Battery upgrade, maybe solar option also
Trying to learn a little bit about battery upgrades including a solar option. I have a 2020 Thor Class C, it has 2 house batteries. Last year we joined Harvest Host and did a little more boondockin...
Forum Discussion
Veebyes wrote:I'd say you've definitely gotten your money's worth out of your 4D AGM's! You've obviously taken very good care of them.
No question in my mind now, lithium is the way to go however it is is still a bit on the pricey side for our frequency of dry camping.
Given a budget to work with for upgrades I would spend the money on the battery bank size, a multi stage charger & an inverter generator before solar.
I am currently on my second AGM battery, a 4D case size with about 215amps, in fourteen years. I have the programable charger, pure sinewave inverter & an inverter generator which works day or night regardless of weather, something solar does not do.
The key link is the useable size of the battery bank & how much you are prepared to pay for it.
We're high ah users. Power the microwave several times a day, along with the a/c on summer travel days with our battery. Based on the limited real estate on top of our truck camper, plus the fact we've only needed our generator for a supplemental battery charge 1 time in 2 years (our dc2dc charger gets a lot of use), we, like you, haven't made solar a big priority for now.
After replacing 2 GC2's with a lifepo4 (200ah DIY; $750) a year ago---can't imagine ever going back to lead-cell again. 1/2 the space, 1/3 the weight---plus more than double the useable ah's with low to moderate loads. Amazingly, we're experiencing closer to triple the useable ah's powering high loads (>110a). 2 GC2's experience high voltage drop under high loads which can reduce inverter run-time. Lifepo4's have superior voltage stability under high load which nets you max inverter run-time.
