Running out of power

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Do I think it is the batteries.. As I said, with Group 24 MARINE/deep cycle you have at most 150 amp hours and can only use about 50.. They do not like to be run down too far, and may have over winter.

With Golf Car batteries you have roughly 220 amp hours and 110 usable, that's twice the usable capacity... So yes, I do think a battery upgrade is in order


As someone said.. Your current batteries are like this

Battery
Battery

With golf car batteries it is Battery---Battery--12 volts.

 
v33sonata said:
I did notice when having the converter charging them one of the battery's is at 14.2v but the other is the same. What are your thoughts?

This to me sounds like you don't have your batteries wired in parallel and they are isolated. The battery at 12.6 isn't hooked up, thus is full and you are operating on one battery which with the climate control on, could easily go dead overnight and is at 14.2 because your converter is charging it, but not the 12.6'volt battery. Could be a bad parallel cable, or just hooked up incorrectly. Now that you have a volt meter, check your voltage in the morning, if the battery that was at 14.2 with the gen running is low and the other one is at 12.6, that's your problem.
 
I agree with Abendage. If your charger is outputting 14.2 volts, both batteries should be indicating that voltage. If only one of them is, it tells me that the other one isn't hooked up properly, and you may be running off only one battery. By the way, a fully charged battery will indicate 12.6 to 12.7 volts 30 minutes (or so) after disconnecting from a charger. Somehow, both your batteries got charged at some point.

Kev
 
If batteries are wired in parallel the voltage should be the same, they should be acting as one larger battery.  I do have cart batteries...now .... but did use marine deep cycle for years.  If you want to dry camp a lot you really do need to know what uses battery power.  To understand the amp draw of each of you electrical components you will need a clamp amp meter and check everything.

A new group 24 marine battery should have about 80Ah in it.  So two batteries IF CONNECTED IN PARALLEL should have 160 and 50% of that should be usable, specially at a low draw down rate (<5Ah).  Remember that 80Ah over a week of 24 hour days only allows you to use an average of 0.5 amps per hour.  If your batteries ARE IN PARALLEL (doesn't sound like they are if you are reading two different voltages on them....that is not possible if they are wired in parallel with good wiring) and being drained in two days you must be drawing >1.5 amps per hour.  A clamp amp meter should help you find what is taking all that current.
 
I doubt checked the wiring. I am wired parallel. Also I have been checking the battery's every few hours and they seem to be almost the same voltage every time I check them. Last time I posted I ran the gen for 3.5 hrs and had a voltage on each battery of about 12.5v on each battery. Yesterday I did not run the gen at all but ran the rv into town. This morning one battery is at 11.6v AMD the other is at 11.4v I did not use the water pump at all and used one led light for 5 mins. Is this a normal rate of discharge? I understand that golf battery's will give me more time but I assume they take longer to charge as well I'm trying to avoid running the genset so much. Thank again for everyone's help
 
Hi v33sonata, using voltage to determine state of charge is unreliable.  The only way to make it semi-usable is to check open circuit (not connected to anything) battery voltage after the battery has been resting open circuit for many hours (at least 4-6 hours, probably 24 hours).

Looking at your numbers and assuming you are using the above approach, a 12 volt battery that is "fully charged" and then falls below about 12.5 volts during the rest period is not in great health.
 
No, that does not seem like a normal discharge rate. You either have something drawing a lot of power or the batteries are shot.
 
Okay. I'm going to let them charge up then will disconnect them and see where they are at later today. I will also see if I can find anything other draw on them that I might have missed. I need to be very careful before dumping $400 on new batteries as I just got laid off.
 
If in an area where Costco/Sams carries golf cart batteries, their 6 volt units are reportedly ok and only about $70/each (or so, I don't know exactly).  Two 6 volt batteries in series (for one 12 volt battery bank) will likely yield more total capacity that two 12 volt batteries in parallel (making several assumptions).
 
Just looked yesterday at Costco, $83 a piece here in Colorado. Batteries Plus is everywhere and if you buy online and pick up in store they are $90 a piece.
 
