[khgeisler]

Currently I have 6 x AGM 8D Batteries for the house side.  I am an all electric coach and do not plan on Boondocking for long periods of time.  The inverter runs the kitchen outlets, mainly the newish AC fridge over night and maybe a coffee pot in the morning.  No heavy loads, no AC's.  I do have solar which can help charge the batteries during the day if not plugged in.  Initially we plan to go to sites with full hookups, so the solar is nice, but not a factor for the next set of batteries or a conversion to a high end lithium system.
The current batteries are "starting batteries" 1450 cca and 480rc and 245 ah @ 20hr.  Currently only 4 batteries are connected as 2 of the batteries are sucked in and most likely shorted internally.  I currently store the rig inside, hooked to 30 amp 240volt.

My question is, Do these batteries need to be "Starting batteries" High amp, short draw period?  Should they be Deep Cycle Batteries, low amp, long draw period?

Do I really need 6 Batteries?  Could 3 be enough with a good quality deep cycle battery?

These agm batteries (O'Rielly) are only 3 years old, maybe I should just put in sealed lead acid batteries.  Seems about the same life expectancy at half the price.

The Guru's Expertise is greatly appreciated!!

[Jonestead]

I'll be quite interested in the feedback too. We are pole2pole users. Ours was a race coach and only has (4) 8D batteries, 2 house and 2 chassis, so you've already got 3x the house batteries we do.

[HoosierDaddy]

I have a similar set up but no solar. My old xantrex 458 will run the fridge and TV etc. for 3-4 hrs on 2 8D AGM batteries. The batts are approximately 6 years old . That is sufficient for a quiet evening boondocking but I usually run the gen overnight.

[folivier]

One summer when we had #486 I had 4 of 6 8D batteries go bad while we were heading to Canada. Also was in the process of designing and buying my LiFePO4 system so didn't want to spend any money on more 8D's just to pull them out in a few months.
The 2 batteries just barely managed to make it through 12 hours running the fridge and a few other things. IOW I had to run the generator twice a day or either be driving or plugged in.
But it depends on how you use your coach. It would be fairly easy to do a check and see how long 2, 4, 6, etc. batteries would last for your usage. Mark your wires before you pull any off of your batteries!
Sealed batteries are a much better option over having to constantly check and add water and deal with the corrosion in a typical flooded lead acid battery.

[Jack Houpe]

To answer your question about type of batteries the cold cranking amp sort of coincides with the Amp Hour rating, I suggest the biggest you and afford and the highest AH rating you can get. Never let your batteries get below 12.2 volts, thats where 50% of the AH rating has been used and will damage the batteries, I've heard of people taking them down to the 11 volt range claiming deep cycle but eventually the battery will fail. Make sure your battery connections are clean and not looking like some disease growing on the the terminals and you'll be a happy camper and so will your batteries.

Lithium is a different story

[TJ Clark]

My question is, Do these batteries need to be "Starting batteries" High amp, short draw period?  Should they be Deep Cycle Batteries, low amp, long draw period?

Do I really need 6 Batteries?  Could 3 be enough with a good quality deep cycle battery?

These agm batteries (O'Rielly) are only 3 years old, maybe I should just put in sealed lead acid batteries.  Seems about the same life expectancy at half the price.

The Guru's Expertise is greatly appreciated!!

IMO you want lithium, if not then a good deep cycle AGM like the Lifeline 8d AGM's. 

Good AGM's and Cheep LIPO4 are about the same cost these days. The LIPO4 cab survive nicely on the same charge settings as the AGM's but a little tweaking to set points available in most inverter chargers and shorten charge time.

[khgeisler]

Thanks for the feedback folks.  Not sure if I have a direction yet.  I guess until we start using it we will not know.  I guess we will be Pole to Pole users, and running the Gen while traveling.

[whited44]

Thanks for the feedback folks.  Not sure if I have a direction yet.  I guess until we start using it we will not know.  I guess we will be Pole to Pole users, and running the Gen while traveling.

