Battery recommendations

[suprz]

I'm just looking for a new chassis battery for my 2006 E450 super duty

Figured it's time for a new one seeing how I have no idea how old this one is, and I think it's getting weak

[RambleOnNW]

pnichols wrote:

I'm curious ... why do you think that you were running your previous flooded chassis battery partly discharged too much? I'm assuming that our flooded chassis battery is getting fully charged by the alternator between campsites - but we do change campsites often on RV trips.

For those of us fortunate enough to be able to store our Class C RV's at home, I agree on keeping it kindof ready for use as a get-away vehicle at all times.

Took a look at the log data I had. I’ve been running 84-month batteries in several vehicles and never paid much attention to them. Would replace them at 84 months with no issues. The moho chassis battery lasted only 64 months and had to use the house battery emergency start when it failed.

One car did have a battery issue but it turned out the alternator was failing.

Have had the chassis battery connected for a while when working on it and measuring 12.44V currently. Fully charged I remember measuring 12.7V where fully charged AGM should be 12.8V+. The electric steps + other drains are likely drawing enough current to pull the voltage down 0.1V. I haven’t measured the actual current draw.

Charging chassis battery now until I disconnect it until the next trip.

[pnichols]

RambleOnNW wrote:

pnichols wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
I have a pair of 6V Duracell AGM golf car batteries from Sams Club supporting our house operations for over 4 years now. They are still awesome. I never deal with acid boil-overs or corroded terminals. I have not touched them in the 4 year period except to manually charge them when usage is high or when in storage. With easy access terminals, even that is a breeze.


I wonder how a 12V AGM battery would do in supporting the chassis.

I've had an AGM battery in my 4X4 pickup for engine starting about a couple of years now. No problems so far - but it's not a "deep cycle" AGM - it's an AGM intended for starting and chassis use.

I almost put an AGM starting battery under the hood in our Class C a few weeks ago, but opted instead to default to the Dark Side by installing a heavy duty liquid acid battery there - just to save a few bucks. 😞

The 2 12-volt AGM house batteries we have are still doing well at 8 years. They were made by Odyssey for Sears and are identical to the Odyssey Extreme which is rated for 400 cycles at 80% discharge. Usually discharged them just 30% so they still have cycles left. I am getting a better sense of how many amp hours are needed to recharge to full using a solar suitcase with a charge controller.
May replace after this season if we decide to do some cold weather dry camping.

Also carry an extra X2 power AGM for misc use dry camping.
The chassis battery is also an X2Power AGM. It powers the electric steps as well as the chassis. I am finding I have to recharge periodically to keep it topped up. Running the previous flooded battery partly discharged killed it early before it’s rated 7 years.

Why all the AGM? The southern half of the Cascadia Subduction Zone is well overdue for a megaquake so each time we go out near the vulnerable areas we are prepared to be cut off.

We also got around eight years on our first set of 2 12V AGM house batteries before we replaced them "just in case".

I'm curious ... why do you think that you were running your previous flooded chassis battery partly discharged too much? I'm assuming that our flooded chassis battery is getting fully charged by the alternator between campsites - but we do change campsites often on RV trips.

For those of us fortunate enough to be able to store our Class C RV's at home, I agree on keeping it kindof ready for use as a get-away vehicle at all times.

[RambleOnNW]

pnichols wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
I have a pair of 6V Duracell AGM golf car batteries from Sams Club supporting our house operations for over 4 years now. They are still awesome. I never deal with acid boil-overs or corroded terminals. I have not touched them in the 4 year period except to manually charge them when usage is high or when in storage. With easy access terminals, even that is a breeze.


I wonder how a 12V AGM battery would do in supporting the chassis.

I've had an AGM battery in my 4X4 pickup for engine starting about a couple of years now. No problems so far - but it's not a "deep cycle" AGM - it's an AGM intended for starting and chassis use.

I almost put an AGM starting battery under the hood in our Class C a few weeks ago, but opted instead to default to the Dark Side by installing a heavy duty liquid acid battery there - just to save a few bucks. 😞

The 2 12-volt AGM house batteries we have are still doing well at 8 years. They were made by Odyssey for Sears and are identical to the Odyssey Extreme which is rated for 400 cycles at 80% discharge. Usually discharged them just 30% so they still have cycles left. I am getting a better sense of how many amp hours are needed to recharge to full using a solar suitcase with a charge controller.
May replace after this season if we decide to do some cold weather dry camping.

Also carry an extra X2 power AGM for misc use dry camping.
The chassis battery is also an X2Power AGM. It powers the electric steps as well as the chassis. I am finding I have to recharge periodically to keep it topped up. Running the previous flooded battery partly discharged killed it early before it’s rated 7 years.

