Hi Brad,
The dolly skid, here is a semi-educated, guess. I have seen dealers use these when the camper is in a showroom. It is a swivel wheel that goes under the tongue jack foot. With 2 to 3 well-fed guys, they can push a camper around on the showroom floor, it's work, but they can do it. My son and I do something similar (just I use a homemade pallet jack adapter) to push my 2004 T2475 around in my barn. The dolly skid maybe shop talk for this swivel wheel. If that is not it, call it a good guess that was wrong.
They look like this.
https://www.camperpartsworld.com/Cam...landSkidWheels
To your battery questions, you did not say what group size the 12-volt battery would be. But I'll give you some thoughts on this.
qty 2, Trojan T105, 6 volt batteries, wired in series pack a good deal of punch for the size of the battery. The plates are much thicker, and the amp capacity is very high. The cost can be more, and the battery weight, but this is an excellent option if you are comparing this to qty 2, standard group 24 deep cycle batteries.
In the beginning... I did not know enough about the 2, 6-volt option; if I did, I would have gone with them from the get-go. But I didn't; I started with 1, group 27, 12 volt, deep cycle battery (one step up from the grp 24) that then grew to 2, group 27 deep cycle batteries.
With my power loads and no inverter to run other AC things, I have been doing off-grid camping since 2008 and never run out of power on the 2, grp 27's. I looked into converting to the 2, 6-volt option, but I would have to rebuy both battery cases and start over with the 6-volt. I get 7 years out of my 2, group 27's deep cycle that I buy from Walmart. And I change them at that time to not have them die when I need them the most. Johnson Controls makes them under the Walmart label. I just bought new ones this spring for the 3rd time.
We boondock about the same time length as you are talking about, maybe a little more, but not much more.
The real thing in sizing is, do you know what your battery loads will be, how you recharge them when camping, and how far down you drain them before you recharge? What size battery bank do you need?
I have learned along the way that doing good battery maintenance and battery charging habits is the biggest thing in getting long life from any lead acid battery. Read up about battery sulfation and how it affects the life of the battery if the sulfate crystals are not kept in check. I have one of these battery minders with desulfation mode hooked on every battery setup I have, truck, car, camper, etc, when I am not using them. The batteries are always at 100% state of charge, ready to go when I need them.
https://www.batteryminders.com/1510-...-with-warranty. You can buy them cheaper from other retailers, the same brand, model, etc, rather than going direct to VDC.
And I changed my power converter to a Progressive Dynamics that also has a disulfate mode. I never boil out the battery, only top off water once a year.
In your case, I'm not sure of your power loads, but going 2, T105's or 2, grp 27 or 29's in 12 volts "might" do you well as far as the batteries, how long they will last is up to how you use and maintain them.
Questions: What does your battery bank look like now? and does it fit all your needs? What is your battery recharge plan/system?
I hope this helps
John
Linear Mode
