Battery Capacity Thoughts

[Roll With The Changes]

For simplicity, let's keep this about flooded lead acid batteries. I'm curious how everyone thinks of their battery capacity.

If you bought a 100ah battery, do you think of having 100ah availailable? Do you limit yourself to 50% discharge so you just know the whatever battery you have you really only have half of it?

How far are you willing to discharge your lead acid battery? 50%? 60%? 70%? And is that a hard limit or is there some wiggle room in your mind?

Any and all battery thoughts welcome.

[Justa5th]

I always shoot for 50% but can wiggle a little to keep the heat running.

[SolarPoweredRV]

If you are going to stay with Lead Acid Batteries, then you should strongly consider upgrading to 6 volt Golf Cart Batteries.

Here is why...

A good 12 volt Deep cycle battery has around 105 amp hours of stored energy, if you discharge to 50% DOD (depth of discharge) that gives you around 50 ah of usable energy.

If you install a pair of 6 volt batteries, you get around 225 amp hours of energy storage (at 12 volts), 50% DOD yields 110 ah of usable energy, additionally, going beyond 50% DOD will not harm the batteries as much as it would harm a 12 volt battery.

A couple of notes regarding Lead acid batteries:

Discharging below 50% DOD will shorten the life of your batteries, the the deeper the discharge, the shorter the battery life, it's a simple formula, there is no getting around it.

Lead Acid Batteries need a full charge at least once every 10 days to prevent shortening of their life. If you are out dry camping and you are not getting a full charge every day (it takes 8, or more, hours to fully charge Lead Acid batteries) you will shorten their life if you go beyond the 10 day rule (7 days would be better).

[Roll With The Changes]

The question was about semantics really. I was just curious how other used and abused their batteries. I understand how to care for a lead acid battery, but realistically it's not always worth it. It doesn't take long to spend a bunch of $ on smart chargers and monitors. Sometimes it makes more sense to buy a cheap battery, abuse it for 5 or 6 weekend trips and start with a new one next year.

In my case, I've just rewired the battery switch and everything on the battery side of said switch preparation for a pair of good batteries. The rewiring had to be done first, because the constant loads on the battery side pretty much destroyed my battery after two weeks in storage. (Good thing I bought a cheap one for that fiasco.)

[cookinwitdiesel]

The question was about semantics really. I was just curious how other used and abused their batteries. I understand how to care for a lead acid battery, but realistically it's not always worth it. It doesn't take long to spend a bunch of $ on smart chargers and monitors. Sometimes it makes more sense to buy a cheap battery, abuse it for 5 or 6 weekend trips and start with a new one next year.

In my case, I've just rewired the battery switch and everything on the battery side of said switch preparation for a pair of good batteries. The rewiring had to be done first, because the constant loads on the battery side pretty much destroyed my battery after two weeks in storage. (Good thing I bought a cheap one for that fiasco.)

Depending on how many batteries you plan to use, abuse, and discard. The argument for a quality Lithium battery that will outlast your trailer starts to make sense. Just something to think about.

[Fsalmy]

Although I have watched some youtube videos and followed solar posts closely (and even stayed at a Holiday Inn), I still have little to no knowledge about solar and absolutely zero hands-on experience. So, thought I would tag onto this thread.

We are looking at dry camping a few times this Spring. We will likely be selling/trading our 312 for a Solitude in a few months, so don't want to go crazy on solar. I was thinking of going with suitcase solar and using the existing Furrion solar input. We often camp in shady locations, so maybe even get extension cables to get out from under some trees. I have a deep cycle 12v AGM I purchased for the 1966 Shasta we are restoring, but have never used it since the restoration process is pretty much not happening. The battery has been sitting in a barn for 2 years, unused and without maintenance charges. Is it worth trying to use it and add to the 12v battery already on the 312? Since our 312 has been in the shop for over 90d at a time without being trickle charged, how much life is left in it?

Should we go with two new 12v batteries? Or 6v? While at Costco recently for a tire rotation, I saw some Interstate GC 6V batteries for ~$100 each. 210ah. Online reviews are terrible.

Our power requirements are for 12v lights, water pump and to keep furnace running until temps warm up a little. Use a toaster and a hand electric blender. Coffee is pour over - made with heating a kettle on propane. Rarely do we watch TV. No hair dryers. We do have a Generac iq2000. Thinking about supplementing it with another and running parallel or going with a 3500w.

This may all change on the Solitude, that's why I want to keep expense down and have some portability over to new rig.

[Roll With The Changes]

Most of this depends on how you use the batteries. Some that dry camp can justify the cost of lithium, but certainly not without the equipment to mange them correctly. (It seems that lithium is much more forgiving the LA.)

On the other hand, for the 5 or 6 trip weekend warrior, it makes sense to pend $100 a year in batteries. (I suspect that most people spend that one AA's anyway.)

I'm somewhere in the middle. I plan to go full time and dry camping is certainly in the plans, but I have a generator so I don't need to go three days on batteries. For my needs, $2 to $3 hundred for a couple decent GC2's seems to make the most sense. (Now that I'm set up to not destroy them.)

As far as cost of lithium vs lead acid, if you don't abuse them, you'll get five years out of LA. $300 for a pair of GC2's vs $1000 for lithium of the same useable capacity means you need to get 15+ years out of it. I haven't seen data that suggests you can actually reach that. (There aren't any out there that old.) Its too far out for most people to plan anyway.

[Dick Noble]

We boondocked 2 years with solar (and wind generator). I did a lot of research before I installed the system. Here is what I found -- Sun does not always shine so solar is not enough on its own; use the biggest wiring to/from the panel(s) and batteries as you can (DC has a much greater line loss then AC) (I used #4 welding wire); learn how to make proper connectors/lugs for the cabling; buy the best mppt controller you can; do not use batteries from Walmart. Get the best batteries you can afford - a 6 volt bank is best. Use lots of fuses. Set up a wind generator if you are going to stay for a while. Use a generator if you have to. Buy a good battery monitoring system. Use an in-line amp meter so you know what is being generated. When you get all done with all that, resolve that you are too old for this stuff and stay at nice resorts with full hook-ups, a pool and hot tub.

[SGT ROC]

When you get all done with all that, resolve that you are too old for this stuff and stay at nice resorts with full hook-ups, a pool and hot tub.

Or just leave the original system as is. It's worked for me for years....

[Roll With The Changes]

Or just leave the original system as is. It's worked for me for years....

That was actually my plan. The problem was that the factory setup was destroying my batteries. So I had to fix that anyway and one thing led to another.