kelley15

My trailer needs a new battery. Does anybody make a maint free deep cycle battery? I stay plugged in all the time and sometimes I forget to add h2o. This battery has held up well, but I have dried it out twice. It is DEAD. Please give me some options.

GSP

Wallmart! Good prices , good batterys

Buckshotmckee

Optima Blue top. Enough said!

carcrz

I second the nomination. It's designed so that if it goes dead, it can be charged up again countless times w/ no problems.

crobtex

I use WalMart's, and the trailer is hooked up 24/7/365. I only have to add water every couple of years. They have outlasted the Interstates that came with the trailer when new.

hubmonkey

As soon as my interstate battery (that came with the trailer) goes south I will be going with Trojans. Optima batteries are okay but they do not have as good ratings as the Trojans do. Go over to RV.net. They have many many discussions about trailer batteries and how walmart/optima deep cycle batteries are not that good.

Hub

Jezzhuntin

I third the Optima. I run one in my camper and two in my boat. all three are 3 yrs old. I have the same problem you do. I got tired of replacing batteries every 2 yrs.

not sure about the rating junk, I just know they work. anyway, when drained completely they can be recharged back to 100%, unlike errrr the others. but I know some will disagree

wildwood2500

I went with 2 6 volt golf cart batts, more volts and lost longer

hamilton71801

This seems to be the way to go. Only problem I can think of is if you have limited space.

ptgarcia

Once my Interstate fails I'll be going with (2) Trojan 6-volt batteries. My golf cart guy has a nice selection at his shop. I have 6 of them in my cart and they really handle the abuse quite well.

bkrukow

I was going to start a new subject but this one is close enough to my question that I will just put it here. Would it be ok to put 2 12 Volt optimas on instead of 2 6 volt batteries? I Boondock in Colorado for 7-10 days at time and I have a invertor style generator but I dont want to run it all nite to power the funace blower fan. This year the factory batterie ran the furnace all nite the first few nites then it wouldent take enough charge after that to make it till dawn with out dying. I woke up a few times to the alarms going off because the batterie was dead. I got sick of getting up and starting the generator to make it the rest of the way threw the nite. I know the blower fan draws a good amount of juice so I want all the reserve capacity I can get. Whats the best bet to run the furnace all nite withought having to get up and start the generator. For what its worth the furnace runs a lot at nite because it drops down to the lower 40s or uper 30s at nite in August where we go, so I need a lot of juice. I run the generator to recharge the batterie every morning and again at nite when we get back from riding, and only run the furnace at nite.

2500Ram

In a word Yes. You just wire the positive to positive and negative to negative and you still only produce 12 volts with the 2 batteries. When you switch to 6v much better for dry camping you wire just the opposite, positive to negative to create 12v with the 2 batteries. Use a good gauge wire between the 2 batteries 6-8 gauge and your set, if you use a smaller gauge wire your not getting the full effect from both batteries, your mainly running on one battery and then the other battery will slowly recharge the other, ask me how I know this from the stock wiring, but even with 2 12v batteries your not going to make 10 days dry camping with only a furnace running at night. I'm sure you have a fridge, running even on propane it still draws battery plus all the other devices, clock radio, Co2 detector and smoke detector, water pump etc.

Jeff in TD

bkrukow

From your description I don't think you are going to gain much by switching from 2 6v's to two Optima's. A few days use and running the furnace at night will kill a pair of either.

I think it's more of an issue of the batteries not being brought back to full charge. The cheap-o converter/charger that comes in most RV's will take many hours to bring a pair of batteries up from even a slight discharge, and though you said you ran the generator, I'd bet it only ran long enough to get a surface charge (that read more charged on the monitor, but in reality didn't do much).

I would guess that it would take more than 6 hours of generator time every day for the batteries to keep up with the furnace. Once they get drained to the point that it sets off alarms (usually around 10.5), I wouldn't be surprised if it took more than 24 or 36 hours of generator time to bring them to full charge (using one of the cheap converter/chargers).

If you didn't want to run the generator that long, I'd think about one of the smart 3 stage converters, or if you don't mind spending the money, a couple hundred watts of solar pannels and a good controller...

bkrukow

Ok I was not real clear on my first post. The toy hauler only has one factory batterie. I think its a megatron. You mentioned buying a 3 stage charger/inverter for it, its already got one from the factory. I ran the generator for aproxamatly 2-2 1/2 hours a day but I supose as stated that probobly was not long enough to get a full charge even with the 3 stage charger. I realy dont wana have to run the generator all nite if at all posible. Would 2 6 volt batteries have more reserve capacity than 2 good optimas? I would think they may charge faster but I am not electricaly inclined at all so I am just geussing.

Jeff in TD

Whoops, I guess I misread your post. I thought you had 2 6v batteries and were hoping that 2 Optimas would solve your problem. Anyhow, I lean toward 6v Trojans myself, but from people I've talked to the Optimas also perform well. I would guess there wouldn't be much of a difference in how fast they would recharge?

You said your single battery will run what you want for a few nights... How long were you hoping to camp? If it's only a few nights more, perhaps 2 (of either) batteries will give you what you need.

My Patio Hauler will run 6 days-ish in weather around freezing w/2 deep cycle 12v's in it, but then I keep the temp set at just below 60, and with the separate garage I'm only heating the space of a 20' trailer.

Some of the folks who boon dock regularly when it's below zero run a catalytic heater, but I’m not sure I’d be totally comfortable with that. I’d like to get some solar, but it’s expensive, and during the winter when you need the most power the daylight is dim and brief (and you have to keep the snow off).

Usually when I go out in the winter, we come back by dark or thereabouts, which is pretty early in the evening. I’ll often bring some movies and a small TV/DVD player to pass the time, so the generator ends up running quite a while. I hate running the generator a lot, too, but there are never any neighbors, and otherwise we’d be stuck staring at the walls for some long evenings.