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Old 07-22-2017, 07:25 AM   #1
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Post boondocking batteries

wondering why our two 12v batteries are down to 60% s.o.c. after only 1 night dry land camping.


we replaced these with 2 210 amp gc2's from costco for $84 each. after charging the new batts on a schumaker smart charger, we went to a full h/u park for a few days. after the 1 hour trip home i put a 100 watt portable solar panel on the new batteries. its charge controller showed the charge level as 80%.
question. is our built in wfco convertor/charger only maintaining the batteries @ 80%?
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Old 07-22-2017, 08:03 AM   #2
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It depends on your energy use thru the night. It's not hard to use 85 AH over a 12+ hour period.

With your new 6 volt batteries you have increased your capacity by 40 AH, so the same overnight conditions will leave you at a bit higher amount of AH left. Maybe only down to 70%.

Last thing, if your converter is an old single 13.5 volt output model, you may well be undercharging your batteries. 13.5 volts will get them to 100% if left on long enough, but it will shorten their life.

The new 4 stage converters will help support long battery life and get them charged faster between uses. The 4th stage is a conditioning charge that stirs up the acid..
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Old 07-22-2017, 10:15 AM   #3
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I would get a resting battery voltage, preferably after a few hours disconnected. The charge controller may need to be calibrated. Compare it to the state of charge as measured by a DC volt meter.
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Old 07-31-2017, 06:40 PM   #4
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everstart batteries

I had the same batteries as your everstart. I only got 2 years out of them. The everstart are a marine deep cell and not a true deep cell. A marine has deep cell feature and cranking amps for starting the engine. A good battery for your MH need the quality amp hrs that a of a deep cell has and doesn't need to have cranking amps. I found some good 12 volt,deep cell solar batteries (225 amp hours) on Amazon for a great price. I wired the batteries is series so I have a total of 450 amp hours. A Deep cell unlike a marine deep cell is designed to give more changing cycles in its life time.
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Old 07-31-2017, 07:47 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by ARFFMAN View Post
I had the same batteries as your everstart. I only got 2 years out of them. The everstart are a marine deep cell and not a true deep cell. A marine has deep cell feature and cranking amps for starting the engine. A good battery for your MH need the quality amp hrs that a of a deep cell has and doesn't need to have cranking amps. I found some good 12 volt,deep cell solar batteries (225 amp hours) on Amazon for a great price. I wired the batteries is series so I have a total of 450 amp hours. A Deep cell unlike a marine deep cell is designed to give more changing cycles in its life time.
You either used 2, 6 volt batteries in series or you used 2, 12 volt batteries in parallel.

12 volt 225 deep cycle batteries are 8D, size. They are as big as 3 standard batteries and weight 160 lbs each.

6 volt deep cycle batteries need to be wired in series and will not double the AHs. It only doubles the volts. Most GC2 batteries are 225 AH.
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Old 07-31-2017, 08:32 PM   #6
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The PO already stated he got GC2s. 2 GC2's in series to make 12V is 208ah of power, or 104ah usable before hitting 50% SoC.

Our trailer at rest does about 4ah, note thats with a 4G router and 4G booster on 12v, so isnt typical. Add a fantastic fan, and I'm at about 5ah. So...12hours, that 60ah.
With 4 of the those GC2s, I only have 208 ah of usable power, So I've already burned about 25% of my usable power just sleeping...... This is my trailer, not yours, but just an idea of consumption that I've tracked and watch carefully.

Before the router, I believe the trailer pulled more like ~2ah.

Its amazing how fast it goes isn't it? I'd get a Trimetric 2030-RV with a shunt if you raelly want to watch it, but I absolutely believe your down that much.
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Old 08-19-2017, 10:56 AM   #7
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ARFFMAN you said you found a good deal on batteries which ones did you get , and roughly the price? To
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Old 08-20-2017, 08:52 AM   #8
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Batteries

Sorry I haven't responded to you question. I was away from computer for awhile. The batteries I researched and purchased from Amazon, are VMAXSLR125 VMAX SLR125 AGM Sealed Deep Cycle 12V 125Ah solar batteries. I wired the 2 batteries in parallel which give me a total of 450 amp hours.
for the coach. I like AGMs because they are sealed and don' t vent off. Don't require maintenance such as checking and adding water. They have a longer charge life. ( if you give them proper care they should give you 6-10 years) I spent some time researching batteries and I suggest you do the same. I was a little hesitant about buying 12 volt batteries on line but these batteries meet all the specs. I was looking for and they had great reviews from people who have them. Shipping was free and price was great. If you don't already have one I would strongly recommend installing a Bogart RV 2030 Battery Monitor. I can't say enough good about it. Best purchase I have made for all 3 of my motor home I have had. Let me know if you need help with installing the monitor if you get one.
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Old 08-20-2017, 09:18 AM   #9
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Ebay $260 shipped Amazon $270 shipped group 31. Worth considering if you boondock a bit.

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Old 08-22-2017, 08:06 AM   #10
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Throw the wfco in the lake and put the shoemaker in the garage for the lawn tractor. Buy something like a Progressive Dynamics converter. As others have said, the Trimetric is a great choice if you want to actually see what is going on with your power consumption. If you add in their SC2030 solar controller they will play together and give you an adjustable Return Percent Charge that is suitable to your battery. For my wet cell batteries I use 112 % setting so the controller calculates a 12% inefficiency or "price" that has to be paid because of battery internal resistance and wiring losses.

When updating your converter also check for voltage loss going to your battery. You may be seeing 13.6 directly at the terminals of your wfco but maybe only 13.3 or 13.4 at your battery. That's barely above float voltage. As twinboat said 13.5 could charge your battery but it will take a LONG time. It also shortens the life of the battery by leaving it in a discharged state for longer periods of time. It's ok to run it down each night but come morning you want to pump it all the way up.

If you were to use a poor converter or charger or looked at you idiot lights for confirmation of a full charge you could only be reaching 80 or 90 % each day. Doing this over and over destroys the battery because the sulfate is not driven off the plates and becomes harder and harder to remove. I'm running GC2 and have my charge voltage set to 14.8 and the Trimetric set at 112% RPC. In the very end no matter what, if you have a wet cell battery you need to check the specific gravity with a hydrometer to actually know the battery condition.

If you start out with a high specific gravity and you do 80 or 90% charges for a few days or a week and you recheck the SG you will see that it has fallen. It wont come back up until you return enough energy back into the battery. When you operate the battery day after day with low SG the sulfation damages the plates. More batteries die from UNDER charging than over charging.
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