rockwithjason

I recently had a chat with an RVer who uses two 6V golf cart batteries in series instead of two 12V deep cycles for his rig. He claims they last alot longer before discharge. Anyone running this setup?

y22man

Hello,

Yes I am. The battery life is a lot longer in normal use. I do not need a generator to recharge. I can leave Friday after work and come back on Sunday without chargeing. That is with light useage and with the furnice comeing on many times in the nite. I camp mostly in areas that does not have formal campgrounds.

Superduty

I got them too. They work well.

The only thing about them is that it takes a bit to recharge them. If I recall correctly, golf cart batteries are 220AH. Most trucks will only put 30A or so into trailer batteries, so it takes a lot of pulling to get them recharged once they are run down. I highly recommend a large solar panel or plugging in the trailer converter to recharge golf cart batteries.

As a matter of fact, I recommend checking the charging voltages before doing anything with batteries. My truck will only charge trailer batteries to 12V right now... something wrong with the wiring I suspect. The converter only charges them to 12.5V. I'd love to see what they'd do fully charged to 13.5V.

Patrick Campbell

220 AH! WOW. How much do they cost?

Optima Yellows are about 55 AH. So 110 AH vs 220 AH.

duner

only way to go!

Grey Wolf

I agree two 6Volts are the way to go

OTR PU

I've been runnin a couple Trojan T-125's 6v for about six months. I'm on the road all day bout everyday. Got tired of dead starting batts bout the second time it needed to be jumped. I run an Engel 15 refrigerator/freezer 24/7 when on the road. It pulls 5A startup then 3.7A when running. (Thermostat @ 40*F). And I use the Dell Inspiron 8200, (80 watts), and 20 watt printer, quite abit on the road, during layovers, (10 hrs) and restarts. (34 hrs). In the colder months I run an ESPAR D4 Hydronic heater, (4.3A High) rather than idling the Cummins. It distributes cab heat via the cab OEM heater blower. I leave the ni-cad tooth brush at home, but do charge a shaver and my cell phone when needed. And since my A/C quit working I run a couple 12v fans, 1 in the cab, other in the sleeper. Also underway the Garmin StreetPilot III is always on. The Deep Cycle batts are connected with 00 direct to the driver side starting batt and charged from the truck alternator underway, and disconnected via Anderson Connector when I turn the Cummins off. Eventually I intend to run the truck & trailer I.D. lighting from the same batts. I don't want nuttin on the starting batts but truck headlights, truck computers, truck XM and CB radios. So I'm actually tryin to charge 5 batteries while driving 8 to 11 hours. Seems to take care of the 2 starting batts and my bed 2 6v Deep Cycle batts pretty well. That third Deep Cycle batt in the towed unit sorta sucks hind chi chi. Bout every 2 to 3 months I have to have WallyWorld replace it under their 3 year free replacement warranty. Think that little bitty 14 ga or whatever they wire the hot line to the RV seven way connector with just isn't getting much current 30+ foot back there. Only reason that batteries back there is to power the DOT required breakaway switch. So far this setup is getting me by using the truck alternator, (also carry a spare alternator), and I haven't had to fire up the Honda EM650 gen for the 10A battery charger I carry with me. Intend eventually to acquire a 12v A/C but don't know where I'm gonna find room for 4 additional Trojan 6v Deep Cycle batts. Guess that's alotta words to say yes, I'm doing it and yes it works. As far a 6v or 12v batts goes, if one of the sixes goes bad you're outta business, it'll drag the other down with it. With twelves, you just unhook um and you still got a 12v source. Usually 12v TRUE Deep Cycle are more expensive and harder to find. Different than Deep Cycle/Marine. Got some time, this might be worth your while:

http://www.phrannie.org/battery.html

Cheers,
Steve J

Haulin_in_Dixie

Power loss over the length of wire in a trailer. I recently found out that a dead short at the rear of my 50 foot trailer will react this way on the lights. The front markers are bright, the lights get less bright until the rear is completely dark. No fuse blows, no problems. There is that much power loss over the 50 feet.

