Battery Upgrade

[tonyz]

We had some amazing weather in the NW last week, which gave me the camping itch. So I broke down and converted my single 12v battery to two, T-125's which are supposed to give me 240 amp hrs per battery, totaling 480 hrs, I think it will be closer to 400-430 hrs total in reality, but still a vast improvement from my old one with a max of 105 or so hrs!

I paired up the T-125's with a double battery box and in order to accomodate this system, I had to fab up a bracket on the trailer tongue. The other system had a single box recessed between the tongue frame. But a bit of thick flat steel, some self tapping screws and washers, a bit of paint and a metal cut off blade made easy work of it and it turned out wonderful.

I look forward to not awaking in the middle of the night to the beeping of the low voltage warning and fumbaling through firing up the generator to get a couple extra hrs of sleep!!

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by tonyz

We had some amazing weather in the NW last week, which gave me the camping itch. So I broke down and converted my single 12v battery to two, T-125's which are supposed to give me 240 amp hrs per battery, totaling 480 hrs, I think it will be closer to 400-430 hrs total in reality, but still a vast improvement from my old one with a max of 105 or so hrs!

I paired up the T-125's with a double battery box and in order to accomodate this system, I had to fab up a bracket on the trailer tongue. The other system had a single box recessed between the tongue frame. But a bit of thick flat steel, some self tapping screws and washers, a bit of paint and a metal cut off blade made easy work of it and it turned out wonderful.

I look forward to not awaking in the middle of the night to the beeping of the low voltage warning and fumbaling through firing up the generator to get a couple extra hrs of sleep!!

Good work Tony but you should know that your bank amperage is actually 240amps. With two 6 volt batteries in series you are doubling the voltage when they are connected together not the amperage. If you connect two 12 volt batteries in parallel then you double the amperage and not the voltage. Considering though that your 1 12 volt battery was at best around 140 amp hours you are doing great and the 6 volt Trojans are a "true" deep cycle battery.

The weather has been awesome up here hasn't it? Supposed to hit near 63 degrees today at our place. Wished I was heading for the hills but the wife has other plans for me.

[commander ryker]

good battery choice, you'll never go back to the single 12 volt dark ages! no pun intended

[Redrahe]

I upgraded my battery bank this winter also. I went a bit more extreme though. I upgraded to six Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries. At 675 Ah I shouldn't have any probs with dead batts now when I'm out boondocking. I got the Idea from a online boondocking site "rv-boondocking-the-good-life.com"

I contracted as a signal crossing maintainer for the RR for several years so the wire and terminals was some that I had left over from those days. So I only ended up out the cost for batteries around $1000. But it'll be worth every penny to me, to be able to park my rig on the rim of the Grand Canyon this summer for 3 weeks when me and my wife take our honeymoon.

What I am shooting for, is 15-20% discharge with 100% recharge for EVERY cycle. That should be able to get me 5-6 years of life out of the batts.... well that's the theory anyway. I am using a high output alternator on my truck for now to charge the batts. But I'd eventually like to get some solar or wind power on it to help me keep them charged. (Maybe Santa will be good to me this year.) My problem with that is I'm not sure how to calculate how many panels I need and what size I need to do it. I haven't done too much work with solar. Anyone have any ideas?

[ronhanson]

60-150watts per 100 amp hrs is the recommendation I've seen regarding solar sizing.

[Crossfire]

Check out AM Solar's website They have all the calculations for solar panel sizing. They also have everything you need. Their tech service is great and Dale will help you size your panels and explain the installation.

[Redrahe]

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I may not have enough room for that many panels. I will look at that solar sight. I may have to dump a batt or 2.
Thanks again.

[sonicsix]

We went through what you going through now. We have some info on our site that may benefit you... at least save you some research time.

12v & Battery Info
Our Solar Installation


.

[rmgar]

Well, I use a Honda EU2000 generator to charge the battery. It's very quiet and can run most of the electrical in our trailer.

[acadianbob]

Well, I use a Honda EU2000 generator to charge the battery. It's very quiet and can run most of the electrical in our trailer.

Have to agree with you there. I was looking at doing something other than our Group 27 105 amp hr when my wife asked me why we have the EU2000i. Kinda had to agree with her. And she likes to use her hair drier in the morning so we wind up running it for that anyway.

One place we could have used the extra capacity was a rare situation. We were at Yellowstone where many campgrounds do not allow generators at all; any time. So we could have gotten by for 2 days but then would need to move and do a complete re-charge.