2 12 volt batterys or 2 6 volt

[Rhigley]

what gives me the most bang for my money. every other rig that I have bought always had 6 volt battery's but the new one has 2 12 volt. not sure what works better.

[96Bounder30E]

This thread has run it's course!

[EsoxLucius]

OK, what is a "true deep cycle" battery? Excuse my knuckleheadedness, but I'd like a simple explanation, not a bunch of witty, cryptic nonsense.

[pnichols]

Boon Docker wrote:
If you would like some good reading without the cat fights and other nonesense go here for some informative information.

Thanks loads for the link you gave by clicking on "here" in you post earlier.

That link, along with additional links in it, pretty much answers every question raised by the various RV battery discussions. :C

[Boon_Docker]

Cat fights get old when it is the same cats most of the time.

[TomG2]

Boon Docker wrote:

If you would like some good reading without the cat fights and other nonesense go here for some informative information.

What's wrong with catfights? All one has to do is ignore the posts with LOTS OF CAPS and certain colored type to glean some good information from the various posts.

[Boon_Docker]

johnm1 wrote:
To the people who keep saying close this thread and other non-constructive comments ... please stop.

I'm learning a heck of a lot from the back and forth discussions here. Yes, it can be confusing and yes, some seem to be quite passionate about what they like and don't like. Peoples opinions differ on most everything in life.

However, we're picking up our new rig in the spring and I want to add solar. I also want to purchase the proper batteries for my anticipated usage. Since the costs are to high to do everything at once, it's going to be built in stages so I'm learning what batteries might be best for MY situation ... which is ~50/50 dry vs power pedestal. The dry can be for 1 to 2 weeks at a time (with some shade) hence the need for more battery storage and/or solar. I have "quite" generators that can run everything but that's a hassle (hey, I'm camping) and they bother me with the noise so it must bother our camping neighbors too.

Thanks,
John

If you would like some good reading without the cat fights and other nonesense go here for some informative information.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Ohhhhhhh........my poor widdo 2-volt battewies. The analogies all fall on their widdo butts about This Verus That.

Golf car batteries are not high CCA batteries. My 2-volt cells are pathetic CCA vs Weight of cell. Choose one......CCA or (this means a compromise is in order) longevity and resiliance to heavy or misuse. You are NOT I will repeat this s-l-o-w-l-y NOT NOT NOT NOT going to get BOTH with any 3 or 6 cell flooded battery.

"Ooooooo I gots six years out of my 6-cell battery"

Any comparison is simply NUTS got it? An Acme warehouse grade 3-cell versus a Rolls or Trojan 6-cell battery is like UNFAIR. I have done enough cycle life testing to state anyone who compares a 3-cell T105 to a 6-cell Trojan RV battery and claims cycle life count and resistance to hard sulfating will be "The Same" is not playing with a full deck. Any such comparison would be ludicrous.

Different types of batteries have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance with AGM it's Purchase Price and the AGMs dislike of slow initial charge rate and constant partial recharge.

Try to load the potential of a 2, 000 watt inverter with heavier than RV battery plates and you are going to find out it's going to take MORE WEIGHT of heavy plates to do the CCA required. There IS NO MAGIC BULLET flooded battery versus flooded battery.

And dammit I wrote 100-times on this forum about how the plates themselves are different between RV batteries and true deep cycle. RV battery plates are denser and harder. This means more than just "thickness". RV batteries are pasted with SOFTER MORE POROUS paste. This yields a higher CCA and reserve capacity PER pound of plate WEIGHT. comparison between mild steel and armor plating would be a good analogy. "Twice The Amperage Half The Lifespan" is utterly invalid here.

Compromise Compromise COMPROMISE!

But this thread has gotten OUT OF HAND with assumptions TOTALLY ABSURD apples and oranges comparisons and this may lead the original poster to come to a wrong conclusion about which battery TYPE to choose. This is not education. It is pure unadulterated B.S.

Another fallacy is the parallel versus series hoohah. An RV battery is perhaps FIVE TIMES AS LIKELY to develop a failed cell than a true deep cycle battery. Yes a parallel string of batteries can still function when One Cell Dies. But that dead cell is going to CRIPPLE the other battery. Self discharge and eating excessively.

So please stop with the arm twisting, sales-speak, already.

Study

Weigh strengths and weaknesses of EACH battery type

Then decide which is the best COMPROMISE for you AS AN INDIVIDUAL.

This will be my last post on this thread. It's time to stick seeds in it and water, well. I expect Jack and the Beanstock growth after it being saturated with BS.

[time2roll]

EsoxLucius wrote:

NinerBikes wrote:
You should NEVER compare car jars, or any battery that has a "Group" in the description or naming of it... 24, 27, 29, 31, etc, to a true deep cycle battery used in traction devices, sweepers, or golf carts, or as used by some in true dry camping /boondocking non pedestal plugging in camping where you don't pay to park or hookup.

This is an asinine generalization. There are many good performing "true deep cycle" batteries that are described by Group size.

Like GC2 and L16?

I still think solar levels the playing field between combo marine batteries and the best deep cycle when applied to general RV use.

Back to the OP with two 12v batteries: I recommend adding solar will be far more useful than swapping to some other battery.

[TomG2]

johnm1 wrote:
To the people who keep saying close this thread and other non-constructive comments ... please stop.

...snip.......

I agree. For those that are bored with the subject, it is pretty darned easy to move on to the next. There has been at least one page of interesting information posted with this thread. One out of twelve is about average on these forums.

