I have a pair of 1,050 amp-hour batteries in my garage... do I win? They weigh almost as much as my bus though. :-)Back to the original question. My recommendation for a deep cycle RV battery is a pair of 6V golf cart batteries. They will cost $150 (Sams club or Costco) and give you 220 amp-hours worth of 12V power. Relatively compact and light weight compared to AGM batteries and will last 8-10 years if taken care of and when they die they will still be worth $30 at the recycler. If you only want a single battery then I'd go to West Marine and buy the group 27 or 28 RV/Marine battery (usually 95 amp-hours) for about $75. Make sure it doesn't say "starting" anywhere in the description (there are starting batteries, starting-slash-deep-cycle batteries, and just-deep-cycle batteries - you want the latter).
Solar panels, I love 'em (have two on top of my bus and a third waiting for the giveashit factor to increase) but they are not simple or cheap and only truly useful if you go whole-hog. With the aforementioned pair of golf cart batteries and my older Norcold fridge (which drew 6.5 amps) I could camp for a weekend with cold beer and lights without plugging in. Adding 75 watts of solar panels and parking in the sun gave me *maybe* another day. Now that I have a more efficient fridge (3.5 amp Norcold) and 110 watts of panels, I might get a week without driving in ideal conditions. Useful if I lived in my bus, otherwise it's just an expensive novelty.
-David On 1/21/2011 3:28 PM, Justin Wilt wrote:
I have 4, 120 amp hour batteries in my shed and 120W solar power charging them. From there you can run an inverter that bumps the voltage from 12, 24 or 48 volts to 120volts AC current. I have lights and a small refrigerator full of beer running completely off the sun. I plan on transferring this setup into my camper when it comes out of the body shop. There are amp hour and inverter calculators online that tell you how long you can run a device. No RV service connection needed!JustinOn Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 3:18 PM, kelly dosch <kellydosch@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:kellydosch@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:Hello. I need to get a deep cycle RV battery for my Westfalia Campmobile. I'm seeing about a gazillion types with vastly varying prices. ($120-$600!) Is it really all that complicated or can I just get the cheap Sears Marine/RV battery? ($120) Also, I have noticed a lot of Westies with solar panels. Why? If they have a campsite with electrical hook-up the battery can charge itself. If not, the alternator will charge it during a short drive. I don't get it. Why would anybody want to drop $400 for a solar panel? (Tell me it isn'tjust to be "green".) Thanks for your time,... )< (- (_ (_ `( -- Justin Wilt Technician Post Oak Motorcars Rolls Royce Motorcars Houston Bentley Houston 1530 West Loop South Houston TX 77095 USA +1-713-850-1530 +1-713-539-4419
