176 dual battery install - second opinion

Glass jar cells were common in the late 19th and early 20th century. Pre-plastic days, glass was and is a great dielectric (non conductive) and tolerates corrosive acid and alkaline electrolytes. A lot of the Edison nickel-iron cells were in glass jars, as were early lead acid cells. You are right that they were mostly used in stationary applications like railroad signals and telecom, both of which are dc. Not sure if they were used in early automotive applications or not. I know Edison originally wanted to sell them for use in the early electric cars which were more popular than gas cars, but by the time he had them in volume production Ford had perfected the gasoline car and the rest is history.

Those old Edison cells lasted forever. Exude bought them out and shut down production in the 1970’s, I guess there was no money to be made making batteries that never needed to be replaced🤔

This may not be the place for it but what is the purpose or benefit of going with two 6V batteries?

Jato, I highly doubt you’d get 10 years from the Trojans. The antimony alloy used in the deep cycle batteries allows for heavier cycling at the expense of shorter shelf life and higher water consumption. Since you can’t be cycling your batteries very heavily anyway, or you wouldn’t be getting that kind of lifetime, you might want to stay with what you already are used to and just get two new batteries similar to what you have now. You could leave them both connected on the trailer since you would be getting two new batts at the same time, otherwise keep doing what you’re doing as it seems to be working out well for you.

Just a thought, for most folks boondocking I think the dual 6V golf cart battery approach is probably better because it is more tolerant of cycling.

Originally posted by offgrid Jato, I highly doubt you’d get 10 years from the Trojans. The antimony alloy used in the deep cycle batteries allows for heavier cycling at the expense of shorter shelf life and higher water consumption. Since you can’t be cycling your batteries very heavily anyway, or you wouldn’t be getting that kind of lifetime, you might want to stay with what you already are used to and just get two new batteries similar to what you have now. You could leave them both connected on the trailer since you would be getting two new batts at the same time, otherwise keep doing what you’re doing as it seems to be working out well for you. Just a thought, for most folks boondocking I think the dual 6V golf cart battery approach is probably better because it is more tolerant of cycling.

Originally posted by jato Yes, sorry I didn't clarify that.  I am talking difference between dual 12v vs. duel 6v.