battery upgrade...

[Tod Osier]

currently we have 2 group 24 deep cycle batteries on the tongue. They need replaced and are no longer holding a charge. I'm thinking of going up in size since I've never been happy with the rate of drain with the group 24s, maybe 27, 29...

I need to see what will fit on the tongue, I feel like physical space on our t-1950 may be limiting, I'll need to move/modify one of the supports. This is for boondocking, we have a generator to charge batteries, but don't want to run the generator as much as we have had to. As a side note, we upgraded out convertor to a powermax 75 Amp 4-Stage Main Board Replacement from the WFCO 55 amp when we had a failure.

Anyone have any comments on the likely gain in going up in size?

[MACK C-85]

With a shorter trailer, be careful of your tongue weight. Other than the "will they fit question". You shouldn't have any problem with your "system" with bigger batteries.

[Tod Osier]

Originally Posted by MACK C-85

With a shorter trailer, be careful of your tongue weight. Other than the "will they fit question". You shouldn't have any problem with your "system" with bigger batteries.

Yes, I'll be keeping that in mind.... As of now we have 2 30 pound tanks on the trailer and I'll happily go down to 2 20s to offset weight, since we never seem to get low on propane and can easily refill on the road.

[mainah]

Two 24 should give you 160 AH That should be more than enough for a weekend unless you are trying to run a microwave with an inverter etc. I can go about 5 days with two 24's before I need to charge them or indefinitely in the summer with my 100 solar hooked up. granted I have gone to great pains to reduce my power demands.

[Tod Osier]

Originally Posted by mainah

Two 24 should give you 160 AH That should be more than enough for a weekend unless you are trying to run a microwave with an inverter etc. I can go about 5 days with two 24's before I need to charge them or indefinitely in the summer with my 100 solar hooked up. granted I have gone to great pains to reduce my power demands.

No inverter use, all LED. Yes a weekend is fine, but the batteries are dead and the trips we do are often a lot longer than weekend between hookups. Furnace really draws too, seems to only take a night within minimal use when it is cold to put a hurting on the group 24s.

Mainly I'm thinking out loud if the increased AH are going to help keep the batteries from being drawn down to where they are really drained.

[mainah]

The furnace does use a great deal of power that is a killer I can do maybe two days of heat. The problem you are going to run into is size and weight the difference between a 24 and a 27 is not a big jump so to really gain any thing would be to go to a 29 they are bigger and a good 20# heavier per battery. If you camp in the cold weather a lot I would invest in a small generator 1500-2000 watts it is some thing you could run during the day to charge the batteries and let them take care of the heat at night. I have 50 amp connectors on my camper batteries and a connector on my truck mostly I use them for my ham radio gear but in a pinch I can connect to the truck to charge the camper batteries It's not the most efficient charging system using a 240 HP engine to charge batteries but it does work. The TV plug can be used to charge the batteries but if you really want to charge them a direct connect is the best.

[Tod Osier]

Have a Yamaha 2400I and can charge. The issue is that I get on a deficit and it takes hours and hours of generator running to get the batteries back and even then they are not on full charge and are back in the danger zone (really discharged) quickly. I guess that I'm hoping to have enough reserve to put that scenario off some. The last thing I want to do is run a generator, even if really quiet, for hours and hours to get the batteries back. The new convertor should help too. Solar sounds like something I need to look into.


What do you mean when you say 100 solar?

[Tod Osier]

Originally Posted by Tod Osier

Have a Yamaha 2400I and can charge. The issue is that I get on a deficit and it takes hours and hours of generator running to get the batteries back and even then they are not on full charge and are back in the danger zone (really discharged) quickly. I guess that I'm hoping to have enough reserve to put that scenario off some. The last thing I want to do is run a generator, even if really quiet, for hours and hours to get the batteries back. The new convertor should help too. Solar sounds like something I need to look into.


What do you mean when you say 100 solar?

I did some reading on solar, I'm assuming you have a 100 Watt panel.

I'm wondering about staying with group 24s and adding a panel. HAve to do some more reading.

[mainah]

If you have an older style converter charger they really are poor chargers a new modern one will do a far better job. The old chargers did some where between 3 to 10 amps most modern ones are some thing in the 35 and up range and can remain plugged in with out harming the battery. Have you had the batteries load tested? Solar is the way to go but heating is still going to be a problem. When you need the heat the days are shorter!

[Tod Osier]

Originally Posted by mainah

If you have an older style converter charger they really are poor chargers a new modern one will do a far better job. The old chargers did some where between 3 to 10 amps most modern ones are some thing in the 35 and up range and can remain plugged in with out harming the battery. Have you had the batteries load tested? Solar is the way to go but heating is still going to be a problem. When you need the heat the days are shorter!

This summer I upgraded our WFCO 55 amp to a Powermax boondocker 75 amp, this is supposed to be a very good converter with 3 level charging and a desulf cycle, so I may be ahead of where I was with the original.
Have not load tested, but batteries are not charging up to what they should.

[mainah]

Some thing is wrong the charger should have no problem keeping up.