Hey Karl.  I'm in a similar predicament as you are.  Did you solve any of your battery problems yet??

I think from what i've read
1.  Get a trickle charger for the chassis batteries
2.  Keep it un merged
3.  I was going to get 3, either regular starting 8D's or AGM 8D's.  I'm also a pole to pole user.  For the twice a year or so I might stay at a rest stop I just need to make it from when I shut the generator off to go to sleep to when I wake up in the morning to make coffee...

[khgeisler]

Thanks for the feedback folks.  Not sure if I have a direction yet.  I guess until we start using it we will not know.  I guess we will be Pole to Pole users, and running the Gen while traveling.

Hey Karl.  I'm in a similar predicament as you are.  Did you solve any of your battery problems yet??

I think from what i've read
1.  Get a trickle charger for the chassis batteries
2.  Keep it un merged
3.  I was going to get 3, either regular starting 8D's or AGM 8D's.  I'm also a pole to pole user.  For the twice a year or so I might stay at a rest stop I just need to make it from when I shut the generator off to go to sleep to when I wake up in the morning to make coffee...

Hello, never really made a decision.  The batteries are still good and we recently moved so we are using the coach very little.  The coach is plugged in all the time in covered storage, so always charged.  I always keep the engine start batteries off and unmerged.  They stay fully charged for months.  When I want to turn the engine, I turn them on, merge the batteries for 10 to 20 minutes just to bring them to life, and the DD 60 fires off like it ran yesterday.  One thing to note, the generator does use the house batteries to start, so maybe having a "starting battery" for the house side is ok.  I am not sure if that was clear  on my original message.  If I had to make a decision today, I would buy 3 or 4 AGM batteries like I have, save the money on the 2 or 3 I do not need.  It is ok for the way we travel with the coach.  It will run the fridge overnight at a Cracker Barrell or wherever till we get to our destination.  On the older coaches, I think simplicity is key.  Change all lights to led, keep the electrical draw down, buy a new fridge and a good inverter.

[whited44]

Thanks for the feedback folks.  Not sure if I have a direction yet.  I guess until we start using it we will not know.  I guess we will be Pole to Pole users, and running the Gen while traveling.

Hey Karl.  I'm in a similar predicament as you are.  Did you solve any of your battery problems yet??

I think from what i've read
1.  Get a trickle charger for the chassis batteries
2.  Keep it un merged
3.  I was going to get 3, either regular starting 8D's or AGM 8D's.  I'm also a pole to pole user.  For the twice a year or so I might stay at a rest stop I just need to make it from when I shut the generator off to go to sleep to when I wake up in the morning to make coffee...

Hello, never really made a decision.  The batteries are still good and we recently moved so we are using the coach very little.  The coach is plugged in all the time in covered storage, so always charged.  I always keep the engine start batteries off and unmerged.  They stay fully charged for months.  When I want to turn the engine, I turn them on, merge the batteries for 10 to 20 minutes just to bring them to life, and the DD 60 fires off like it ran yesterday.  One thing to note, the generator does use the house batteries to start, so maybe having a "starting battery" for the house side is ok.  I am not sure if that was clear  on my original message.  If I had to make a decision today, I would buy 3 or 4 AGM batteries like I have, save the money on the 2 or 3 I do not need.  It is ok for the way we travel with the coach.  It will run the fridge overnight at a Cracker Barrell or wherever till we get to our destination.  On the older coaches, I think simplicity is key.  Change all lights to led, keep the electrical draw down, buy a new fridge and a good inverter.

Thanks for the info.  I'm going to be out at the coach tomorrow.  I'm going to un merge them, and shut off the starting batteries with the switch until i'm ready to go somewhere.  I'm leaning towards the 3 AGM's.  Does that run the fridge all night at the cracker barrel??  That's all i'm looking to do boon dock wise.  Also did you get a chassis battery tender??  If so what did you get??