wa8yxm wrote: You still get more for less with a pair of GC-2's from Sam's club.
Best bang for your buck.
Best bang, Less bucks.
The OP was asking about options to increase AH capacity. Many posters on this forum would have you believe that there are no quality 12V deep cycle batteries available. This is not true. One may decide that paying more for a quality 12V battery or batteries and not having to change their battery boxes is a better option. In my case, a single Trojan SCS 200 Gr 27 (115 AH) provides me with significantly better performance and durability compared to a lower cost generic light weight RV battery and I don't have to make any changes to the trailer's original battery configuration.
stay away from any light duty car battery, run them down once or twice and they are junk. The batteries NAPA sells are not very good quality either. Optima makes a very good battery if you want 12v batteries. I tried the walmart/sams club deep cycle battery route went through 4 batteries before i got two that would hold a charge, did not keep them long. I currently have two Caterpillar 8d industrial battries in my rig. 440ah of battery works well when running the heater overnight. They are huge batteries though and not for everyone for sure. Keep in mind that the more battery capacity you have the longer it takes to get a full charge on them when recharging. If you have an onboard generator its a good idea to have a seperate battery for it to start it, otherwise if you run the rv batteries down you will not be able to start the genset to charge the batteries.
Unfortunately the amp-hour capacity of the Optima design makes it not well suited to be a house battery. It would be better to go with Universal or (if you have the bucks) Lifeline.
The love affair some people have with 6 volt batteries I find amazing. With that being said, if you have room for 4 batteries and do a lot of boondocking than that is probably the best route. If you only have room for two than 12 volt batteries are probably the smart way to go. Nothing worse than loosing a 6 volt battery while camping in the middle of no where and having to obtain another battery on a Sunday and the closest one available is up a rough dirt road 50 miles away.Of course you could just cut the 3 day weekend good bye and go home. Not my idea of fun, so I did the 50 mile drive.
David Just rolling along enjoying life w/F53 Southwind towing a 87 Samurai or 01 Grand Vitara looking to golf or fish Simply Despicable Any errors are a result of CRS.
Time to be a bit cranky, bear with me.
If golf car manufacturers could fit much less expensive 12 volt car batteries AND GET AWAY WITH IT. They would. If golf course pros could fit much less expensive car jar batteries into the cars they would in a heartbeat.
If they tried it they would be hung by their "you-know-whats". It's more than simple amp hours. The cars must provide "X" number of holes of service. The batteries must last the longest time with the least # of failures. BIG COURSES MONITOR INCOMING 240 AC 3-PHASE kWh usage. This stuff is important when you have eighty cars to charge. Records are kept on a computer. Every last cent.
When you have a compilation of decades of records from a hundred courses, that have used TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GC-2 batteries, then you have viable data.
Batteries are getting expensive. Golf car manufacturers are like auto manufacturers, who over the years tried 2-ply tires. They tried Chinese tires, aluminum battery cables, 5 cylinder motors, ignition amplifiers bolted outside a distributor inches away from an exhaust manifold, push button transmission shifters in the middle of the steering column, three sixteenth's inch of spark plug thread in soft aluminum. Every goofy knothead idea that will make company bean counters form a circle and sing Kumbayah.
If you haven't read the 12 volt side of life, take the time to do so. VERY INTERESTING. You can look at that and then make informed choices Published 12 years ago but things like laws of physics and electric don;t change. BACK ON PAGE 1 THERE IS A LINK
If you want to maximize capacity... and because of space limitations it would take an odd number of batteries to do that... or if you don't have the height... go 12s.
If you plan to do successive 50-90% charges, GCs are much easier to restore back to 100%... though most converters will only get their batteries to more like 97%... but that's for another thread.
I never do successive 50-90% chargers or the like. I only use the genny for A/C. With LED lighting, a few hours of TV a day and lots of boombox time, my bank can get us through a week with no generator. And this working stiff NEVER gets more time off than that. We're mostly weekend warriors.
I prefer GCs, but don't have the height... AND I can fit 3, but not 4. I have 3-G27s and I wouldn't change a thing.
*EDIT*
OK. Knowing what I know now... I WOULD change ONE thing...
Since I purchase my Costco Group 27s, Walmart restored their warranties and their Group 29 is virtually the same size as their and Costco's Group 27s. If I have my rig long enough to burn up my 27s, I would replace them with three Wally 29s.
Now carry on...
.
* This post was
edited 05/06/12 10:21pm by KendallP *
Cheers,
Kendall
1986 Winnebago Chieftain 22RC
Our Camper (with no payments)
There may not be a piggy bank but there is a time and a place for AGM batteries. IF, and brother this is THE deciding factor...
You have a large enough generator to drive a large enough charging system
To fill an AGM at maximum regulated charge acceptance
And do not have the time, patience, gasoline, ad nauseum..
To deal with golf car batteries, which would not fit anyway.
Twelve volt AGM's would be the way to go.
But there are one heck of a lot of caveats here. Money, not the least of them.
It was pointed out that adding batteries rather than a generator dedicated to battery recharging is a better idea. If time spent dry camping versus kWh used, weight, space, alignment of the sun and moon all agree, this is a better decision.
At almost four dollars a gallon for gasoline versus what .25 US / kWh for utility power this ought to be a no brainer.
I keep trying to emphasize here you have got to do the math to come out ahead. Save a hundred dollars on battery cost and screw up a five thousand dollar vacation. Run an expensive genset with four dollar a gallon gasoline, rather than buy an extra couple hundred dollars worth of batteries, if they'll fit and you have the weight carrying capacity (generators and extra fuel are not light) Park in the full sun and possibly roast because you have solar panels. All this takes a bit of thought, a calculator and a sharp pencil. Don't feel alone, I have had to do this for a living for more than fifty years. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IS ABSOLUTELY SUPERIOR. It is all a compromise. It is just a matter of figuring out what you MUST have. And what you CAN NOT do. Sharpen those pencils!
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They are huge batteries though and not for everyone for sure. Keep in mind that the more battery capacity you have the longer it takes to get a full charge on them when recharging. If you have an onboard generator its a good idea to have a seperate battery for it to start it, otherwise if you run the rv batteries down you will not be able to start the genset to charge the batteries.
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