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Topic ClosedBattery recommendations
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SuperDudeAbides View Drop Down
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Joined: 03 Aug 2016
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Posts: 20 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Battery recommendations
    Posted: 11 Aug 2016 at 8:40am
Awesome thanks. My only experience with deep cycle batteries is on my boat, and with stereo playing and what not I have used up a reasonable amount of battery power. I'll probably just stick with the 2 deep cycles and solar and see how it goes. 
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Mojave1 View Drop Down
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Posts: 33 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2016 at 7:32pm
12 volt battery groups to choose from are (smaller to larger) 24, 27, 29, & 31. For a single battery setup, eventually, I was thinking I'd go with a group 29 (about $100 at Walmart). Previous trailer had two group 24s. Never ran out of power dry camping, but I hated replacing them every 4-5 years due to cost.

This is an older post... Not disagreeing with anything previously said. Just wanted to attach other options in case someone looked it up.
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Shelpod View Drop Down
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Posts: 74 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2016 at 7:15pm
Invest in some solar panels and two deep cycle 6 volt batteries.  We were recently out boondocking with our pod for 5 days and still had 90% on our batteries when we left the site. Even watched some movies at night.  4 bats would be too heavy and hard to mount.
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Posts: 82 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2016 at 6:25pm
Batteries are heavy, four would be close to the 200 lb mark or more.  That's a lot of extra weight on the trailer and toung weight on the TV.
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furpod View Drop Down
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Joined: 25 Jul 2011
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Posts: 6128 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2016 at 4:38pm
Originally posted by SuperDudeAbides

Has anyone ever done 4 6v deep cycles? To replicate a dual 12v battery setup? I am planning on adding solar to my pod and in the fall and spring when no AC is required do some boondocking on battery and propane. I had considered doing this but have not personally seen or done it. I do have dual 12V batteries with a kill switch set up in my boat. 
Just wondering if anyone has used this option (4 6V batteries in series / parallel) .
Thanks!


Where would you put them, and how long do you want to stay off grid anyways? We did 12 days on our dual 12v's.. figure we could do close to 20 on our dual 6v's, if the weather is right. If you have solar to recharge the batteries, even if it's not a full charge everyday, you can stay out an awfully long time.. We try to do a lot of spring/fall trips.
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SuperDudeAbides View Drop Down
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Posts: 20 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2016 at 3:07pm
Has anyone ever done 4 6v deep cycles? To replicate a dual 12v battery setup? I am planning on adding solar to my pod and in the fall and spring when no AC is required do some boondocking on battery and propane. I had considered doing this but have not personally seen or done it. I do have dual 12V batteries with a kill switch set up in my boat. 
Just wondering if anyone has used this option (4 6V batteries in series / parallel) .
Thanks!
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WillThrill View Drop Down
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Posts: 298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jul 2016 at 5:55pm
Originally posted by dr.becky

Yes, fridge is on propane.  I wish that was the problem.  Costco has 6 volt batteries so I am going to get two of those.  We have a generator and run it when using the oven and when the battery was low.  

Remember that you don't want to let the batteries get below 50% charge or else you'll really reduce their lifespan.  There are many ways to do this, but getting a $10 voltmeter and manually checking the voltage is the simplest.  If the voltage is at 12.2 or below, you need to recharge the batteries by running your generator or recharging them from some other means.
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dr.becky View Drop Down
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Posts: 30 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jul 2016 at 5:48pm
Yes, fridge is on propane.  I wish that was the problem.  Costco has 6 volt batteries so I am going to get two of those.  We have a generator and run it when using the oven and when the battery was low.  
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sailor323 View Drop Down
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Posts: 281 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jul 2016 at 5:23pm
Originally posted by dr.becky

Our batteries are not last 24 hours, the Pod was new in April and we have camped about 25 nights so far.  We mostly dry camp with a generator for the AC and oven.  I have very little knowledge about electrical stuff, suggestion on what we need to do?  New Batteries???


I assume you were running the fridge on propane.  If not, that's the problem
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ToolmanJohn View Drop Down
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Posts: 451 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jul 2016 at 5:12pm
Learn to treat them right, like pets that you want to survive.LOL... It's like that though.

  Letting them completely go flat (not disconnecting them between trips), running them until dead, not checking water levels a few times a year during use , can lead to short life times and not very many recharge cycles before they won't charge anymore.

 The propane detector runs of the 12VDC supply and it's always on. The only way to prevent the batteries from going flat between trips is to install a battery disconnect switch or remove the positive cable from the battery bank.

 HOT weather can evaporate the water levels in the batteries. Check them once a month in really hot weather. Keep them topped off (distilled water only, no tap water-tap water has minerals).

 I agree that dry camping usually means needing more power, and 2 -  6 VDC golf cart batteries is best. You may have to get a small generator to recharge the battery bank if you see that you run it down a lot during trips.
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