Which battery to use

[newfiejeff]

I have a 27 foot Trail Sport Trailer and I want to add more batteries since where I camp I don't have electrical hook up and I really don't want to use the generator alot. I have access to some bus battery(not deep cycle)fairly cheap which seem to be heavier but are they any better than a smaller deep cycle battery?
Your thoughts.

Jeff

[newfiejeff]

I have a 27 foot Trail Sport Trailer and I want to add more batteries since where I camp I don't have electrical hook up and I really don't want to use the generator alot. I have access to some bus battery(not deep cycle)fairly cheap which seem to be heavier but are they any better than a smaller deep cycle battery?
Your thoughts.

Jeff

[Fulltimer]

Most people will use either 12V batteries in parallel or pairs of 6v batteries in series. Deep cycle are the best but any battery will work.

[Jeff_in_The_Dalles]

I'd avoid using starting batteries, even big ones.

Generally 2 6v's in series are preferred to parallel 12v's.

In the flooded cell variety Trojan T105's are quite popular (225 amp hour each), or if you want more and have a tall battery compartment the L16HC is 420 amp hour each for about the same footprint. They are taller, and quite heavy.

You could also go AGM, which don't require adding water, resist vibration and freezing better, don't off gas much while charging, and last longer. The down side is that they are much more expensive. Trojan and Optima are popular.

What are you running now for batteries?

[Scrib]

I use a couple of 6V "golf cart" batteries, wired in serial (+ on one battery connected to - on the other). They'll last a weekend without recharging - even running the TV for a couple of hours each night, and the heater in the am. They are the same footprint as a 12V Group 24, but are several inches taller.

[ciscofreak]

I just picked up a set of 6V batteries (220 amp hours each) for 85 a piece. I couldnt locate the T-105s but I could find the T-605s (not nearly as good as the T-105s) but they were 140 a piece so I went with the Les Shwab GC-2s.

Jake

[CD]

Scrib
IMHO you have as good a battery as you can get for the money. That's what I have (for about 8yrs. now) and still appear to be in good shape. There are 2 ways you can inprove what you have. My 1st. choice is a solar panel and the 2nd. (if you have room) is another set of what you have. I prefer the solar panel as you can run the gen set for an hour in the morning and the solar panel will finish it by afternoon. It takes the gen set forever to top off the batteries if you have a good converter that tapers off as the battery charges up. I have a 45 watt solar panel and we dry camp for weeks without excessive gen set use. Sometimes we have the TV W/sat. and computor on during the day and also all evening.