There has been a lot of discussion regarding batteries, and you may recall that I elected to install twelve 6 volt golf cart batteries. Last night I finally had a chance to see how well they worked. With the old 8D batteries, I could only run the minimum load while boondocking for 4 or 5 hours. Last night I left running the Directv, Amana, portable freezer, compressor and fans. I used 1/8 of my battery capacity in 8 hours. Then turned on the TV, stereo, lights and coffee maker for an additional two hours. At the end of 10 hours I had used 1/5 of my capacity. Obviously, I am pleased.
Chester,
Is there a reason folks don't use the golf cart batteries? Weight, charging/discharging issues? While lithium is great - just beyond my need level.
The main reasons are the golf cart batts require water from time to time, and they do off gas when charging which leads to corrosion in the battery bay.
I have had a positive experience using golf cart batteries in two motorhomes. The weight is about the same as the big 8Ds and no changes in the inverter charging is required. As to watering and gassing off, not a problem because I have installed a watering system that seals the cells and has a simple connection to water all cells at one time. Actually, the watering system can be set up for automatic watering. Since no gassing, no corrosion. Most of all, the price is right at Costco. You may want to see the photos that I posted previously.
Good on you Chester! I haven't used the COSTCO Golf Carts yet because I am a Trojan T105 fan to date. To me Golf Cart type Batteries make sense, they do require maintenance but mine are 5+ years old and test as good as new. They are the Standard that others compare themselves to although Batteries that do not require maintenance are better for those who do not want to check on them and carry distilled water to refill when required.
Charging is another issue since other type of batteries do have different charging requirements. As far as Charging I have two Independent Systems and need to manually override this to have either system charge the other.
***As a side note we typically use the SOLAR Panels to charge our house bank even when at an RV Park (otherwise I would need to manually disconnect them)
Steve, why would you need to disconnect "them"?
When we were at the River it was hot/sunny enough that I was concerned about overcharging. We simply didn't use all the power that they were putting out.
(05-20-2014, 03:15 PM)prairieschooner Wrote: [ -> ]When we were at the River it was hot/sunny enough that I was concerned about overcharging. We simply didn't use all the power that they were putting out.
Doesn't your charge controller prevent that?
I've got a Blue Sky Charger Controller and once the batteries are at 100% it stops charging the house batteries. What kind of charge controller do you have?
I might add that I also have a Blue Sky digital monitor which tells me what the charge controller is doing at all times.