battery questions

[Elk]

My first question is it better to use a seperate battery charger when charging your batteries with a generator?

If you do use a seperate charger do you have to disable the built in battery charger or remove the connection?

If I do use a seperate charger how do I hook it up I have two Trogan 6 volt batteries?

Do you use the 6 volt setting or the twelve volt setting?

Thanks in advance I am new to the 6 volt world but they seem to be holding up very well, I am just concerned when I go on my two week hunting trip the best way to keep them charged up, I know in my other trailer with three 12 volt batteries I had to charge at least 4 to 8 hours a day toward the end of the trip to keep them charged half way desent.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Charging

You will get faster charging with a good battery charger of at least 10 amps for the two batteries. You will connect the -side of the charger to the - side of the first battery, there will be a jumper from this batteries +side to the -side of the second battery. Connect the -side of the battery charger to the +side of the second battery. bg

 

[klenger]

If your trailer has a Progressive Dynamics converter, get the Charge Wizard shown in the link below and you will have an excellent on-board battery charger. With the two 6 volt batteries wired in series, treat the combination as a single 12 volt battery.



http://www.klenger.net/arctic-fox/charge-wizard.pdf

 

[Fireman]

Another question

I've always heard that 6v batterys were the way to go in an rv, but researching the subject makes me ask why.



Here's the way I see it, tell me if I'm wrong or if I have overlooked something.



2 Trojan T-105 6v 225ah bats. in series = 12v @ 225ah =124 lbs



2 Ser. 27 12v 115ah bats in parallel = 12v @ 230ah = 110 lbs



If you had a problem with one battery you could always run off of one 12v, but not off one 6v.



Am I missing something here? Why should I use 6vs?



Fireman

 

[Elk]

Where do you get the charge wizzard from and how much? Unfourtantly I will have to wait a couple of days to see if I have a 9100 inverter since my trailer has been haveing the generator worked on for a couple of weeks, but should be done soon.

 

[klenger]

The charge Wizard is available from Camping World, and many RV dealers.



http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?deptID=3&subOf=55&skunum=17298&src=TSC

 

[Peter Campbell]

Parallel batteries are not always a good idea. There are even some problems on our trucks due to parallel batteries. A failure of one leads to needing to replace both. A worn battery in parallel with a new one would tend to fail quickly due to the different capacities and charge potentials of the two batteries. The batteries must "float" and "equalize" at about the same potential or one will be in a forever state of partial charge. When I changed batteries on the truck- two of the same from the same production run, built hopefully the same day. Parallel battery setups fail together. When one fails there is no "good" 12V battery. It would be discharged and weak. The background on this is the battery banks for the instrument buss inverters at a nuclear power station. These batteries get high end maintenance and monitoring and testing.

 

[Glen]

Elk: I just hook up my generator to the AC power for a couple of hours a day. The charger in my trailer has an "equalize" setting; I connected a switch and use the equalize voltage when I am boondocking. I also use two 6-volt golf cart batteries.



Monday, I am leaving for Idaho to hunt Pronghorn--I got lucky in the draw!--then deer, then elk.

Glen

 

[EricBu12]

I just replaced my POS batteries that the dealer gave me... Boy, no wonder I had no length of run time on the batteries. The batt. is 90 AH 90!! uggghh------- just bought 2 6volt 230 AH Interstate batteries and a long box to hold them. I bought a regular car battery short cable 4 guage to connect the two batteries. Guy tried to tell me to use a 8 guage wire..... too light..... I used a cable that has a clamp on one end and a bolt connection on the other and 8" long.



I have 2--50watt solar panels that has a solar panel controller that backs off the charge at a certain voltage. Can't wait to try out the new batteries in the boondocks

 

[Fireman]

Peter,



I appreciate the reply. So 6v or 12v I'd probably be dead in the water either way. It was something I had been wondering about for some time, I couldn't see a real advantage to using 6vs over 12vs.



