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  1. #1
    Seasoned Camper
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    Upgrading battery on 270BN

    We just purchased our 2023 270BN. It has the 12 volt refrigerator and solar panel to keep up with the battery charging. We had this same setup with our Transcend 200MK and absolutely loved it. I could turn the refrigerator on after the trailer was parked for several weeks and the fridge would be cold several hrs later and the freezer would be also frozen. I went over to storage 2 days ago and picked up the trailer, the battery said it was fully charged, I turned the fridge on and drove it back to our parking area near home. The fridge was already cooling down a few hours later and by yesterday the temp was 38 degrees and the freezer was in the low 20's. Ice pack was solid frozen. Went over this morning to get some things put away and the ice pack was still frozen but the fridge was up to the high 50's. I checked the battery and the charge was on the fair setting. I just went back down and after about an hour since I last checked, the charge level is now on the good level. The fridge is down to the low 50's. The battery is an Interstate SRM-27, 88 Amp Hour, 160RC 750MCA. I'm wondering if any of you has had this issue and if you upgraded to a larger battery and if that helped. Thank you for any advice you can give. By the way I am using the Florida sunshine as a solar source, Boomer.

  2. #2
    Seasoned Camper
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    Jul 2017
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    Near Birmingham, AL
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    You are only going to get 5-6 hours of refrigerator run time with that battery.

    Depending on how much you use it and how much you want to spend, either add another battery (minimum) or convert to Lithium (expensive).


    If you boondock a lot, go lithium - better performance, less weight, longer life, more cost effective in the long run.

    If you don't use the camper a lot, replace your current battery with two (or three) bigger ones, wired in parallel.

    If all I was doing was cooling down the refrigerator overnight before traveling to shore power, I would just add one battery identical to the one you have and call it a day.

    You can get into serious money, quickly, if you over-spec your setup.
    2023 Reflection 315RLTS
    2017 Ford F-350 Crew Cab Short Bed SRW, 6.7L Diesel
    Hensley Swift Arrow

  3. #3
    Long Hauler
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boomer58 View Post
    We just purchased our 2023 270BN. It has the 12 volt refrigerator and solar panel to keep up with the battery charging. We had this same setup with our Transcend 200MK and absolutely loved it. I could turn the refrigerator on after the trailer was parked for several weeks and the fridge would be cold several hrs later and the freezer would be also frozen. I went over to storage 2 days ago and picked up the trailer, the battery said it was fully charged, I turned the fridge on and drove it back to our parking area near home. The fridge was already cooling down a few hours later and by yesterday the temp was 38 degrees and the freezer was in the low 20's. Ice pack was solid frozen. Went over this morning to get some things put away and the ice pack was still frozen but the fridge was up to the high 50's. I checked the battery and the charge was on the fair setting. I just went back down and after about an hour since I last checked, the charge level is now on the good level. The fridge is down to the low 50's. The battery is an Interstate SRM-27, 88 Amp Hour, 160RC 750MCA. I'm wondering if any of you has had this issue and if you upgraded to a larger battery and if that helped. Thank you for any advice you can give. By the way I am using the Florida sunshine as a solar source, Boomer.
    What size solar panel are you using? It may not be charging the battery enough to offset the draw from the fridge, especially if you are in the process of cooling it down, which will draw more than normal amps.
    Howard and Peggy
    2019 Momentum 351M, and 2018 RAM Cummins dually 6-speed.
    His: 1999 Honda Interceptor
    Hers: 2013 Spyder ST-S

  4. #4
    Site Sponsor SGT ROC's Avatar
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    Current prices on a 100AH LiFePo4 battery is very little different from A good deep cycle SLA. I just went that way and am happy. I did change to a lithium compatible converter and that, including the cost of the battery was about $465.00. This setup should last me for MANY years. At least 2 more batteries worth of expense.
    Bob (retired) & Vicki
    Scuba Diver
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    2019 Reflection 31MB
    2019 Chevy 2500HD LT Crew Cab Gasser

  5. #5
    Site Sponsor SolarPoweredRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boomer58 View Post
    We just purchased our 2023 270BN. It has the 12 volt refrigerator and solar panel to keep up with the battery charging. We had this same setup with our Transcend 200MK and absolutely loved it. I could turn the refrigerator on after the trailer was parked for several weeks and the fridge would be cold several hrs later and the freezer would be also frozen. I went over to storage 2 days ago and picked up the trailer, the battery said it was fully charged, I turned the fridge on and drove it back to our parking area near home. The fridge was already cooling down a few hours later and by yesterday the temp was 38 degrees and the freezer was in the low 20's. Ice pack was solid frozen. Went over this morning to get some things put away and the ice pack was still frozen but the fridge was up to the high 50's. I checked the battery and the charge was on the fair setting. I just went back down and after about an hour since I last checked, the charge level is now on the good level. The fridge is down to the low 50's. The battery is an Interstate SRM-27, 88 Amp Hour, 160RC 750MCA. I'm wondering if any of you has had this issue and if you upgraded to a larger battery and if that helped. Thank you for any advice you can give. By the way I am using the Florida sunshine as a solar source, Boomer.
    Draining a Lead Acid battery below 50% State Of Charge (SOC) can lead to premature retirement of that battery. Consequently, you only have 44ah of usable energy storage in your current battery.

    What is happening is that your battery does not have enough energy storage to run your refrigerator (and all the other items inside your coach that need energy [like the Propane Detector, Leveling System, Slide Controllers, etc.]) overnight. You need a bigger battery.

    I strongly recommend upgrading to a Lithium battery (LiFePo4). There are some really good Lithium batteries available that cost less than a pair of Lead Acid batteries.

    In this post about Affordable Solar, there are links to threads about value priced Lithium batteries, Upgrading to Lithium batteries, and how people who have these value priced Lithium batteries like them:

    Affordable-Solar, How-To-Design-and-Install-an-Affordable-Solar-System
    Last edited by SolarPoweredRV; 05-18-2023 at 12:34 PM.
    David and Peggy
    2019 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.7L Diesel, Dually, Long Bed
    Running with 20k Reese Goosebox (Love It) and Ford Factory "Puck" system.
    Stopping with 8,000 lb Disc Brakes and Titan Hydraulic over Electric Brakes system.
    Powering all this fun with 1200 Watts of Solar, two Tesla, Model S, battery modules, 24 volt Victron Inverter.
    2018 Solitude 310 GK

  6. #6
    Seasoned Camper
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    Something about this problem really had me baffled. I did not want to upgrade to two parallel batteries and also did not want to go with a Lithium setup. We do not boondock except once a year and we have generators that we parallel for A/C (car race). I went over to check the fridge the other night around 7pm and it was in the 30's and the battery was showing full charge. I went over around 10 and the battery and the battery was showing fair and the fridge was warming up. Yesterday morning the battery was dead and the fridge was like an oven. I took the battery out and brought it to Interstate Batteries. The gentleman there found a dead cell and the voltage at 6 volts. I upgraded to the next size battery and it cost me $30.00. I put the new one in, by 2pm yesterday fridge and freezer were working great. Checked it last night and everything was fine, checked it this morning and fridge was 35 degrees and battery showed good on the charge. Now we can load the fridge today for an early start with a cold fridge in the morning. I appreciate all of your replies and advice on this problem. 2 years ago we lost our fridge on our 337 3 days in to a 3 month trip. Lost all of our food and frozen vacuum sealed meat and cost us $2500.00 in fuel, food and repairs plus 3 days lost. Thanks again, boomer.

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