your thoughts on this battery

[carcrafter22]

I think I'm going to run 1 single battery on my trailer and carry a small honda eu1000i generator to top it off when needed. I plan to have a small a/c unit in heater that can be run off the generator as for the battery the only thing I can think of for it will be the led interior lights at night and possibly an engel 45 or a laptop occasionally not both at the same time. The fridge will most likely stay in the jeep with us most of the time especially while driving. Does any of that make sense?


My question is how does this battery sound? Copied from the website "diehard deep cycle marine unit 200 minutes reserve capacity and 675 cold cranking amps,Group Size 29HM"

Will this single battery work for me?

 

[wrcsixeight]

I don't think the Honda 1000 can power an A/C unit. I believe the smallest ones require 1200 or 1500 watts. I don't think the Honda could power a 1000 watt heater either. I think over on RV net they say they are good for 920 or 940 watts continuous.

That battery will work, but it is not a true deep cycle battery. It is a dual purpose battery. If you are going to cycle it regularly to 50% state of charge, a true deep cycle battery will give you more cycles, but they cost more and are more difficult to find.

For a true deep cycle battery, investigate Trojan, Crown, Deka, US battery. Interstate markets a deep cycle battery. It is made by US battery.

Any battery which says marine/trolling/rv/deep cycle (all of those terms together) on it is just a dual purpose battery which is just a starting battery slightly more tolerant of deep discharges. CCA ratings are meaningless on a deep cycle battery. They aren't designed to start engines though Trojan does list CCA ratings on some of their deep cycles though.

It is hard to say if the extra money spent on a true deep cycle is worth it. You will get more cycles from it. They are more tolerant to abuse, but are still damaged by abuse.

Abuse is considered draining them below 50% charge, letting them sit less than fully charged, and not recharging them to 100% promptly. Most true deep cycles can be drained to 20%. When charging, the last 20 percent takes as long or longer than 50% to 80%. Just try to get it to 100% once a week with generator charging, and since the 1000 cannot power a heater and a charger, get a bigger charger close to 30 amps to cut down on generator run time.

Get the biggest battery you can fit, with the best warranty. The heavier the battery in the same size case/jar, the better.

 

[carcrafter22]

Good point, I guess the honda 2000 would be worth the extra cash in this case then. May be worth looking into the diehard platinum like others on here have had good luck with then.

 

[wrcsixeight]

The DHP is an excellent battery, but they have no more capacity than a flooded battery of equal size. They do have more cranking amps, but unless you are needing to power 100 amp devices or a starter motor, CCA is meaningless. You could get almost 2 flooded deep cycle batteries for the same price, and have twice the capacity. 6 volt golf cart batteries are true deep cycles. Sams and costco sell them for about 70$ each. You just wire them in series and then think of them as one big battery which comes in two parts.

That is if you do not need to worry about fumes from charging and can add some distilled water every couple months.

Good luck.

 

[carcrafter22]

I'm really just looking for something that will work well for limited use. We dont get to go camping as much as we'd like since I work out of town alot and its hard to plan camping trips since I never know when I'll have to go out again.

I was thinking the diehard marine battery since it looked like it had a good rating on it and was cheap enough at $100 roughly.

I'd like to keep this to 1 battery only for ease of packaging. I'm planning on making an odd type of trailer that is pretty self contained so the wife and kids can go on weekends if I'm not home. I dont really plan on anything big just the fridge other than that its gonna be little things like led lights for the interior for and hour or so at night and maybe a laptop occasionally.

 

[wrcsixeight]

Well, if the trailer you design is going to have the battery inside the living area, get the AGM Die Hard Platinum. No watering, no gassing, and they self discharge only about 3% per month versus 12 to 14% with a flooded battery.

Get the group 31. Your laptop might be able to consume 7 amps per hour while watching a DVD. That's ~2 movies before the 50% threshold is reached.

 

[alaskaboy]

Good background reading on batteries, FYI.

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

 

[austinraja]

Great site friend. Its very informative.