How much power you would get to a battery for charging would depend on the amount of draw on the battery.

chasd60

I have two 12V Group 27's from WalMart. 115 AH each for 230AH capacity. I installed a pair of 80W solar panels on the roof of my camper and an MPPT charge controller inside right above the refrigerator.

The Trojan T-105 appears to be the most common golf cart battery used in RVs. The advantage is the number of discharge cycles is about double of what a typical 12V deep cycle battery is.

When I replace mine, it will be with the Trojan T-105's or larger. I hope to get a long time out of my existing batteries because have never gone below 50% DOD.

I stayed in Acadia NP for a week in Seawall CG which has no hookups. The most I ever used in a day was about 25AH (XANTREX LINK10 battery system monitor). I used the lights, refrigerator, about 2 hours of televison through an inverter, water heater, radio and water pump.

The batteries were always recharged to at least 98% each day with 160W of solar panels.

SoTexRattler

Steve, get one(or two!) of these in place of your manual disconnect plug.. You'll love it..
http://www.surepower.com/separator.html
It can also be wired up with an emergency pushbutton to tie the systems together in case you left your headlights on overnight...
Shop around their distributor lists for best price... I bought mine for $47 at Tracy Electric in Houston.

Keith

Bart Timothy

I swapped out 2 12 volt Kirkland deep cycle batteries with 2 goft cart batteries from Sam's Club, for my TT, last summer. They were $46 each. It is amazing how much better job the 6 volt batteries do, even though their amp hour ratting is less. Hardest part of the swap was finding inexpensive battery boxes tall enough to fit the battreies. Ended up making my own.

I keep them charged by plugging the trailer into a timer, set for 2 hours per day, when the trailer isn't in use.

Superduty

http://www.trojan-battery.com/Produc...spx?Name=T-105

I was right: 220AH. Actually 225AH. According to WestMarine, they last about 4x longer than a plain battery, especially when they are deeply discharged.

"How much power you would get to a battery for charging would depend on the amount of draw on the battery."

Specifically: (VSupply - Vbattery)/Rcharging circuit = Icharge

where:

VSupply is the supply voltage to the charging system
VBattery is the battery voltage while charging. Batteries have internal resistance, so while it might be 10V when it is dead, it might be 11.5V or more when it is charging from that state due to the current and the internal resistance.
Rcharging is the resistance of the charging circuit.
ICharge is the charging current.

So... you have an alternator putting out 14.5V and a discharged battery sitting at 10V. If you have a 1 ohm resistance between the alternator and the trailer battery, you are only going to charge it at 4.5A. With a 220AH battery, it will take 40 some hours to recharge it !

To get a fast charge, the charging circuit needs to be low, low resistance, like 0.1 ohms. 4.5V/0.1 ohms = 45A. Charging time is 4 hours or so. I am neglecting the voltage rise of the battery when charging at higher currents.

I am considering putting a 1 gage wire to the back of my truck to charge the golf cart batteries on short trips. There is a lot of resistance with the stock charge circuit. Small gage wire, goes through a relay and then the trailer connector. None of it was designed to charge a battery at 40A.

OTR PU

Now I'm totally confused, SureFire and Hell Roaring both claim they invented the battery isolators. No doubt. . .if I continue searching for the answer. . .I'll just find others making the same claim. Not knocking anybodies suggestion or product, just stating what I've found. Truthfully, I know nuttin bout any of this, doin good to get a grounded plug in the wall socket correctly. Keep suggestions coming, I can use any help I can get. Got 4 solar panels sittin in the garage I'll mount to something affore I'm done. Ain'ta puttin out a volt where they're sittin.



Cheers,
Steve J

She's 10k & 25 foot rigged 'n ready.

Patrick Campbell

sounds like a heavy truck steve, any pictures?

FiverBob

Two Trojans will outlast 12v'ers by a long shot. The best additional investment you can make is get rid of the junk converter they normally use and get one using "smart charge" technology. You will then get that battery fully charged but not overcharged. You will not boil out the water from the batteries. I just added water to my T-105's for the first time before we headed for Alaska - - they are three years old. You can take them down deeper in discharge without hurting them and they hold much longer.
Bob