Fireman

 

[slo-ryde]

It's not the voltage (6 versus 12), the important thing is that you buy true deep cycle batteries. It seems that most of the batteries that fall into that category are 6 volts. In all my years I've never seen a properly maintained battery fail. They all wear out eventually but that's another story. Visit Trojan's website for some great info on the care and feeding of batteries. I've talked to people who spend a lot more time in their RV's than I do and they all say they same thing, once they converted to 6 volt deep cycle batteries life was good.

 

[WestTN]

6 volt batteries...

Fireman,

The real reason for using the 6 volt golf cart batteries is that they are VERY heavy duty construction. As long as you keep the water level correct, try not to run them totaly flat,and recharge promptly and completely, they will last for years. I am on my second set. The first set lasted over 10 years. They also were substantially cheaper than 12 volt batteries.

 

[TowPro]

several years ago Trailer life ran a story on batteries. I was supprised that a normal 12v wet cell deep cycle was good for around 300 cycles, and a 6v golf cart battery was good for around 750 cycles. My next set will be golf cart batterys.



I wish they had the story on the internet. Maybe I can find it in my pile and scan it. Of all the types of batteries, including Glass mat, the Golf cart batteries were listed for almost 2X the number of cycles.

 

[slo-ryde]

Originally posted by TowPro

several years ago Trailer life ran a story on batteries. I was supprised that a normal 12v wet cell deep cycle was good for around 300 cycles, and a 6v golf cart battery was good for around 750 cycles. My next set will be golf cart batterys.



I wish they had the story on the internet. Maybe I can find it in my pile and scan it. Of all the types of batteries, including Glass mat, the Golf cart batteries were listed for almost 2X the number of cycles.

I guess this is old information for the folks who have been living "off the grid" for years. They've been using true deep cycle batteries with solar systems for a long time. Most RV dealerships seem to have almost no experience with these batteries. Every dealership I visited install a RV/Marine battery on the trailers. If you spend most of the time on shore power it probably doesn't matter what kind of battery you use. My six volt batteries were $60 each and I expect them to last for a long time. I've heard of these batteries lasting 8 years. That's an excellent return on investment!



My only concern is the extra weight on the tongue of the trailer. Each battery weighs 65 pounds. I've relocated the spare tire (which was under the tongue) to the back of the trailer on the bumper. That was roughly 50 pounds. That should provide plenty of weight offset.

 

[Hunter1]

One thing to for sure look at and keep on top of is the water level in teh batteries. My first set I burned up in like a year, was plugged in most of the time, didn't know you needed to add water once per month :-(



Have 2 new Trojans now, and water saver caps.



The only question I have about the water saver caps is this... . when I was camping this summer, and hooked up the generator to charge them, both batteries got totally full of water. Had to turkey baste it off! So, I took the caps off every time I charged and had no problem.



Is this common with the water saver caps? That you have to remove to charge?



TIA



Hunter1

 

[slo-ryde]

Originally posted by Hunter1

The only question I have about the water saver caps is this... . when I was camping this summer, and hooked up the generator to charge them, both batteries got totally full of water. Had to turkey baste it off! So, I took the caps off every time I charged and had no problem.



Is this common with the water saver caps? That you have to remove to charge?



TIA



Hunter1

I haven't seen the water saver caps yet. Sounds like you might be overcharging the batteries if they fill up with water, unless that's normal for this style of cap. I've only charged my batteries a couple times so far and the water level was fine when the charger shut off at the end of the charge cycle. I was going to buy the Trojan T-105 batteries but got a great deal on the Interstate U2200 that I just couldn't pass up (almost half the price of the T-105's). How do you like them?

 

[Hunter1]

I love the Trojans but am concerned about the charging of them with the water savers.



Hunter1

 

[slo-ryde]

Originally posted by Hunter1

I love the Trojans but am concerned about the charging of them with the water savers.



Hunter1

You might want to put a multimeter on the batteries while they are charging. You should see around 13. 8 volts when charging, this will taper off as the batteries reach 90% of capacity. Too much voltage will shorten the life of the battery. There's something called equalization that uses around 14. 2 volts to clean off the plates and equalize the specific gravity in the individual cells but isn't something you want to do every time you charge the batteries. Trojan mentions this on their website.