Battery Advice

[whatimmadoboutmylegs]

Hi All,

I have been reading a lot of the existing threads here, and there is a lot of great information. I have a specific question that I'm sure has been addressed, but I haven't seen it.

My dealer included a 75AH Group 24 battery with my 195RB I anticipate doing a fair bit of recreational 1-3 night dry camping with the unit, and would like to install an inverter suitable for running electronics such as a TV, DVD player, laptop, etc. I have a 40-watt portable solar panel I can use during the day to return a bit of power to the battery, but I realize this won't offset much usage, even in ideal conditions. I do also have a 2000w Champion inverter generator, but the prospect of hauling that out to charge a single battery seems like a low return on invested time, noise, and energy.

My question is this: In your experience, would adding a second Group 24 battery be throwing good money after bad, or is this a viable option for my purposes? Would I be better off abandoning the provided battery, and going the route of two 6V batteries? I get the math when it comes to adding up the available amp-hours of any given configuration, but wonder what people have experienced in terms of real-life usage.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by whatimmadoboutmylegs

Hi All,

My dealer included a 75AH Group 24 battery with my 195RB I anticipate doing a fair bit of recreational 1-3 night dry camping with the unit, and would like to install an inverter suitable for running electronics such as a TV, DVD player, laptop, etc. I have a 40-watt portable solar panel I can use during the day to return a bit of power to the battery, but I realize this won't offset much usage, even in ideal conditions.

My question is this: In your experience, would adding a second Group 24 battery be throwing good money after bad, or is this a viable option for my purposes? Would I be better off abandoning the provided battery, and going the route of two 6V batteries? I get the math when it comes to adding up the available amp-hours of any given configuration, but wonder what people have experienced in terms of real-life usage.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

This type of question will bring a lot of different views.

If you plan on sticking to 1-3 nights of dry camping outings, I would stay with (2) 12VDC batteries. If you switch to (2) 6Volt batteries you will pick up Ah's but you also need to charge them (more Ah's). If you kill 2 12Volt batteries, the replacement cost will be a lot less than killing 2 6volt batteries. Just make sure the additional 12Volt battery is an exact duplicate of the one you are currently using, but if you have drained the existing battery a few times already, I would recommend that you purchase 2 new 85Ah or 100Ah 12 volt batteries.

That 40 watt panel will not accomplish much with all the electronics you listed above while trying to charge your battery(s). You will need to alter your camping life style to a dry-camping friendly life style. Hard to do but you will have to do it, based on what you are working with.

If you eventually plan on increasing your dry-camping outings longer than 3 days... that will be a whole different design

Good Luck
Don

I would

[mike837go]

^^^Generally I agree with Mustang^^^


I actually found a single 12V Deep cycle battery that is within 5Ah of two 6V and 80% of the weight and bulk and 60% of the cost.


We boondock for up to 5 days at a time and are very conservative with our electricity and water.


I carry a 1,000 watt genset and run it for about an hour per day. That tops up the battery using the onboard charger.


So, if you want to spend the buck on a small inverter genset, you can run one of them as many hours as you want. 200W to 1,000W you can run everything except the microwave. At about 1200W you can run the microwave. Bring the Champion to run the A/C.

[ttavasc]

I added a second Group 24 battery to my 195RB Baja at the beginning of the season. Total cost was about $120 including additional cabling and battery box. I have not yet added an inverter though I am considering it.

With the second battery you will have 85ah available without running below 50% charge. I would determine the power draw of the devices in question and estimate the amount of time you would use them to see how much of the 85ah might be consumed. You can get an inexpensive meter such as the Kill-O-Watt (Kill A Watt Meter - Electricity Usage Monitor | P3) to get the actual draw when the device is in use. Plug the AC draw figures into a calculator such as this:

https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tool...-inverter.html

to see what the draw from the battery would be. For now I'm using a Champion 2000w generator to recharge and it's fine. I'm contemplating how to use some solar with mine as well but have not made any decisions on that yet. We split our time between travel trips and w/e camping so I'm watching the trailer weight as it gets close to GVWR on the longer travel trips.

[shadester]

If you go with 2, 6volts in series / parallel the internal plates are heavier that those 12V deep cycles so usually replacing will be further down the road than going with 2, 12v in parallel. However, the two 12v in parallel will give you more amp hours since the amperage will divide between the 2 batteries. Guess that's what you need to make your decision on which way to go.

[BCK]

Costco sells a deep cell 12V that is 180AH.

[Subaru297]

Originally Posted by shadester

If you go with 2, 6volts in series / parallel the internal plates are heavier that those 12V deep cycles so usually replacing will be further down the road than going with 2, 12v in parallel. However, the two 12v in parallel will give you more amp hours since the amperage will divide between the 2 batteries. Guess that's what you need to make your decision on which way to go.

Not exactly true. There are many differing capacities of 12v batteries out there but in the OP's case he has a 75Ah battery. If he added another 75Ah 12 volt battery he would have 150Ah available.
If he went with two 6 volt batteries they are usually 220 Ah. Connected in series to make 12 volts you get the same 220 Ah capacity.

The 6 volts will handle deeper discharge and generally have a longer life due to the thicker lead plates. But if you had two 110Ah capacity 12 volt batteries connected in parallel you probably wouldn't notice much difference other than maybe lifespan.

To the OP's question I would probably just add a second 12volt if your current one is still new. That should get you 3 days if you are starting with a properly charged battery. Starting fully charged is the key!

Cheers