Posted by John T on August 24, 2013 at 16:25:52 from (216.249.76.176):
In Reply to: School me on Batteries posted by John in La on August 24, 2013 at 08:10:09:
I've owned RV's (too many to count, used to deal in them) for years and used plenty of those quasi deep cycle RV/Marine batteries like sold at Wal Mart and sure they work decent. But in my electrical engineers opinion (and RV experience) for RV use with a lot of fairly deep discharges (we do a lot of dry camping) a true deep cycle golf cart battery with heavy plates that is designed for maximum number of life cycles and deeper discharges IS FAR SUPERIOR TO THE CHEAPER RV/MARINE BATTERY. They will give you better service and longevity in my experience and study.
I think Trojans are over rated so in my current RV I used four of the higher capacity 230 Amp Hr Golf Cart batteries sold at Sams.
The cheap generic Converter Chargers sold in many regular priced RV's do fine to power your 12 VDC lights and vent fans and water pump and sure they will re charge your batteries BUT NOT NEAR TO THE QUALITY AN EXPENSIVE SMART 3 STAGE COMPUTER CONTROLLED TRUE CHARGER WILL. Ive seen too many cheap Converter Chargers overcharge RV batteries.
When I installed my four 6 volt Golf Cart batteries (460 total Amp Hrs) I wanted a quality smart computer controlled charger to maximize the life cycles and investment, so after I studied I chose a Xantrex Truecharge2 Charger. It, depending on battery state, starts out with Bulk Charge rate then switches to Absorption rate then finally Float Rate somewhere around 13.1 to 13.2 volts at maybe 2 amps trickle/maintenance. It also has an Equalization feature.
Soooooooo based on my years of experience and research and its my engineers opinion 1) For RV use sure, a quasi deep cycle RV/Marine battery will work, but for the long haul with a lot of deep cycle discharges and recharges a true full deep cycle Golf cart battery (heavier plates, designed for more and deeper discharges) IS MUCH BETTER but true can be more expensive. 2) A quality 3 stage plus Equalize computer controlled charger is also much better BUT THEY ARE INDEED MORE EXPENSIVE.
A friend of mine has the setup I used and got 9 years out of his batteries.
So your money your choice but a true deep cycle golf cart battery (if you do a lot of deeper discharges) will outperform and outlive the cheaper quasi deep cycle RV/Marine battery and, likewise, a quality 3 stage smart charger will outperform and extend battery life versus a cheap generic RV Converter/Charger.
PS to top it all off, I also added Solar Panels and a Solar Charge Controller. With that and my 460 amp hours of battery storage and an Onan Genset I can dry camp almost indefinitely wooooooooo hoooooooooooo
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