Best Truck Camper AGM battery?

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.

More blatant misinformation.
This is for AGM batteries (you know since the subject is about AGM...lol).
"It is recommended to use a charger, current limited to 20% or 0.2C of the batteries capacity at a charging voltage of between 14.6 – 14.8V"

This is for flooded batteries.
"A typical 12-volt lead-acid battery must be taken to approximately 14.2-14.4 VDC before it is fully charged."
Not sure how you get a battery to 14.4V by feeding it 13.9.....
Russian math?

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.

StirCrazy wrote:
who cares, if you have the room to put them in vertical but not enough to check water you can put a watering kit on. problem solved with out spending 3 times the money. just because you can doesn't mean you have to.

Steve

I cares. I don’t want flooded batteries and watering systems, period. If you want them and are ok with watering them, that’s your choice. My choice is to buy an AGM and enjoy NOT fiddling with it. Judging by your recent posts, it’s apparently just one of those things that will forever be a mystery to you. No problem, just accept it.

I didn’t spend three times the money, either. I spent more than the flooded Trojan batteries I was using, but not three times. Not even two times.

Just because “Crazy” is part of your forum name doesn’t mean you have to go bats*** crazy about what battery type other people use.

:):)

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.

Poof!
Nother post gone....

We did gc2 batteries until the converter went out and killed them replaced the converter with a progressive dynamics, and Two lifeline agm 6 volt and haven’t looked back

Buzzcut1 wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

Buzzcut1 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
AGM batteries are design for working upside down, or in applications where extreme shaking happens.
What you do with your camper to require something like that?

It lets you put a battery into a tight space where adding or checking water would be a royal PITA. Mine are crammed in at angle and it was install and forget. No watering systems or any other thing to bother with ever. It's a "Keep it simple stupid", solution

just buy a battery watering system. I got mine off amazon (Canada)for 50 bucks. makes it easy as heck to top off water, I am even going to order a 4 GC set up for my 5th wheel now for the pure convenience.

Steve

you are still thinking of the batteries in a vertical orientation, AGMs can be stacked on their sides or tilted and need zero attention

who cares, if you have the room to put them in vertical but not enough to check water you can put a watering kit on. problem solved with out spending 3 times the money. just because you can doesn't mean you have to.

Steve

Last time I replaced batteries I got two of these-Duracell AGM from Batteries Plus

They're a rebranded Deka battery made by East Penn Manufacturing. Three years now and no complaints.

jaycocreek wrote:

I passed on two of the Lifelines because I wanted to float my battereis at a higher voltage than the specified float voltage for the Lifeline model.

So does lifeline batteries take a special charger?I have a Schumacher smart charger with a AGM battery setting,will this work with a Lifeline battery?..Don't know much about Lifeline batteries and how to charge them..

Lifeline is matched well with Progressive Dynamics multistage charging converter. The Schumacher is fine in a pinch but you would be far better to upgrade the converter if needed. Post what converter you have for best recommendations.

jaycocreek wrote:

I passed on two of the Lifelines because I wanted to float my battereis at a higher voltage than the specified float voltage for the Lifeline model.

So does lifeline batteries take a special charger?I have a Schumacher smart charger with a AGM battery setting,will this work with a Lifeline battery?..Don't know much about Lifeline batteries and how to charge them..

I take care of my RV coach batteries two ways: I charge them through the stock 13.6 volt fixed voltage Parallax model that our RV had in it when we bought it 14 years ago, and I charge them through the stock 130 amp Ford engine alternator whenever the RV engine is running.

I've had two sets of AGM batteries in our RV the whole time (Interstate AGMs for around 8-9 years, and Fullriver AGMs the rest of the time) and have never used a multi-stage charger on the coach AGM batteries.

Since the RV sits in the back yard hooked up all the time between trips, I wanted an AGM batttery that would not be destroyed over time when floated on the 13.6 volts coming from the stock fixed voltage Parallax converter. When I replaced the Interstate AGM batteries with the Fullriver AGM batteries, I almost bought two of the big Group 31 Lifeline 12 volt AGM batteries before I noticed that their specified float voltage was 13.2 volts. I called Lifeline about this and the technician stated that constant floating of the Lifelines at the converter's 13.6 volts would, over time, ruin the Lifelines ("dry them out" is what he stated).

The float spec on the big Group 31 Fullriver batteries is 13.5-13.8 volts ... exactly the range that my Parallax converter operates in. Hence I bought a couple of the Fullriver batteries instead, so that I wouldn't have to replace the perfectly good fixed voltage converter with some kind of multi-stage converter-charger that operated in float mode at the industry standard float voltage of 13.2 volts (which is the float voltage for standard liquid acid batteries and was, at the time, for Lifeline AGM batteries).

The big Fullriver AGMs where only slightly less money than the big Lifelines and are only a couple of lbs. lighter (they're both heavy batteries), and they both have nearly identical Group 31 dimensions.

So ... whenever the engine alternator isn't charging my coach batteries, they're getting charged and floated at the same fixed voltage that the converter sits at all the time ... around 13.6 volts. AGM batteries have very low internal resistance, so unlike liquid acid batteries, they charge fast enough for us on the 13.6 volts from the converter.

To make a long story short ... I could have bought the Lifelines plus a new multi-stage charger for them ... or just the Fullrivers and continue using my stock converter.

Fullriver deep cycle AGM batteries are used all over the world and used to be - and maybe still are - popular in the marine world.