Battery

[John M]

Hi folks, can someone help me out with batteries. Is it best to go with 2 6 volt deep cycle batteries or 1 12 volt deep cycle for my Trillium.

[Jim Bennett]

With the two 6V batteries you will at least twice the storage capacity (amp hours of draw). If you are doing a fair bit of boondocking this can be a great asset, but if you were hooked to the grid all the time, not near as necessary.

We have the dual 6V in our Escape 19, and have done 5 days of boondocking many times, and have not anywhere near ran out of power, even with the furnace running some at night.

[Thomas G.]

It depends on what your needs are. If you boondock often, use a lot of power and don't have solar panels, two six volt golf cart batteries are best. That assumes you can take the weight and have space for them.

If you plug in, have modest needs and / or a solar panel, stick with a single 12 volt battery.

[John M]

Thanks Jim and Tom for the quick answers. Looks like I'll be going the 6 volt route and going to smaller propane tanks in the front

[Ed Harris]

Neither is better?

In order to get the advantages the other guys suggest then it will require twice as much physical battery.

It depends entirely upon your needs.

If you need the extra power reserve for camping off the grid then you will need the extra space for more batteries.
If not then the single 12v battery will be better and you will get the space back.

They both do the same thing,produce 12vdc for camping while not charging.

[Ron F]

Trojan also makes a 12v golf cart, deep cycle battey; capacity is 150 amp/hours. However, with capacity comes weight, 84#. But it does fit in a Group27 battery box.

[Steve L.]

I looked at Interstate as an example, comparing golf cart 6v and group 27s. The 6v seems to have more amp-hours but it (and other brands) seems to be 1-1/2 to 2 inches taller and take up about 50 cubic inches more space and weigh signifcantly more. And you need two of them to get to 12v. On my trailer thats more weight behind the axle which a Casita 16 doesn't tolerate well. On many other trailers it's over the tongue.

Just for "grins" I'm going to look and see if I can load up a half dozen motor cycle 12v's in parallel to see what that delivers. I'm not expecting much "deep cycle" performance but it appeals to my sense of the absurd.

When I did more boondocking than I do now, and before the Honda 1000, I had a second group 24 in a plastic battery box that I had installed a 7 pin connector on. I just dragged the second battery out and plugged the trailer into it in the evenings.

[cpaharley2008]

You need to calculate your "battery needs" and then determine how long you want to stay off grid. Sometimes your water or tank capacity will determine that. If you have solar it will charge your group 27 or 29 battery early every day, thereby saving you the costs of replacing your propane tanks, the cost of extra battery and the weight of carrying around another 75 pounds. Go here to determine your needs under "Sizing"
The 12volt Side of Life Part 2

[David Tilston]

I purchased two group 24, 12 V, deep cycle batteries from Costco for $70 each. They are 95 A hr batteries for a total capacity of 190 A hr for $140.

[Bob Miller]

Perhaps being missed about golf cart batteries is that they are designed for more discharge cycles and discharge abuse than are other batteries. This comes at the expense of heavier plates and more weight. If you run your batteries down a lot the Golf Cart batteries will survive the abuse much longer.

[Steve L.]

John,

While sorting through your options, and there are scads of them, consider also where you hope to do most of your camping. Solar appeals to the geek in me, and it's an opportunity for me to go nuts with a solar parts catalogue (Hmmm, can I modify my existing tracking telescope mount to hold a panel towards the sun? Somebody stop me before I go too far over the edge!).

However, my favorite campsites are almost always heavily forrested and I'm disinclined to chase a patch of sun around even if I'm hanging around the camp site.

So I went the genny route, picking the quietest available to me at the time.

But even the generator route is fraught with pitfalls, what with conflicting opinions about what is tolerable in noise, expense, camping experience purity, safety (gas transportation), etc.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Bob Miller

Perhaps being missed about golf cart batteries is that they are designed for more discharge cycles and discharge abuse than are other batteries. This comes at the expense of heavier plates and more weight. If you run your batteries down a lot the Golf Cart batteries will survive the abuse much longer.

On the other hand, if your tow vehicle 12v battery dies, you have an extra one from your trailer to get you home!!

[Ed Harris]

Originally Posted by Steve L.

John,

While sorting through your options, and there are scads of them, consider also where you hope to do most of your camping. Solar appeals to the geek in me, and it's an opportunity for me to go nuts with a solar parts catalogue (Hmmm, can I modify my existing tracking telescope mount to hold a panel towards the sun? Somebody stop me before I go too far over the edge!).

Steve

You wouldn't know the Edge if it had a huge sign on it!

Same Here!

[Byron Kinnaman]

Batteries, rather power usage while camping depends on many things. You can think of it this way. We all have to live within a monetary budget. We two primary things to make that happen, keep spending within the budget or get a second job and increase the maximum available.

