Rv Toyhauler trailer battery upgrade and discussion

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PropDr

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I got four 120AH AGM batteries with a Magnum 3000watt pure sine wave inverter/charger in my RV.
That is 480AH available, but deep cycle batteries don't like to be fully discharged.
Take them sown to no more then 50% and they will last for years.
Take them down to 80% or more and you can kill them in one season.
 

Kapolani

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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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You're going to want a bigger battery bank than that.

Figure out how long each electronic device will be run in hours during a day. Multiply the wattage of each device by its run-time to get the energy in watt-hours per day. Add up all the watt-hour values to get a total for your application. This estimate is likely too low as there will be efficiency loses.

Example: Light bulbs run for 5 hours a day. Computer runs for 2 hours a day. 120 x 5 + 300 x 2 = 1200 watt-hours.

Now decide how many days worth of energy you want to store in your battery bank. Generally this is anywhere from two to five.

Finally we can calculate the minimum battery AH capacity. Take the watt-hours per day and multiply them by the number you decided upon. This should represent a 50% depth of discharge on your batteries. Therefore multiply by 2 and convert the kwh result into amp hours (AH). This is done by dividing by the battery voltage.

Example: You want the battery bank to last three days without recharging and that you use 1.8 kwh per day. As 1.8 x 3 x 2 = 10.8kwh, this is the energy we need from the batteries. Converting this to AH we have to divide by the voltage of your system. This can be 12, 24 or 48 for commercial application. If we choose to use 48V, the minimum AH capacity is then 10 800/48 = 225 AH. Now if you divide by your battery's rating you find the number of batteries you must use.
 

Icecobra

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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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Tell us about the batteries.. 6volt 1 amp 6 volt 100 amp?
 

Mil T

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I"ve been a boondocker RV owner for 40 years with lots of experience with charging and battery power.
1. 4- 6volt battery bank
2. Smart charger at least 45 amp. preferably 55-65 amp. Smart chargers will keep you batterys from being over charged and when you are charging them with what ever system you use, generator or solar it will charge the at the peak rate of the amperage rate. 55 Amp 12 volt Smart Battery Charger by Powermax
3. buy a small generator, 2000 watt to use as a charging. You never have to worry about the sun not being there and the huge amount of panels you'll need to put on the roof, ie, big bucks. Usually an adequate solar system will cost between $2k and $3k. Generator $1k max. I use a little Honda 1000 watter that runs my dedicated smart charger for my batterys.
4. put dedicated 110 outlets from a 3000 watt inverter to run your entertainment center, microwave, toaster, coffee pot and if women are present their hair dryer. don't try and run them all together though.
3000 Watt Power Inverter GFCI, ETL Certified by AIMS

I run my little generator all day or through and tank of gas to keep the batteries charged and hardly use my big generator at all except of evening with just about everything is on for cooking, showering, watching movies etc.
smart chargers where the best thing invented instead of just convertors which I'm sure you have probably in your trailer.

This type of system has worked very well for me. I have used this on over 10 different RV's I've owned over the years.

Also. don't think that your truck is going to do a full charge on your batteries when your driving out to play and if you haven't charged them up before you leave. That is a big mistake usually. Deep cycle batteries take a long time to charge.

Have fun camping.
Mil T
 
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