Battery Question: Use the old or new?

[TaftCoach]

I have a used once, three month old battery off my old popup and the shiny, probably not too old, battery that the dealer provided with my new 21QB. My plans are to take both when boondocking and would like to keep them both in good shape. I remove them when the unit is in storage and keep them charged.

When I am going to be on hookups and only needing one battery (this weekend) I'm trying to decide which battery to take and if I should alternate them or just use one all the time.

I know, such a minor decision lol. I guess the decision is will a battery life be better with regular use or only being cycled a few times per year?


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[Gman1372]

Alternate them. When I had my pup it had a single battery set up. I bought a second 12v battery and I would rotate them. Take care of them with a maintenance charger and don't drain them completely dead and they will last.

[bansai]

Agreed, alternate them.

Are they simular in terms of amp hours?

If you ever want to hook them up together in parallel, you'll want both batteries to be as close to each other in terms of use / age / capacity as possible. Alternating the ones you have now should keep them pretty close, assuming they are comparable.

[Mustang65]

I was looking at some pictures of the area behind the LP tanks on the 21QB and it looks like you may be able to put your 2 batteries on top of the frame between the tanks and the front of the TT. It may be close but it looks doable. Take a few measurements. All you need is a couple lengths of angle iron the length of 2 batteries, weld them to the top of the frame.. replace the battery cables with longer ones and you are all set.

You could then connect both batteries together (if they are the same mfr/model/Ah) and not worry about your weekends. Whether you use the batteries individually or wired in parallel, either way you have the same amount of Ah between the two.

Just a thought!

Don

[TaftCoach]

Thank you. I was just looking at that space and it does look like both will fit. That makes life a bit easier.

They are similar. I'm guessing they are both about the same age. The dealer didn't make any mark to indicate the age so I am guessing they turn them over quickly.

[Mustang65]

Go to this site to get the battery date code and you can see when your batteries were manufactured. This site is for Interstate batteries, it you have different ones just log on the mfr site and search for date code

Don

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/...ur_battery.pdf

[TaftCoach]

Thank you. It is an Interstate.