Would this battery setup be any good for my TC? I'd test them first of course and I'd need a 24v to 12v step down, but this would give me 24v/100AH and they're deep cycle AGM's. If the batteries are good that's not a bad deal for $200 right?

Thanks fellas

 

Manufacture date?

 

Let's just assume they're fairly new lol. Would a setup like that be adequate or would a higher AH be more desirable?

I'm installing a diesel heater soon and the propane furnace will only be used as an emergency backup.

 

Those are the same Ahr rating as a lead/acid battery you know that right?
Not sure what you mean by “of course I would need a 24-12v step down”
You would need to hook your camper battery’s in parallel as you probably have a 12v system.
Unless you want ongoing issues with your electrical system, which is the backbone of any RV, camper, trailer etc don’t buy used battery’s.
Purchase whatever you decide new and then you can monitor the status of them from the start and not possibly inherite someone else’s problems in the future.

 

I thought if the 2-12v batteries were paired together it would be a 24v supply or does it just make it a larger 12v supply?

 

You want a deep-cycle battery with as many amp-hours as you can afford, just keep in mind that you really should only drain the battery to 50% to extend the overall life so you are only getting half of the amp-hour rating. This does not apply to a lithium though which can be drained down. You will get more amp-hours using 2 6v if you go lead-acid but they are big, heavy and cost.

 

You post on a different thread You want to get the camper ready for-40 winter Temps?, are you going to live in it full time? Are you in the arctic?
seems you're more concerned with heating than insulation , it does not take a lot of energy to heat a small area (in your case +/- 80sq ft ) excluding the overhead, blocking off the overhead is a big deal in cold temperatures.
two new good quality deep cycle batteries (diligent research required), will be plenty good for years properly maintained.
Don't over think it.

 

OHHHHHH ok! So I'd be wanting a 12v deep cycle with say 200AH rather than 50AH. Yeesh I'm brain dead at times. Ok so I'll look for a 12v AGM deep cycle with higher AH then. Thanks man



What do you mean by OVERHEAD?

Arctic ha ha ha.......Southern Manitoba my man and in summer it can get up to 45c and in winter down to -45c or colder. Couple winters back we had a 3 week stretch where it didn't go above -35c daytime temps! Might as well be the Arctic lol.

And no not going to be living in the TC, but will be using it on my 3 day weekends all winter. I will absolutely be adding more insulation, but in -40c temps with -45c windchill temps that extra insulation won't amount to much lol so I'm going to do a few basic things like a light bulb in propane tank compartment to keep above freezing and roof vent pillows and stuff like that and my plan is to install a 5kw diesel heater as the main heating source for when the TC is parked at home or travelling and when out camping I'm going to heat via wood stove. I'm going vent part of the heat from the diesel unit to the basement and install a couple pcu fans to pull the warm cabin air into the basement area and all plumbing lines will be wrapped and I MIGHT do warming blankets as well under all water tanks, but will see how it goes.

So yeah during the week the diesel heater will run on low 24/7 and if it breaks down the propane furnace will kick on and on the camping weekends I'll run the wood stove and that's my plan in a nutshell lol.

 

Hey there amigo to the north just a quick lesson for ya.

Almost all 12vdc lead/ acid battery’s, doesn’t matter if they are deep cycle, rv, or amg type are only rated for 100ahrs.
The chemistry of those battery’s only allow you to discharge them to approximately 50% of their rated capacity, group size doesn’t matter.
So (2) 12v battery’s connected up in parallel, meaning pos to pos and neg to neg will only give you effectively 100ahrs of usage before dropping the voltage level to low to be of use.

Here is where the Lithium battery’s are more advantageous, more expensive but longer lasting ( more charging cycles) and having more capacity. Some have heating circuits built in for freezing temps but that will be an additional amperage draw on top of your regular usage.

Lithium Battery chemistry allows you to discharge these type down to 5-10% of their rating and still provide adequate voltage.
So (2) Lithium battery’s rated for the same 100ahrs each will yield to you approx. 180-190ahrs of usage.

Better still are LifePO4 type battery’s.
I was able to build (2) 280ahr battery’s and connected in parallel give me approx 530ahrs of usage/ storage.
More of an advanced setup but doable for someone with a good understanding of electrical theory and usage.

Depending on your camper setup figure out your load usage on an average day and do the math.

Example.
My camper is a 2019 model with a 2way refer and when using propane only I still draw about 1ahr when it’s on for the control circuit.
So if I had (2) 100ahr rated Lead/acid battery’s which remember only yield me about 100ahrs total capacity in 4 days of using NOTHING but the refer and not externally charging them back up I would be done.
Now throw on lights, H2O pump, USB charging, and any inverter 120v usage you can see how quickly you can deplete your storage.

Like I said earlier as long as you camp with 120v utilities provided, or generator, all this talk is mute.

Good luck to ya.

 

I won't be going lithium at the moment and will be boondocking on my weekend trips so I'll just grab a new 12v deep cycle 100AH battery and see how well my 2 solar panels keep it charged and go from there. I will be bringing along a smaller 1500watt portable generator so I'll use that to recharge the 12v battery when the AH get to the halfway point. Guess I need to pickup a digital AH meter as well then.

Thanks 🙂

 

BTW does anyone know if this inverter is an aftermarket unit that would have been put in with the solar panels or is this something that came with the unit when new?

Also what batteries would be best to use? Flooded Lead-Acid, Gel, AGM?

Thanks

 

Have you ordered the solar panel?
you might still need a solar controller,
Need to do research on that inverter.

 

I'm going to run with the two on the roof for a bit before I add any more panels and I do have a solar controller already.

 

That is a CONverteter not an INverter. That takes 120v AC and CONverts it to 12vdc.

 

Mickey said I might need a solar controller.......THAT is a solar controller lol.

Why would I need a inverter? And please explain to me like I have no idea cause I don't