battery questions

[BarbaraRose]

I need to buy a new battery for my trailer. Any suggestions on type, brand, etc.? I know nothing about batteries.

I am also wondering if a fully charged battery will last me a week in Q? I know the battery is used for lights, various small appliances, but are there other things that feed off the battery? I have never boondocked before. Any other advice is welcome.

[MandysMom]

You might check batteryguys.com of Glendale AZ. They ship free and gave me great information when I replaced the van house batteries last spring. Wanted to be sure the Lifeline we had used the first time was still my best choice. They were great. Phone 800-350.8101
Velda

[MelissaD]

You will want a deep cycle battery. They will handle that type of load better. As for how long it will last? Can't say, it depends on your loads. Appliances use power. LED lights use less power than the standard camper bulbs. Many loads may not work without shore power. The CO2 detector alone which is hardwired to battery alone will drain a battery in about 3 days. There a many "parasite loads" in a modern camper. Those who go out to the desert normally have a battery bank (2-3 batteries) and a way to keep them charged like solar of a generator. If you just went out with 1 standard camper battery I don't think it would last more than 24 hours at best. 12 hours if you ran heat or a TV. You'd want every thing switched over to gas that you could like fridge and hot water.

You really need to set a camper up to go out in the desert.

MelissaD

[BirdbyBird]

What Melissa shared and/or you bring a small generator and run it briefly each day to charge up as needed. There is also a learning curve to boondocking off grid with limited power. I now have solar but I spent many years traveling and parking with only one battery and a generator. As Melissa mentioned you run everything you can off propane, run many things like additional lights for reading at night off their own batteries and you mostly just do without what you would do if you were plugged in. Similar to water usage when some of us head off to boondock for long periods of time and have to make do with limited water.

[BirdbyBird]

I don't know what system Mitch travels with now but she experimented with and travels with several portable solar panels that were fairly easy for her to move around and set up. They provided enough juice to keep her tech charged. Unless you have a lot of solar and a series of batteries for storage you are not going to be watching TV etc.

When you go to Q visit Solar Bill's and they can give you a personal response. Everyone's "wants and needs" are going to be different.

[BarbaraRose]

I don't watch tv and the fridge and stove are propane of course. For Q I don't really need to use any kitchen appliances that I can think of. Will mostly eat out or cook on the stove. Does my furnace use electric or propane? I am thinking propane but maybe also electric for the blower? I can use some of those stick up lights as well.
I will look into a small generator or portable solar panels. Can't afford much right now other than the basics.

[avalen]

Your furnace is propane but the fan runs off the battery. Your fridge is propane but the panel that controls the fridge runs off the battery. Also your pump for running water will use battery. Lyn used a solar suitcase to keep her batteries charged. But like was already said,, deep cycle is what you want.
Walmart sells them pretty reasonable, marine/rv battery.

[snowball]

bring flashlights or lanterns as well...
I couldn't figure out why but when I first got here and this is soooo hard to explain but on the panel showing what ever it shows... shows how much I know about that panel... all I truly know is it has the green area the yellow area and the red area... after it's been charged and I have turned off the generator and unplugged 90 percent of stuff put the radio on battery it will stay green for anywhere from 30mins if lucky to 1 hour but usually about 45 minutes then goes down to the yellow.. and stay that way till I go to bed except for when I first got here... and it would go into the red fairly quickly so I was reading by lantern found out that the light bulb was the culprit changed an older bulb to one of the twisted ones and now it stays in the yellow till I am ready for bed.... I wish I understood better why it goes out of the green to the yellow so quickly... perhaps I will ask the RV mechanic when he comes...
so check to make sure your light bulbs are the hot ones...
sheila

[Bethers]

You want your fixtures or bulbs to be led's. Many newer rv's are coming with the led fixtures. But even mine from 2014 didn't, so I immediately switched out all my bulbs to led's.

[BarbaraRose]

OK, so looking at batteries, they all offer different AH numbers. What number should I be looking for? I didn't see an AH number on my current battery. Really don't know what I need.

[Bethers]

OK, so looking at batteries, they all offer different AH numbers. What number should I be looking for? I didn't see an AH number on my current battery. Really don't know what I need.

The highest you can afford. And I still say you should get two batteries to replace the single you currently have.

[BarbaraRose]

Does this one look like something that would work?

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BS1ZB15/ ... RT58C?th=1

[MelissaD]

Does this one look like something that would work?

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BS1ZB15/ ... RT58C?th=1

OK, now you need to figure out the loads in your camper. What's drawing on that battery. See list and add them up. Remember some items like radios draw power when they are off (so they can see remote control).

http://rvservices.koa.com/rvinformation ... p-draw.asp

Good luck Melissa