Battery- bang for your buck

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
SargeW said:
Unless the tech knows something about that particular Inverter that I don't, I don't know why either. I have had my coach for 3+ years, and the Inverter has never been turned off.  I have a Magnum 2012 Inverter/Charger,  and it works wonderfully. 

I unplug by turning off the breaker at the pedestal, and the Inverter automatically takes over and runs the whole coach. I  would tend to believe what your manual says.

If I recall correctly, the Magnum inverter/charger you have (very nice unit), has circuitry included that will understand when the rig is plugged into shore or generator power vs unplugged and operate accordingly.  The tech the OP worked with, I suspect  was likely referring to the more basic and perhaps older models which were inverters only and in order to remain on when plugged into shore power, would require a relay to be wired between the inverter and the rigs power or for the converter to be switched off to prevent a conflict.
 
This is my first rig with this type of gear.  Never had solar, or an inverter before, and still have not used any of it (except in driveway).
37 days till launch!

This is what the rig has.
Xantrex PRO Inverter XM1800
WFCO ULTRA III Deckmount Converter WF-9800 Series
Furrion F50-ATS 50 amp Automatic Transfer Switch
GO POWER Solar Power Kit with GP-PWM-30 Solar Charge Controller
Two 160 watt Solar Panels
Max power voltage(Vmp) 18.42V
Max power current (Imp) 8.84A
Open Circuit voltage (Voc)  22.77V
Short circuit current (Isc)  9.24A
And without a lie most of it is greek to me.

Any insite would be greatly appreciated.
Solar is after market and hooked up to just charge batteries
4 Interstate 6 volt deep cycle batteries.

Cheers
 
Now for everyone using flooded golf cart batteries, how often are you checking your water levels?

There can be no pat answer to that. It depends heavily on the charging system and the way the batteries are used. Basically you need to check often (at least monthly) for several months to establish your own pattern of water loss, then adjust so that you check often enough to catch any serious depletion (tops of plates are exposed). With a decent 3-stage charge system, a water check every 3-6 months may be sufficient, but older single stage chargers have been know to "boil" off the battery water in as little as a week or two.
 
My 4, 6V batteries are in a compartment in the rear of the MH. Next to the engine. I check my batteries about once a month in hot weather and month and half in colder weather. 

The reason I had to replace my 6V Trojan batteries is because they froze and cracked the cases.  :mad: What happened? Well....I dropped the MH off at General RV in Akron Oh. to be winterized, and some work to be done to it. Dropped it off after Thanksgiving. Was to pick it up before Christmas. They called and said to pick it up. Told them what day we are coming to get it. The day before we was to pick it up. They wrecked it getting it out of storage.  :mad: Said that it slid on the ice in the lot. They ripped off the right side mirror.  :mad: So I got the MH back in late Jan. after they fixed everything.  :mad: So basically the MH sat from Thanksgiving to end of Jan. Unplugged, batteries died and froze.  :mad: Around that time. The temps was close to zero during the nights. General RV wouldn't cut me any deals for new batteries  either.
 
Wow Russ, I think I would have been screaming like a stuck pig! That whole scenario seems to be their fault, they should have given you new batteries on their dime!
 
I'll never do business with them again. Unless it's something I can't get somewhere else. As they are the closest Fleetwood dealer to me.
 
Getting a great education here!  We're on the search for our first TT and I was reading about batteries.  I read somewhere else about wiring batteries in parallel series and was like  :eek:. Now after seeing SargeW's set up and reading the battery PDF's in the library, I have a better understanding.  Thanks to all.  BTW, has anyone used the Odyssey Battery for their RV/TT?  I use one in my motorcycle and wondered if it has an applicable use in the TT?

Todd
 
I have a pair of 6V GC2's from Batteries+ and 200 watts of Renogy solar on the roof. I don't use my rig as extensively as some here but we got in 32 nights of camping this year, and the lowest I drained the batteries was 65% (have a Victron monitor installed) on Labor Day running 2 Traeger Grills overnight for 15 hours on an inverter (awesome briskets!), the furnace, radio, lights and other normal 12v loads. I put the batteries and solar system in in January and checked the water levels once a month. Finally in August, I decided to top them off for good measure, not cause they needed it.  I also just checked them when I winterized it 2 weeks ago and they are fine. So, next year I think I'll check them once in the spring and once in late summer and not worry about it otherwise. I have noticed, using solar exclusively to charge has greatly reduced water consumption.  Your mileage may vary, but I'm tickled pink with the GC2's and Renogy setups, especially not having to worry about the batteries in storage all winter. They'll get warmed up and charged everyday the sun is out, which here in CO is almost everyday.
 