[pianotuna]

Hi Phil,

I never reject a chance to "opportunity" charge the battery bank. However, on a 566 amp-hour bank with say 200 amp-hours to replace, and a whimpy 10 amps from the alternator, getting to 100% is going to take a heck of a lot of hours.

If you have a small battery bank which is AGM or Li, a beefed up charging path, and drive for many hours per day I could see opportunity charging providing most of the energy. With regular flooded lead-acid the user will run into the 12.5 amp recharge limitation at about 85% state of charge. That slows things down dramatically.

I have beefed up the charging path and I do "see" up to 70 amps for brief periods of time. More normal is 25 to 30 amps. But that still leaves me with a long drive to charge to 100%

pnichols wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
There are just two economical ways to do that.

Don ....

I've never worked out the $-math on this, but there may be a third economical way to bring RV batteries to full charge.

For us hit-and-run type RV campers who only stay a day or two or three at any given campsite, driving between campsites in a motorhome (as opposed to a towable) can fully charge the batteries via the main engine alternator if large enough AWG cabling runs between the alternator and the coach batteries.

Only 4-6 hours of driving brings our 230 amp hour AGM battery bank back to full. At least the built-in ammeter shows zero amps going into the batteries after this amount of driving. I assume that if the batteries will no longer accept any current from the alternator, that this means they are fully charged. Is this a bad assumption?

Our situation was like this with our previous AGM batteries for years and it's turning out to be the same regarding our new set of AGM batteries. This way of fully charging our RV batteries may not be "economical" but it certainly is "not-noticeable" dollar-wise ... since we would be driving between the campsites anyway.

[Huntindog]

pnichols wrote:

red31 wrote:
... are thicker plates 'easier' to recover from neglect/abuse?

The 6-volter guys always bring up the "thicker plates" defense against the 12-volter guys.

Taken at face value this is seems to make sense, but it's actually a misleading defense. 6 volt batteries MUST HAVE and BETTER HAVE thicker plates if they're going to last as long as 12 volt batteries. That's because 6 volt batteries carry twice the current per cell as 12 volt batteries carry per cell.

The caveat in my statement above of course is "all other things being equal". The 6 volt versus 12 volt discussion is rarely comparing what it should be comparing ... 6 volt apples to 12 volt apples. For instance, what should be compared is 6 volt flooded deep cycle batteries to 12 volt flooded deep cycle batteries. 🙂

Battery life is an endless debate as there are too many variables.. Just because I get "X" amount of years out mine doesn't mean that you with your different usage will do the same... You will do better or worse,,,maybe by a lot.

But we don't need to have this debate. If you go to the Trojan website where they have done controlled testing of all of the types of batteries they make... They have the true unbiased answers there.
Trojan doesn't really care which type of battery you buy, just so long as it's one of theirs. So I believe what I read on their charts which lists all the batteries they make. And since this isn't rocket science, those same basic principles will apply to like batteries of other makes as well.

[NinerBikes]

johnm1 wrote:
To the people who keep saying close this thread and other non-constructive comments ... please stop.

I'm learning a heck of a lot from the back and forth discussions here. Yes, it can be confusing and yes, some seem to be quite passionate about what they like and don't like. Peoples opinions differ on most everything in life.

However, we're picking up our new rig in the spring and I want to add solar. I also want to purchase the proper batteries for my anticipated usage. Since the costs are to high to do everything at once, it's going to be built in stages so I'm learning what batteries might be best for MY situation ... which is ~50/50 dry vs power pedestal. The dry can be for 1 to 2 weeks at a time (with some shade) hence the need for more battery storage and/or solar. I have "quite" generators that can run everything but that's a hassle (hey, I'm camping) and they bother me with the noise so it must bother our camping neighbors too.

Thanks,
John

Are you capable of using the search function?

If you see that beating a dead horse is not achieving results you can always:
1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appoint a committee to study the horse.
5. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increase the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appoint a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Create a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Compare the state of dead horses in today's environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declare, "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Provide additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

[johnm1]

To the people who keep saying close this thread and other non-constructive comments ... please stop.

I'm learning a heck of a lot from the back and forth discussions here. Yes, it can be confusing and yes, some seem to be quite passionate about what they like and don't like. Peoples opinions differ on most everything in life.

However, we're picking up our new rig in the spring and I want to add solar. I also want to purchase the proper batteries for my anticipated usage. Since the costs are to high to do everything at once, it's going to be built in stages so I'm learning what batteries might be best for MY situation ... which is ~50/50 dry vs power pedestal. The dry can be for 1 to 2 weeks at a time (with some shade) hence the need for more battery storage and/or solar. I have "quite" generators that can run everything but that's a hassle (hey, I'm camping) and they bother me with the noise so it must bother our camping neighbors too.

Thanks,
John

[Huntindog]

pnichols wrote:

red31 wrote:
... are thicker plates 'easier' to recover from neglect/abuse?

The 6-volter guys always bring up the "thicker plates" defense against the 12-volter guys.

Taken at face value this is seems to make sense, but it's actually a misleading defense. 6 volt batteries MUST HAVE and BETTER HAVE thicker plates if they're going to last as long as 12 volt batteries. That's because 6 volt batteries carry twice the current per cell as 12 volt batteries carry per cell.

The caveat in my statement above of course is "all other things being equal". The 6 volt versus 12 volt discussion is rarely comparing what it should be comparing ... 6 volt apples to 12 volt apples. For instance, what should be compared is 6 volt flooded deep cycle batteries to 12 volt flooded deep cycle batteries. 🙂

TRUE THAT,,,, but don't forget that when you do that comparison to disclose the PRICE of the 12 volt flooded deep cycle batteries vs the 6 volts... That sort of ends the debate for most people.