TT battery recommendations please

[Blakers]

I'm new to travel trailers. I just bought a 1978 24 ft Sportsman that needs a little work here and there, but is solid and in good structural shape.



It has a single 12 volt acid battery that is currently dead as can be. My questions is - what battery do you folks recommend I get for it?



Is there any kind of devise that I can add so my truck can charge the battery without the camper battery pulling my truck batteries down too much?



Any help is appreciated.



Thanks,



Blake

 

[Goddard]

the plug connection on your truck has a hot line that will help in keeping the battery charged while attached to the truck. as for a battery replacemant? how much do you want to spend? acid batteries are the least but with some maintenance. jell cells would be nice and are durable but they cost more and some are particular to charging voltages, your choice. my 5ver still has regular old deep cycles.



hope this helps



oops i did not read close enough, soory about that,

your camper should not drain your truck batteries that bad. right now if youo still have the old dead battery in the tt then the truck is having to push power through the bad battery before it gets to the load. change the battery in the tt and you should not have any troubles

 

[Glen]

You will get bettter capacity by using two 6V batteries in series. I have the biggest Interstate golf-cart batteries that I will fit in the space I have. I built a case to hold them.

Glen

 

[BV]

TT Batteries

I would like to add that the peacup batteries will drain with the trailer plugged in and would suggest putting a solenoid switch or battery cut-off switch in between the truck and trailer so your not surprised with dead batteries after a few days of camping.



Dodge screwed up when they didn't put the solenoid switch on the charge line so I added my own. Cost was around $20 for a Tekonsha Battery Switch (continuous duty solenoid) from a local RV parts dealer

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

A simple solid state battery isolator, available at most any RV store, will keep a camper battery both charged AND isolated from the main vehicle battery - they commonly will cost less than $30...

 

[lizzyhermit]

unplugging the tow vehicle from the TT is simple and expense free !

 

[klenger]

That's what I do. Works fine.

 

[The patriot]

Yea, that's what I do too.

I have an old battery from a car we sold about 3 or 4 years ago. I think it's getting weak.

Eric

 

[lizzyhermit]

a funny alternative !

once while in Colarado the truck (not the diesel) battery was low on juice so I pushed the truck close enough to use the TT batteries to fire up the PU.

also, the above resulted in the purchase of long (front to back of truck) jumper cables.



I unplug the TT when stopped for the night also, even when I don't unhitch.

 

[Blakers]

Thanks for the advice guys! For now I think I'll just go with unplugging when not running.



As far as batteries go, I think there's only space for one 12 volt. I could modify it and make a couple battery boxes - I will look at it.



Am I better off getting standard vehicle batteries or deep draw? Are the Optimas more like deep draw? I've heard lots of good about them, but never tried them yet.



Blake

 

[Glen]

Get deep-cycle batteries; you will have early failure if you use starting batteries.