Sam's has 2 gc-2 battery's. One for $85 and it's 107 rc mins @ 75 amps. And one for $112 which is 112. Can someone put this into prospective for me plz. Trying to decided if spending $60 more is worth it. Also what kind of charge times will I be looking at with theses?
 
I also just disconnected the DC battery's a d see that the chassis battery is still powering the fridge and stuff. Is this going to cause a problem for converting to golf battery's?
 
That certainly does not sound correct, possibly this is related to your problem (something on the chassis side drawing the batteries down - particularly something like a big cross-feed relay???  I dunno, guessing....).

Regardless, if you are installing multiple 6 volt batteries wired such that they are one 12 volt bank, no, it will not be an issue.  In your case, I believe you are replacing two 12 volt batteries (wired in parallel as one 12 volt battery bank) with two 6 volt batteries (wired in series as one 12 volt battery bank).  Before connecting them together in your rig, be sure you understand the difference (do NOT connect the 6 volt batteries the same way the 12 volt batteries were connected).
 
Let me bring up another issue.  To get a fast charge into the batteries, the same wiring rules apply to the charger as apply to installing an inverter.

Put the converter as close to the batteries you can without them being in the same compartment, and use short, fat cables to connect them.  The existing wires will carry the voltage back to the 12 volt distribution panel.

If you installed the converter in the same place as the old one, you probably have a fairly long run of not very thick wire connecting the converter to the batteries.  This means when the batteries are capable of accepting lots of charging current, the voltage lost along the wire reduces the charging current until a happy medium is reached between the voltage seen at the battery and the current flowing through the wire.  It only takes a change of a couple of tenths of a volt at the battery terminals to make the difference between bulk charging at 40-50 amps or charging at half that amount.

A current meter installed at the converter's output will help you see what's going on.  I used an automobile 60-0-60 ammeter in the past, now you can get a 100 amp DC digital meter with an external shunt for $10 plus shipping on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-DC-100A-Digital-display-LED-Panel-Ammeter-amp-Ampere-Meter-100A-75mV-shunt-/290940256866?hash=item43bd640262:g:MFsAAMXQTZhR0fiH

Put the external shunt in line with the converter and you'll have an accurate measurement of how much current is actually getting to your batteries.
 
v33sonata said:
Sam's has 2 gc-2 battery's. One for $85 and it's 107 rc mins @ 75 amps. And one for $112 which is 112. Can someone put this into prospective for me plz. Trying to decided if spending $60 more is worth it. Also what kind of charge times will I be looking at with theses?

The value that this industry typically uses is the 20 amp hour rate.  I would bet that the $85 6 volt battery is a a GC-2 in the 200-220 amp-hour range (at the 20 amp hour rate).  This is a good place to start. 

Looking at Sam's website, I suspect you are looking 230 amp hour battery (at the 20 amp hour rate) for $112.  I suspect that is a different group size (different physical size) but am not sure.  I would not spend the extra money for it without knowing more.

Charge time is a pretty complex subject which varies based on your charger (converter), battery state, temperature, etc...  I'm not smart enough to even guess at an answer.
 
My mistake.... everything shut off. Must have been power left in the lines? However the COx detector is still on with the chassis battery
 
If you haven't yet, pick up a hydrometer and test each cell in both batteries after they have been off the charger for a few hours. One bad cell in a battery will go dead quick, and draw the other good battery down with it. The bad news is you would still have to replace both batteries at the same time. 

X2 on the 6V GC batteries. You won't be sorry.
 
I also just realized. Does that mean I would need 4 golf cart battery's to equal what I have now? Of that's the case I don't have the room.
 
Two 6 volt batteries of 220 amp-hours each connected in series equals one 12 volt battery bank of 220 amp-hours (about 110 amp hours usable).  Given the numbers previously given in this thread for the two 12 volt batteries that we think you have, you will increase your total capacity by some 60 amp-hours (approximately).
 
How do I know the app hours on the batteries I have not and the ones I buy? The ones I have now say reserve capacity 140 and mca 690
 

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