Best Truck Camper AGM battery?
I have been using just cheap regular batteries for my RV needs and they have lasted me fine for the money..My truck camper only can take one battery in the compartment provided by Lance... I want t...
Forum Discussion
Kayteg1 wrote:
Side note - Ford alternators usually are set to 14.5v and the batteries on them don't last.
My other drive is Mercedes, who charges the system at 13.9 -14V and batteries can last 13 years. Lot of higher-end RV are using battery to battery chargers, where you can regulate charge voltage.
Would I spend a fortune on super-duper batteries, I definitely would spend some more on protecting them from damaging voltage.
My E450 V10 based Class C motorhome's stock 130 amp alternator starts out (when I first start the engine) at "somewhere above" 14 volts, and then slowly tapers down into the 13's on output voltage over several hours as I drive the RV - and as the chassis battery plus coach batteries charge up. The final value of the alternator's output voltage seems to depend upon outside ambient air temperatures with a fully warmed engine compartment. The chassis battery and coach batteries are connected together in direct (no diodes) parallel via a heavy duty, silver contacts, solenoid whenever the ignition switch is turned on.
I have seen as little as around 12.95 volts coming from the alternator when traveling with a hot eingine and in scorching triple-digit outside temperatures.
I can view all this happening in real time as I drive via a couple of digital voltmeters mounted on the dash, as well as an ammeter on the dash that shows charging current going into the coach batteries.
I don't know if Winnebago did, or added, something special to make the Ford alternator act this way or if it's normal Ford Engine Control Unit operation that manages the alternator's output to act this way. Whatever makes it happen ... it seems to be exactly what lead acid batteries need for their charging at any beginning state of charge and in any outside ambient air temperatures. The chassis battery is what I buy from Ford parts departments when I ask them for what they sell for their Ford diesel pickup trucks, and the motorhome coach batteries are two 12V 115 AH Group 31 AGM true deep cycle batteries - double cabled together in a balanced parallel configuration.
It all plays together very well year after year.
