Forum Discussion

gkime's avatar
gkime
Explorer
Jul 08, 2014

BATTERIES

NEW TO THE RV WORLD WHAT KIND OF COACH BATTERIES SHOULD IN BUY?
THE MOTOR BATTERY IS A 750 AMPS MOTOR CRAFT BATTERY
  • Please do not use all caps. Caps indicate that your screaming.
    We need more information to answer your battery question.
    make,model,chassis,year,current battery,?invertor
    coach or chassis battery?
  • Looked at your question again. You want Deep Cycle batteries. Make sure they say Deep Cycle. You can get Deep Cycle batteries in 6volt and 12volt. Almost all batteries are made by Johnson Controls so the brand name does not usually matter. Sam's Club, Trojan, Interstate, Deka = all good batteries.
  • Two six volt deep cycle batteries are preferred over one 12 volt deep cycle or starting battery.

    As others have posted, look for the best buy, probably Costco, or Sam's Club.
  • I don't know who came up with this BS that all caps means you are shouting or screaming, but don't shy away from asking questions or entering responses because of it. I prefer interstate batteries, but presently have deep cycle ones from Walmart. They seem to be doing ok, but are only one year old. Welcome aboard.
  • Been on the 'net for quite a few years now...and ALL CAPS has always meant yelling or screaming....a kind of internet courtesy thing.

    OP doesn't say what his RV is. Presumabably he has looked at the batteries already in there. If it is a gasser like mine, (2001 Ford 5-53) he would need 3 batteries. A 12V for the starter (or motor) and 2 6V (in series) for the coach.

    Brands? Really doesn't matter with my experiences over the years. Sams Club has been DEKA...and good prices, or you can buy the expensive "name" brands like EXIDE or INTERSTATE...no matter. Whatever I use, I get no more than 3-4 years out of them. So...I go for the bucks. Sams or Wal-mart usually.

    Series 27 for the 12V....and GC-2 (2 of them) for the 6V.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    When you talk of the "Motor battery" being 750 amps, you are refering to cranking amps...

    However what we are concerned with in HOUSE batteries is amp hours..
    750 cranking amps would be about a Group 27 which is typically about 100 amp hours.

    But wait there is more: That is a STARTING BATTERY, good for high current short term (like 30 seconds tops) Loads but not so good for "The long haul".

    The most popular RV battery is a Golf Car battery,, GC-2, used in pairs (Since they are six volt packages) in series... This gives you 230 amp hours give or take depending on the exact model you buy, and whats more they are DEEP CYCLE batteries. Designed to provide a greater percentage of their total charge but do it much more slowly.

    NOTE: All Amp hour ratings in this post are C/20 (Capacity over 20 hours) rate. Some battery companies use different capacity rating systems so as to give a higher number.. They lie.

    And again there is more

    A starting battery run down to below half full is quite likely a door stop, Good for trade in, and not much of anything else.

    A DEEP CYCLE is designed to go to 50 percent state of charge and I ran my interstate U-2200's down well below that at least half a dozen times in their 9 years of service.. I now have DEKA G-20s (A GC-2 battery) So far have not tried to kill them.

    DEEP CYCLE are way better at recovering from an "OH @**T!" discharge.

    Marine/Deep cycle... is a starting battery.. Try to avoid it.

    YOu can also get G-12 batteries now days (12 volt deep cycle golf car, about 120 amp hours as I recall but Ive not seen a chart on em recently)