One or Two Batteries

[Moab Happy]

Hi, I have a 19' 2010 Jay flight BH and the previous owner ran two batteries on it. It needs new batteries now. I was wondering if I need to run two batteries on it or just one? We camp for three nights at the most and I have an electric jack that runs off the the battery. We are fairly conservative with the lights when camping.
Thx

[Colorado]

2-6 volt batteries? The benefit of 2-6 volt batteries over 1-12 volt is more amp hours available.

[SouthCo]

Kind of a loaded question. Do u use the RV fridge? Do u use the water pump? Do u have solar panel or small generator?

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say if u boondock you’ll be better off with two...

[SouthCo]

Originally Posted by Colorado

2-6 volt batteries? The benefit of 2-6 volt batteries over 1-12 volt is more amp hours available.

Yep thats another question I should have asked lol!

[Moab Happy]

I have two 6V Costco batteries on it now. I use it for the lights and water pump only. I do take a small generator with us camping, Honda 1000. No solar panels
Thx

[Siamese]

My immediate reaction was to tell you to stick with the pair of 6v batteries, simply because it's a great setup that provides reserve power if you need it. We occasionally boondock, and find that the furnace can use a lot of 12v, and our two 6v's handle it well.

But, if you only run lights and water pump, and you've never had an issue with draining your battery, then you'd likely be fine with a single battery. If you have the occasional cold night and use the furnace, you'd likely find that the reserve power the 6v's provide useful.

No cold nights, and the Honda for reserve...a single 12v would be just fine.

[Riverman]

I like 6-volt batteries except for one reason. If one of the batteries goes bad you have no power. I keep a spare 12-volt battery in the bed of my truck when boondocking, just in case.

[Moab Happy]

Thx for the great info.

[GHen]

Here is another vote for 2 6v batteries. I have 4.

[damammel]

Went with 2 6v batteries here in our 287. Very happy with power available. 4 days with the radio on all day, lights, showers and water pump.

[Flyrotor]

I agree with 2 6 volt batteries, I bought them at Costco, they are worth it.

[Siamese]

Originally Posted by Riverman

I like 6-volt batteries except for one reason. If one of the batteries goes bad you have no power. I keep a spare 12-volt battery in the bed of my truck when boondocking, just in case.

On the other hand, one 12v battery has six cells. One 6v battery has three cells. Half as many cells to go bad. Doesn't it make sense to just look at a pair of 6v batteries as being one big 12v battery?

I could see an argument for two 12v batteries in parallel, so if one failed, there's another one immediately available. Except, when you replace the failed battery, you'll need to replace the good battery too, or you won't have a matched pair.

On yet another hand (am I out of hands now?) in fifty years of owning cars, motorcycles, and boats, I've only ever had one battery simply fail without warning.

If one of the OP's 6v batteries was to fail, he'd still have his Honda generator to get him through.

Heck, just get the pair of 6v batteries.

[Jagiven]

Moab happy, the real question for you, is how do you foresee using the camper? Do you plan to always be in a campground with electric hookups? exclusively boondocking (no hookups) or some weekend warrior, where maybe you usually have full hookups, and an occasional weekend without shore power.

By law you have to have a functional battery to engage the emergency brakes if the TT becomes disconnected.

If you plan to always be at a CG and have an electric site, a cheap 12V group 24 battery is good enough.

If you might occasionally go out for the weekend, being a little electrical conservative (incandescent lights use a lot of power) and not need heat and do not have a generator to recharge the battery. You might be able to get by with a single cheap 12V group 24 battery, but a larger battery like a 12V group 27/29 would be better.

If you plan to go out boondocking often, like to use a lot of lights (incandescent) need some heat, dual 12V batteries will work. But dual 6V would be ideal.

Understanding how you want to use the TT, really helps understand what your power needs are.

There are power drains on your battery at all times. Big two are your CO/gas detector and the radio. They can drain your battery down in two weeks, just sitting idle.

Your frig when on gas, uses very little power.

I have never monitored how much power an electric jack uses, but you use it twice, once to unhook, and once to rehook up, so in reality, the overall consumption cannot be great. It just might be a heavy load when in use. Some people keep their 7pin wire harness hooked up during the process.

If you plan to boondock, I would recommend investing in new LED lights. I do not recall exactly anymore. But I think all my LED lights use less than the power that two of my old incandescent lights used. Makes getting through a long weekend much easier now.

[Vicr]

One important note here regarding 6v in series vrs 12v in parallel is that the you don't add your amp hours together is a 6v series application. (1) 6v 160ah battery + (1) 6v 160 ah battery=160ah. (1) 12v 160 ah battery + (1) 12v 160ah battery= 320ah.


So post #2 is technically not correct since you can have a 12v with the same ah as (2) 6v volts. There are some AGM's on the market now with that are true deep cycle batteries and have the same plate thickness, or thicker, than some of the GC batteries.