Battery Replacement

[Kahoneys]

How often do you have to replace your RV batteries? I am in year 3 and mine are shot. I am thinking of just replacing with some deep cell marine for we do not boondock and will be plugged in most of the year?

 

[Bookemdanno]

I replaced mine with 3 blue top optima's (Marine/RV) a couple years ago. They've held up great so far...I'm in same boat as you...we don't boondock.

 

[jamaddox]

I replaced mine with 3 blue top optima's (Marine/RV) a couple years ago. They've held up great so far...I'm in same boat as you...we don't boondock.

Which Optima did you get and do you need a special charging profile since it is AGM. And funny you should say ‘boat’

 

[oldmanAZ]

How often do you have to replace your RV batteries? I am in year 3 and mine are shot. I am thinking of just replacing with some deep cell marine for we do not boondock and will be plugged in most of the year?

Do you have more than 1 battery in your RV? If you don't boondock, why do you need more than 1, or am I missing something here?

IMO, the major reason RV batteries die, is due to being servery discharged too often. If you can't leave your RV plugged in, or have it charged by solar, when it isn't being used then disconnecting the battery is the best idea to keep the batteries from being discharged.

 

[edatlanta]

I have been using 2 Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries wired in series since 2010. They are plugged in all the time since I full time except for a couple of weeks a year when I volunteer at Talladega. After 8 years full time use I had to replace them this past October and yes with two more T-105's. If it ain't broke.....Go with what works. I did put the Trojan watering system on the new ones to make it quick and easy to add water every six months.

 

[Bookemdanno]

Which Optima did you get and do you need a special charging profile since it is AGM. And funny you should say ‘boat’

I have these: https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...GPAMTDDKv8quS6CKSRaIv84-9Wzlm4qxoC2DYQAvD_BwE

But I did not pay anywhere near that price!

 

[jbrnigan]

Deep cycle from Wally World

 

[Kahoneys]

Do you have more than 1 battery in your RV? If you don't boondock, why do you need more than 1, or am I missing something here?

When we bought our 377 the dealer installed 2 batteries and with our residential fridge I assume that we should have 2 while traveling.

 

[DonaandDon]

Dealer installed only one battery in mine when purchased. Had the low charge alarm going off on the first travel. Reread the manuals slower the second time and found the manufacture recommends two (minimum) for the residential fridge. Asked why they only put one battery? Their response was they could put more.... Well at a cost of $175 each I'm glad they didn't. They did supply enough cables to install two more... I don't have the alarm now after adding two more batteries, 10k miles and two years...

 

[Jagiven]

It makes sense to have two batteries, if your using the inverter.

Honesty if you do not boondock, 1 or 2 cheap group 27 deep cycle batteries, should be fine.

As for battery life, usually if they are well maintained and not abused, I would expect 6+ years out of a battery. Wet acid batteries like the dealer installed, do require the fluid levels checked periodically. ONLY add DISTILLED WATER when needed. Try to never let the batteries fall under 50% aka 12v charge. Every time you do it shortens the battery life.

 

[oldmanAZ]

Do you have more than 1 battery in your RV? If you don't boondock, why do you need more than 1, or am I missing something here?

When we bought our 377 the dealer installed 2 batteries and with our residential fridge I assume that we should have 2 while traveling.

Ah ha - didn't know you had a residential fridge!
Residential fridges and the 12v power they need has been a topic on this site. Hopefully you'll find what you need to know from others with a residential fridge.

 

[Siamese]

For the the way you use your battery(s), I would say ditto to Walmart deep discharge. No need to overthink it, and one will be just fine.

Three years is a bit of a premature death. You should get double that, or maybe more. Most of it comes down to care. Keeping water levels up, avoiding deep discharge, and not allowing the battery to become discharged without immediately recharging it. I think the latter is the biggest cause of failure.

Make sure you disconnect your battery when you store your trailer (not hooked to power) for more than a day, and if it's going to sit for months, take the battery home and charge it occasionally and/or put it on a trickle charger.

 

[Crossingover]

Regardless of the battery type/cost you decide on, the important thing is to eliminate parasitic drains when stored and keep it charged. If keeping it plugged in for maintenance charge is impractical, then get a solar setup to do it for you. I can't speak enough about the importance of keeping the battery charge maintained when not being used. Goes a huge way in preserving their life!

 

[William_Tell46]

Even with 2 new 12 volt interstates.. my fridge and inverter pull my 2 batteries down more than 50% in a 6 to 8 hour driving day. And no my truck alternator doesn’t keep up with that demand( I may go to a 200 amp truck alternator because of this problem) .. if I had to do it over I would of gone with 2 /6 volt golf cart batteries. And that with nothing on but a PRE COOLED refrigerator/freezer going down the road.

 

[William_Tell46]

BTW on my bass boats and all their high falutin’ battery charging systems.. most of the guys in our club.. get 2 to 3 years use out of our deep cycles. Rather we use them multitimes a month or just a few a year. And yes that’s with storing them indoors over our winters. If there on year 3 plus.. we call it “living on borrowed time “.

My 2 cents worth of using deep cycle batteries for over 30 years.

 

[JimD]

Chances are the wiring from your truck to trailer doesn't have the gauge wire required for the task. I don't have a fridge that requires 120 volt while going down the road, thank goodness. Your inverter feeding the fridge will indeed pull big power from the batteries.

I have a voltage/current monitor in my motor home. When I run my inverter for my Direct TV, it pulls almost 10 amps for the TV/box/dish. A fridge will pull a great deal more.

A very crude rule of thumb for an inverter powering something is to see what an item draws in amps and then multiplying it by 10 to get what will be coming from the battery. The formula for power is volts times amps. So, if the output of 120 volts is say 5 amps the 12 volt input needed would be 50 amps. Input is 12x50=600 watts. Output would be 120x5=600 watts. An inverter is basically a step up transformer. To get power out you need big power in. No free ride here!

I bought a Lance camper 25 years ago which had a 3 way fridge that would use 12 volt power while driving. I was required to run 8 gauge wire, at the minimum, from the truck to the socket. I have no idea what gauge wiring your truck uses for a trailer connector. A bigger alternator won't help if the wire is too small. My truck had a 130 amp alternator and it worked fine.

 

[Marine71-76]

Our dealer installed 2 batteries specifically because of the residential fridge. The 1st year out, we had to leave the unit at a shop overnight because of a wiring fault issue. The batteries were dead the next morning. After that we purchased 2 additional batteries and have not had an issue. We have gone down the night before and started the fridge with no problems. Last year we added a generator in case we wanted to boondock or while traveling, pulling over into rest areas.

We do turn off the batteries while it is parked.

 

[Mustang65]

.... And no my truck alternator doesn’t keep up with that demand( I may go to a 200 amp truck alternator because of this problem) .. if I had to do it over I would of gone with 2 /6 volt golf cart batteries.

Going to the 200+ amp alternator will be of no use, unless you change out the wire that goes from the TT plug on the back of the TV to the TV's charging system. With the newer Ford trucks, they run the charging line through a few micro-controller controlled circuits. These controllers may limit the amount of current being provided to the connector. Not sure as to what the other mfr's do as far as charging systems.

On the older trucks you could run a direct (fused) line from the battery to the TT connector on the back of the truck. Since there are micro-controllers in the circuit that monitor voltage/amps, that may not be possible or advised, without causing some errors in the TV's operating system. As Ford says, "The 12Volt supply to the TT is not for charging, it is for supplying 12Volts to the TT".

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