The same principle applies with power usage while off the grid. There are ways to reduce the usage. I manage for months with a Group 24 74 amp hour battery. Here's how.
Most of interior lights and porch light are LED type lights. There's one two light CCFL (the same lights that's in your laptop screen for back lighting). All them together draw about the same amount of current as a single incandescent light that was original.

The other thing I hear is, but I have to charge my (insert multitude of electronic devices). There's another way to keep all those electronic goodies charged, use the tow vehicle to charge them. If you are out long enough to need to recharge them, you'll probably run to the store or some sight seeing place during your stay. That the time to recharge the electronic goodies.

Now the only thing my battery is needed for is a little bit of light and run the fan on the furnace when the furnace is needed. Without the furnace running I can go a couple weeks without needing to recharge the house battery.
At the worst I've been in (a week of temperatures in the teens and dipping into single digits) I had to recharge almost daily. I do that by chasing the sun with a 65 Watt solar panel, which provides about 4 amps charging current.
Generally I can bet by with using the solar panel about every third or fourth day. Which means the solar panel can stay safely stored away most of the time. I don't have to worry about it when I'm off sight seeing, because it's stored in the back of my tow vehicle. I prefer to chase the sun on the days that I need to use it, if I had it on top of the trailer I might be more inclined to want to park in the sun, rather than in the shade.

As for generators, more and more places are limiting generator use or banning them altogether. As solar is improved this trend will continue.

FYI, We stay out without hookups for close to 100 days at a time.

[Steve L.]

Originally Posted by Ed Harris

Steve

You wouldn't know the Edge if it had a huge sign on it!

Same Here!

This is the only sign I've seen....over my shoulder.

[Ed Harris]

Originally Posted by Steve L.

This is the only sign I've seen....over my shoulder.

Are there even Lenses in those silly glasses?

[John M]

Wow you guys "Rock"...thanks all for the advice. We'll be doing lots 'o boondocking so 2 X 6 is best> Let you folks know when I run out of power somewhere in the woods or a parking lot.

[raddar]

Anybody have feedback on this battery? EverStart 27DC-6 Marine Battery
Thanks

[baron100]

I am a little late to this show, but thought I would share some info I put together in the past that may be of use to others.

I had been pondering the details of migrating to two 6 volt batteries to increase my battery capacity for about two years.

Increased battery capacity is an enabler for extending boondocking adventures for longer periods without running my generator. My solar panels recharge my current battery so fast I wanted a larger battery bank to support my ever growing energy demands.

The previous post about first calculating your needs is right on. You will have no idea what battery capacity you need unless you so so. You will find that users out there vary from minimalists (great fit for small fiberglass trailers), to those with more extreme energy needs (guility as charged). I would not even do this analysis without first changing out my lights with LED lights and spending some time in your trailer boondocking, understanding your energy usage in the field.

A simplistic example follows:



In this example I would want to ensure I used a battery that had something like 130 amp hour capacity so that it would still have approximately 50% capacity when the 66 amps discharge.

A standard Group 27 battery in a Casita is not a true deep cycle battery. It is a hybrid designed for cranking and deep cycle use. It utilizes thinner lead plates and contains less battery fluid than a true deep cycle battery. This battery is not intended to be discharged more than 50% on repeated basis or its life will be shortened.

What do I hope to gain in capacity with this modification?

I used the specification for capacity minutes at 25 amps for comparisons. I also wanted to include in the analysis the element of the recommended discharge capacity for a more realistic real world comparison.



Migration to twin 6 volt batteries should give me more than twice the capacity minutes at 25 amps than a standard group 27 Casita battery.

Lithium ion batteries were considered and look promising for the future but I chose not to be an early adopter of an emerging technology and the cost and risk that sometime go with it. The cause of a recent fire in a Boeing 787 APU with lithium batteries is currently being studied.

The Trojan T-105 is a 6 volt battery and is a true deep cycle battery with heavier lead plates and it contains more battery fluid per volume than the Casita group 27 battery. The Trojan T-105 is considered the best on the market for golf carts because it has a cycle life--how many times you can charge and discharge the battery--of 750, and it weighs 62 pounds.The T-105 is readily available in an decent sized town.

Gallery of conversion to twin 6 volt batteries:
120606 - Casita Modification to Twin 6 Volt Batteries - Casita Adventures Photography by Rob Rupp

​

[Raz]

Very thorough. Not much different than finding where your money goes. Makes you think twice about that cup of coffee on the way to work.

The lighting usage certainly stands out. A good argument for LEDs for sure. This is a good excersize for all, especially those contemplating the use of household appliances. Then again, folks may not want to know the true cost of nuking that burrito in the wild. Thanks for sharing, Raz