Battery recommendation
As some may know..I had my battery ripped off today. Looking for recommendations.. 12v? 6v? A local guy can get me 6v Trojans for $200 each...
Forum Discussion
IT depends on your camping style. But the first question is did you former batteries perform adequately for you? If so and if replacing them is the cheapest then go that way.
If you mainly camp with electrical hookups then any cheap 12 volt battery will work just fine and save you some money.
If you mainly or frequently camp without electrical hookups then the two Costco or Samsclub 6volt batteries at around $90 each are going to give you the best return on the cost per AH.
Most of us that run 6 volt batteries considered the "if one battery fails I have no batteries for the weekend." scenario before we went 6 volt.
I'm happy with my 6 volts. Below is the reasoning I used in making my decision for 6volts over 12.
If I have 2 12v batteries and one dies, the dead one going to drag the second one down long before I realize that there is a problem.
I mainly camp for the weekend, so if I truly had a battery problem that I couldn't get around, I would either camp without a battery (most likely). Or I could run jumper cables from my tow vehicle to the trailer and skip running the heater so I was still able to start the vehicle in the morning.
The odds are ridiculously low of a battery failure while out camping for two days. I believe we have over a million subscribers to this forum. In my 10 years here I've read about maybe two battery failures and only one of them was a 6 volt.
There are far worse and unfortunately much more likely things that can happen to your trailer than a failed battery. It seems like at least once a month I see pictures of a wrecked trailer on the highway. So you are far safer just not towing the trailer and leaving it in storage than worrying about batteries.
Really the worst outcome of a failed battery that I can think of is that I have to come home early from a camping trip. It's not the end of the world for me if that happens.
I play the lottery when the jackpot gets large. I like to imagine what I would do with all that money when I win. But I realize that the odds of winning are so astronomically against me that I'm never actually really going to win view a failed battery ruining my trip as about as likely as winning the lottery. Sure it could happen, but in reality it's never going to happen to me.
There you have it, my reasoning on why I went with the 6 volts.
If you mainly camp with electrical hookups then any cheap 12 volt battery will work just fine and save you some money.
If you mainly or frequently camp without electrical hookups then the two Costco or Samsclub 6volt batteries at around $90 each are going to give you the best return on the cost per AH.
Most of us that run 6 volt batteries considered the "if one battery fails I have no batteries for the weekend." scenario before we went 6 volt.
I'm happy with my 6 volts. Below is the reasoning I used in making my decision for 6volts over 12.
If I have 2 12v batteries and one dies, the dead one going to drag the second one down long before I realize that there is a problem.
I mainly camp for the weekend, so if I truly had a battery problem that I couldn't get around, I would either camp without a battery (most likely). Or I could run jumper cables from my tow vehicle to the trailer and skip running the heater so I was still able to start the vehicle in the morning.
The odds are ridiculously low of a battery failure while out camping for two days. I believe we have over a million subscribers to this forum. In my 10 years here I've read about maybe two battery failures and only one of them was a 6 volt.
There are far worse and unfortunately much more likely things that can happen to your trailer than a failed battery. It seems like at least once a month I see pictures of a wrecked trailer on the highway. So you are far safer just not towing the trailer and leaving it in storage than worrying about batteries.
Really the worst outcome of a failed battery that I can think of is that I have to come home early from a camping trip. It's not the end of the world for me if that happens.
I play the lottery when the jackpot gets large. I like to imagine what I would do with all that money when I win. But I realize that the odds of winning are so astronomically against me that I'm never actually really going to win view a failed battery ruining my trip as about as likely as winning the lottery. Sure it could happen, but in reality it's never going to happen to me.
There you have it, my reasoning on why I went with the 6 volts.