Why all the AGM? The southern half of the Cascadia Subduction Zone is well overdue for a megaquake so each time we go out near the vulnerable areas we are prepared to be cut off.

[pnichols]

ron.dittmer wrote:
I have a pair of 6V Duracell AGM golf car batteries from Sams Club supporting our house operations for over 4 years now. They are still awesome. I never deal with acid boil-overs or corroded terminals. I have not touched them in the 4 year period except to manually charge them when usage is high or when in storage. With easy access terminals, even that is a breeze.


I wonder how a 12V AGM battery would do in supporting the chassis.

I've had an AGM battery in my 4X4 pickup for engine starting about a couple of years now. No problems so far - but it's not a "deep cycle" AGM - it's an AGM intended for starting and chassis use.

I almost put an AGM starting battery under the hood in our Class C a few weeks ago, but opted instead to default to the Dark Side by installing a heavy duty liquid acid battery there - just to save a few bucks. 😞

[ron_dittmer]

I have a pair of 6V Duracell AGM golf car batteries from Sams Club supporting our house operations for over 4 years now. They are still awesome. I never deal with acid boil-overs or corroded terminals. I have not touched them in the 4 year period except to manually charge them when usage is high or when in storage. With easy access terminals, even that is a breeze.


I wonder how a 12V AGM battery would do in supporting the chassis.

[Kamphiker]

Sam's Club is having a 1 day sale on Duracell (Mfg by Penn / Deka)Golf cart Batteries.
$20.00 off (Limit 12)

This is a few dollars cheaper than Batteries Plus Online ordering & a 10% discount.

1 day sale August 3 2019
Sam's Club 1 day Catalog sale Items

[justin34]

You can grab a good one during sale

[DilanYah]

Buy the one on sale

[macjom]

I'm a fan of Deka batteries. They are long lasting and dependable.

[AJR]

I put in two 6V GC batteries that would fit the compartment for less than $150 each on the current camper. Just like I have done on other new to me campers. I have never had a DC issue.

The first ones were nine years old and getting weak. The rest were replaced just because….

If the charger (converter) is a three stage charger. I have not had any problems. Just check the water level twice a year.

I like cheap & KISS….

[ron_dittmer]

Gjac wrote:
If you look at cost/amp hr I think it would be hard to beat the GC batteries from Sams Club or Costco.

Reiterating what I mentioned earlier, I am extremely pleased with the Golf Car 6V AGM Duracell brand batteries from Sam's Club for $180 each. Yes they are twice the price. To-date they exceed both of my 12V wet acid battery experiences by a factor of two (so far) and continuing. There is also the benefit of never a worry about acid levels and acid boil-overs, or corroded battery terminals. The only maintenance I do with them is charge them when my volt meter reads in the 12.1v to 12.3v range. 5 years so-far so-good. It was one of the best improvements I made to our rig since we bought it new in 2007.

[Gjac]

Based I what I heard in this thread the AGM batteries makes sense in a DD where you just drive it and let the alternator do the charging. My wet cell batteries in my cars usually last about 4 years. If the AGM's last 8 years and they are twice the price that makes sense. In the MH I maintain the batteries much better than my cars so my 2 Sams club 6 v house batteries are 12 years old now and still doing their job. The Walmart starting battery lasted 9 years, not because it was better than my previous Trojan marine battery which lasted 4 years but because I just charge it when I charged the house batteries. If you look at cost/amp hr I think it would be hard to beat the GC batteries from Sams Club or Costco.

[pianotuna]

I did get a watering kit. It was, I think, old stock and it broke when being installed.

I am currently using "reconditioned" telcom jars which I purchased from Interstate. They are now 4 years old and serving me well. I do have a large bank, but I do push them HARD. Cost was less than $1 per amp-hour.

Gjac wrote:
Hi Don, so it is maintenance that justifies the cost? I wish my batteries were on a slide out to make them easier to add water and clean the terminals. It is just hard for me to justify spending 3 times the cost per battery if they don’t last at least twice as long.

[pnichols]

AGM batteries will probably last at least twice as long as liquid acid batteries if one forgets to keep the liquid levels high enough in their liquid acid batteries, or if one remembers but postpones keeping the liquid levels high enough because their liquid acid batteries are a pain to access.

Our first set of AGM RV coach batteries lasted around 8 years before I replaced them just-in-case (they were still functioning when replaced). They were taken care of by only the stock 13.6 volt fixed voltage RV converter when parked, and the RV engine's alternator when traveling.

The AGM starting battery in our occasionally used pickup truck just sits there under the hood ready to do it's starting job with no attention from me between uses - but I do dust if off about once a year.