wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Sandy5 wrote:
There is currently one battery box 11.5x8x8
And may I ask why marine or RV batteries are not as good?
A few replies stated:
"compromises like the RV/Marine batteries"
and "marine deep cycle are compromised batteries"
Are they not truly deep cycle?
True deep cycle batteries are designed for lower amp, slower drains. They handle being drawn down to lower points without damage, and generally last longer than the dual purpose batteries. An automotive battery because of the demand for high amp output (read that as engine starting) and do not do as well for low draw.
Since your tray will only hold a single, your basically limited to the RV/Marine units unless you spend considerably more. Take your measurements to verify, but I believe a group 27 is what will fit.
A single battery is NOT limted to a RV/marine battery. There are TRUE 12V deep discharge not combo deep discharge/starting batteries. Trojan makes some amongst others. They are more expensive than a RV/marine combo battery but will discharge deeper and have a better cycle life than the combo batteries.
Now, if you only plan on a few times/year boondocking, a combo RV/marine may be the best bang for the buck. If you plan on lots of boondocking and only have room for one battery then a true 12V deep discharge may be a better choice.
And if you can find room for two batteries AND your current draw is low (<20A or so peak) and you camp a reasonable number of days/year then a pair if GC2 batteries may be the best choice. Newer trailers with LED lights cut current draw and unless you plan on running a microwave off an inverter or watching lots of TV or running a coffee pot off an inverter GC2 (6v) batteries are an excellent choice. Every battery system is a tradeoff, A major tradeoff with GC2 batteries is they have a few large plates/cell for long life at deep discharge. But that is NOT a good recipe for high current draw, to much internal resistance.
And if you go with 6V next choice is which ones. Unless you plan on boondocking many weeks/year, IMHO the best bang for the buck are Costco/sams club or similar GC2 batteries. if you plan on month(s) of boondocking then the cost of trojan etc. may pay off. for us until Covid, we boondocked many weeks/year and Trojan GC2 have typically lasted us 10+ years. I have 2 trailers a 2004 and 2011, 2004 is on it's second set of Trojans, 2011 still has the orginals.
Next, for boondocking my advice is that if the charger in the trailer is a WFCO, toss it, Unless you are one of the 0.1% that are lucky it will NEVER give you more than about 15a of charging current and will never fully charge the batteries. replace it with a Progressive dynamics or similar drop in replacement that will actually do a proper charge with 50A and fully charge the batteries.
Almost every boondock outing we run across someone who asks how we only run the generator for an hour or two and make it through the day and night while they need to run it almost all day. Answer they have a WFCO charger. I pull out my clamp ameter and show them that NO they don't get 50A, only 10-15A barely enough to run what normally draws, let alone enough to charge the battery.
