Rv Toyhauler trailer battery upgrade and discussion

Hello all, so I've been a member here about a year, love my raptor and love how it tows my 28' fleet wood redline Toyhauler,however have experienced less then desirable performance from the two basic interstate 12v batteries,

Anyone out here have any personal experience or knowledge as to the best rout to go, possibly a inverter and solar. Any thought or help would be appreciated.



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Luke, it sounds like your two "house" batteries aren't covering it? I'm going to ask a few simple questions, but I must to get an idea of what you currently are using and your setup

1.) Are they Deep Cycle Batteries?
2.) What size is your battery box group 24 or 27?
3.) Are you dry camping or site camping with power?
4.) Lastly, how are you charging your batteries when your not camping?

(I'm a purchasing manager for a wholesale battery distributor in the midwest)

As a general rule two six volt golf cart type batteries will last longer than two 12v batteries. I also have been considering do a solar charging system. During dune season my coach gets stored at a stoarage across from the dunes , so solar would be great, but I still need more research to decide what unit. Tim

Tmesic said:

As a general rule two six volt golf cart type batteries will last longer than two 12v batteries. I also have been considering do a solar charging system. During dune season my coach gets stored at a stoarage across from the dunes , so solar would be great, but I still need more research to decide what unit. Tim

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That's true as long as the two 12v's are paralleled and not in series. IF it's a 12v system you can series to 6V Golf cart batteries and almost double your amperage. But if it's a 24V you'd obviously need 4 6V's and that would take up more space than probably available.

10 years in the RV biz taught me you cant beat the 6V golf car batteries.
Here are some other random thoughts....
Solar is nice, but you really need to be realistic about what it actually puts out. look carefully at the ratings. If you do go solar, get a charge controller / manager or while in storage your batteries will suffer from over charge. Also, most OEM installed converters / chargers don't really put out all that much charge amperage, so one more thing to check into.

My Ragen 5th wheel toyhauler had 3-group 27's in parralle and a 4 foot square solar panel hung above roof butjust lower than the roof rack. would charge 6 amps an hour during day and if generator was ran for microwave that helped charge. I had large harbor freight inverter with relay when generator was on, I think it was 1700 Watt inverter. I could run my Mr. coffee maker in the morning with out firing generator up waking all the camp (I hate those guys) and watched TV and Direct TV before bed.
But what do I know.... LOL

Merkin said:

That's true as long as the two 12v's are paralleled and not in series. IF it's a 12v system you can series to 6V Golf cart batteries and almost double your amperage. But if it's a 24V you'd obviously need 4 6V's and that would take up more space than probably available.

Click to expand...

What toy hauler has a 24v system? Tim

Wow, I'm just getting in the raptor to head to costco and pick up to Johnson controls 6v golf cart batteries, and I'll be getting that harbor freight inveter, thanks guys,


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---------- Post added at 02:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

Also which charger would you recommend for a 12v fleetwood redline with a 30amp service?


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---------- Post added at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

Btw, love this forum because you can damn there find anyone here with priceless experience, great info guys thanks.


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If I were you I would figure out what I'm trying to run and work how much I need from there.

Add up all the devices you want to run/charge - figure out how many usable hours you would like - then size your battery bank from that.

I've built many solar charging stations for various duties.

Yeah I think basically a tv, a microwave and coffee maker, vacuum, not all at the same time but basically that.

I just completed my install and had the inverter working for a minute but I got a dud, gotta go exchange it and get it working good, I bought 2 6v batteries wired in series, and got a 2000/4000 watt inverter,


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