[bcrvman]

Originally Posted by Andy Smith

Hi folks! I've got a few battery related questions. Recently the campground I'm at has had a few power outages, which always makes me check my systems. I was looking at the battery output on my inverter today while the power was out at it was reading 11.9v initially, now 12.5. The only thing on the inverter and drawing a load right now is the fridge. Power has been out for about an hour. We've got two group 24 AGM road hawk (Penn systems) batteries that came with the camper. We never boondock, so they only supply power during transport and outages. We've had a few outages in the life of the batteries, one of which I think totally drained them, which I know is bad news. I'm a little nervous about this and am wondering if I need to replace them, and what best practices would be (carry a spare or a pair, just find whatever is available locally). My biggest worry is getting stuck with them gradually dying and not being able to hitch or unhitch and needing to go run to a battery store, since I know the jacks and slides rely on the batteries for supplemental power to the jacks so it's not all pulling from the converter. Any thoughts are welcome!

For starters, get at least 2 6V Trojan T105's or better. Second set the inverter to shut off when the SOC gets down to 50% that will be your signal to fire up the generator. Or get a pair of Lithium for muuuuuch more power, almost 200AH vs the 100 or so the lead acid gives you. BTW, if the batteries you buy have the word crank or the initials CCA, MCA anywhefre on it then it is NOT a deep cycle battery and is not advised to use with an inverter. Attached are my Victron MP3000 inverter settings. I just now noticed I am not using SOC shutdown so I will have to investigate why I didn't enable that.