M10a2 camping/ utility trailer - what battery do I choose?

[Titan_Bow]

I’ve been working on my trailer for a while now and planning a trip in a couple weeks with the family. I want to have on board power to run lights at night, charge cell phones, maybe power a small fan in the tent, watch a movie on a laptop. I don’t have a fridge or anything that is going to draw a lot.
I am trying to decide on what kind of battery to go with. Initially I was thinking it would be nice to go lifepo4 for the lightweight, but I don’t want to spend big bucks on something that might see 5-10 weekend of use per year. I was looking at 2 Dakota battery 10ah in parallel, but even that gets expensive and would it really be the right thing?
What’s the down side of just running down to the local Wally World and throwing a traditional deep cycle battery and hooking up a 750 or 1k inverter to it and calling it done?
Would love to hear some opinions and insight into how to proceed with light duty power requirement for camp! Thanks


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[Teardropper]

I was looking at 2 Dakota battery 10ah in parallel

20 amps of power isn't a lot of course. And yes, a Group 24 marine battery will work fine. It'll give you about 35 useable amps for half the cost.

Tony

 

[NatersXJ6]

Another strategy, one that I’ve chosen, is to match your trailer battery to your truck battery, creating a readily swappable spare if needed. In my case, I’m running “marine” dual purpose group 27 batteries in both positions. I haven’t run them long enough to know if there will be a likely rotation from trailer to Jeep someday or not, but it feels good.

 

[Joe917]

Get a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries. Avoid using a starter battery you will just kill it. A small (100 watt) solar panel will make sure you occasionally get back to full charge, very important for lead acid. The lifepo4 will stand up to being left at partial charge without issue.

 

[Titan_Bow]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Sticking with my theme of low cost solutions in this trailer (originally purchased for $475) I decided to go with a group 24 100ah marine battery from Walmart. Cost me about 85 dollars. I have it hooked up to a 750w inverter. I really don’t foresee having huge power needs, mainly LED lighting for camp, recharging stuff etc. I’ll likely add a solar panel at some point as well


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[Titan_Bow]

With the battery and inverter inside the trailer (battery in a battery box and inverter inside an ammo can with venting) I don’t want to have to reach inside the trailer to turn things on. I wired in a disconnect switch and installed an outlet on the outside of the trailer. I don’t foresee the need for huge amounts of power, this will be used primarily for camp lights, recharging stuff and maybe a small fan in the summer time. Really pleased with how it turned out


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