One thing I didn't see in Gary's article and I didn't see mentioned in other replies, is how far to discharge the batteries.

--  For longest battery life, don't discharge more than 25% (i.e 75% full)

--  Never discharge more than 50%.  Discharging more than 50% significantly reduces the life of the battery.

This means if you have a pair of golf cart batteries, you start with about 220AH's of battery.  So don't use more than 100AH and for best life don't don't used more than 50AH before charging.

Additionally, if you don't charge the battery to 100% full frequently, that would be every 7-10 days, (every 3-5 days would be better) the batteries will sulfate and you won't get as much capacity from them. 

This 100% charging issue is one big reason trying to charge batteries with a generator while boondocking or dry camping doesn't work well. 

Charging the batteries to 100% takes a long time, many hours.  The charge rate is very high at the beginning, but quickly tapers off to 10 amp, then 5, and lastly 3-0 amps over the last several hours. 

A well designed solar system, used for extensive boondocking or dry camping, will, on a sunny day, bring your batteries to 90% or better in just 2-3 hours and then the next 2-6 hours of sun will top them off to the at or very near the 100% mark. 

You might wonder just how do you know how many AH's you have used.  You buy and install a battery monitor like a Trimetric.  https://www.solar-electric.com/bogart-engineering-tm-2030-rv-battery-monitor.html  The battery monitor tracks and displays how many AH's that have been used and the % of battery life left. 

Without a battery monitor you are just shooting in the dark hoping you have not used to much of your capacity and not knowing just how much you have put back into the battery. 
 
We wanted to go with two 6V batteries and they wouldn't fit in the box.  After measuring, I was able to go from a size 24 to a size 31 @ 12V.  The cost difference was little and there is a lot more lead.  Next summer I hope to build a metal battery rack.  If you look around on YouTube you'll find a vid where a guy set up 6 Trojan batteries.  Wow a lot of power, but 450# and a thousand bucks worth!
Good luck.
 
Gizmo said:
If I recall correctly, the Magnum inverter/charger you have (very nice unit), has circuitry included that will understand when the rig is plugged into shore or generator power vs unplugged and operate accordingly.  The tech the OP worked with, I suspect  was likely referring to the more basic and perhaps older models which were inverters only and in order to remain on when plugged into shore power, would require a relay to be wired between the inverter and the rigs power or for the converter to be switched off to prevent a conflict.

Gizmo is correct. That model inverter (very nice, indeed!) has a built-in transfer switch. An automatic transfer switch to be more specific, or ATS. This detects shore power and switches over to battery when no shore power is present. Shore power is the default selection. Your inverter must be on for the ATS to function. They used to say not to turn the inverter on when connected to shore power on the older stuff because it would "back feed" into the shore connection but you don't have to worry about that with your setup.

The battery that I would recommend the highest is the Fullriver 6V AGM. They are very nicely priced at just above $1/Ah and have a 7yr warranty.
 
General RV is a mess. We have had nothing but issues there as well. Had to schedule an appointment to pick up unit. The day we went to pick up our unit they did not have the unit prepped, the battery was DOA, and things they were supposed to have fixed were not.

Its nothing but a sales factory there. They goal is to turn and burn as many units as they can, without any level of customer service after you sign the paper work.

Avoid at all cost!
 
Which General RV was that (They have several stores)  My experience has been a bit mixed.  They screwed me at the time of sales it appears.. But that's another matter.

Only service complaints are the drip line on the Dometic Fridge.. But that one is almost funny.
And the Brake system install.. They messed up a piece of unneeded under dash trim, jamed the brake pedal arm and cost me a brake job WITH rotors... I tore the panel out and trashed it, As I said, not needed.
(It is supposed to be extended out via one of the vent holes in the outer fridge cover.. They did not do that.... Twice... And the 2nd time the technician assured me he ALWAYS did that (not).. Wixom store.

Some of their stores are diffidently better than others.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,224
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom