. We were camping on a Mon,Tue,Wed and it is quite a long bumpy dirt road to get to where we were at. We had hoped to be all alone, and we were when we got there Mon Morning. A couple hours later another person showed up with a TT and parked maybe 50 yds from us and immediately cranked up a loud @%$ generator. I thought it was strange that he would show up with dead batteries cause it certainly wasn't warm enough to need the A/C. He proceeded to run that thing for 21 HOURS STRAIGHT! I can't tell you how annoyed we were. When he finally left the next morning I could still hear the droning in my head. I was watching him when he pulled out and I noticed that he had NO batteries on the tongue of the trailer. I cannot believe that someone would pull up next to others camping and run a generator for all of their electrical needs, it boggled my mind. They even left it running when they were down at the water fishing for hours at a time.

We did the jumper cables our first trip to the boonies, run the truck a hour before bed and we were good to go with a single grp 27 battery. The next year we got a generator and LEDs but listening to the generator drone on and on....

The best thing we did was get a inexpensive solar system. Day to day we have more power than we can use even though we have the same grp 27 battery that came with the trailer. I haven't checked pricing lately but a 230w system like mine could be done for $400, there are 200w kits for $300 and a 160w premade portable for $269 I believe. This of course depends on what kind of sunshine you see too.

jaycocreek wrote:
Not trying to be a smart ... But 4 batteries at $140 each is $560 Okay, How many years do the 4 batteries last?

I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out the solar expenses that are talked so much of, compared to other methods.I might be an old buzzard, semi set in my ways but I'm always open to other methods to save a buck or two.

Four 6V Costco or Sam's club batteries are 4 X $90 = $360, for comparison. I have solar charging and am anticipating 8-10 yrs. for 6V batteries. I also have a bank of AGM batteries and should get good longevity out of them, too. It is more about how much of each cycle draws the SOC down and how quickly they're recharged that gets good longevity. Batteries also like to be charged back to 100%.

I just replaced my SLA truck battery. The first one lasted 10 years, one month. I have a 1500w audio system in the truck and a wonky door switch that keeps the interior cab light on too long, also (thanks Ford, on that).

Edge AGM car / truck batteries are 100 % replacement for 4 years .
Edge AGM RV / Marine batteries are 100 % replacement for 2 years .
I have 7 years on my AGM car/truck batteries .
10 years is a common life for AGM batteries .
The advantages of Edge AGM are faster recharging times ,
Slower drawdown ,
no off-gassing ( can be inside ),
and no leakage issues .
As to lengthy stays , I have been doing the HD jumper cable
method for a dozen + years .
9 days no worries , as my pickup gets driven every 2 or 3 days .
I do not run my truck engine to charge the RV batts .
I just let them equalize .

Not trying to be a smart ... But 4 batteries at $140 each is $560 Okay, How many years do the 4 batteries last?

I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out the solar expenses that are talked so much of, compared to other methods.I might be an old buzzard, semi set in my ways but I'm always open to other methods to save a buck or two.

We use a set of # 2 guage 12 foot jumpers to hook up the 2 AGM batts in our pickup to the 2 travel trailer batteries .
We park the trailer and just turn the pickup around .
The pickup gets driven every 2nd or 3rd day .
We hook up all 4 batteries as soon as we return .
The 4 batts equalize .
We dry camp .
We do a 9 day boondock every summer since 1984 .
Our setup has worked well for over a decade .
This works good . no genny . no solar .
For heavy current draw I consider Roy B to be the expert .
For heavy duty needs RoyB says two 6 volt GC2 golf cart batteries are the only answer .
I replaced my duramax pickup batts with Exide Edge AGM group 78 for $ 140 each from BiMart .
Like my Pop said " There is no substitute for cubic inches " .
That includes batteries .
Do a Wikipedia about AGM batteries and you will find the reason we made that switch .
Over time we have converted to AGM in our cars,truck, boat, and TT .
I stopped running my pickup to recharge the RV batts many years ago .
The switch to 4 big AGM batts works for us .
But the real game changer is to use the heavy duty jumper cables and run off of the 4 batteries .

Hard to say anything about how long your battery lasts when camping because nobody knows how much you use your 12 volt stuff or how good your battery itself is (stsyle, size and condition) and all of these things are variables. I CAN tell you that ALL batteries are better off if maintained rather than depleted then recharged so for that reason it's best to recharge your battery every day. True deep cycle batteries can withstand deep discharges far better than combination batteries and even MORE difference between starting batteries and deep cycle. Even deep cycle should be discharged no more than 50% for maximum usage (talking about years not hours here). My 6 volt Trojans usually are good for around 8 years of hard use but I recharge them daily when they're in use. In order to keep ghost draw from discharging batteries all that is needed is to remove the negative line to the trailer and leave it disconnected. A more costly but ultimately more convenient way is to install an isolation switch that does the same thing as removing a cable. During summer months I could go for a week or more with no problem but I"d be paying for it in lost overall use time on the batteries so I run the charger daily unless there is some reason not to do so. Of course during cold weather camping when running the furnace then going a couple or three days is about all that is practical. Furnace blower takes a lot of power.

As for what runs on 120 volt vs 12 volt plower, if it's a 12 volt product and WILL work without you being connected to 120 volt then it runs from the battery. If it doesn't work with the RV unplugged it's 120 volt and this is ASSUMING that you don't have an inverter running.

Good luck / Skip

The LED's will save a lot of battery power. You can run 3 - 4 LED bulbs on same power as a regular bulb.

The biggest draw on your battery, is the furnace.

Recharging while dry camping, you have three options.

1. Hook up to the truck and run the engine. This takes a lot of time and gas.

2. Plug into a portable generator. This can be noisy, takes up storage space, uses gas or propane, and is banned in some places.

3. Solar power. This is quiet, provides some power during all daylight hours, and if roof mounted, it takes up no storage space.

Thank you both so much. Shore power it is until we prepare the trailer. First to move in that direction is led lighting.