6 volt batteries

[Rhust]

I have a grandby on order and went with the dual 6 volt option. Does anyone know what batteries four wheel camper uses? Are they a good battery?

I also went with the 160 watt roof mounted solar panel and the 130 liter fridge?

Will I have enough power to run for up to a week at a time?

Thanks

 

[Norsman]

Dual 6 volt batteries with your solar setup .. you’ll rarely see a dip in your battery ( using primarily the fridge) if it can get a few hours of sun or driving per day.

My battery is topped off usually by 9am after running the furnace and fridge all night. I installed a Victron Bluetooth battery monitor so I could see exactly what is used and how many hours I have left at the current draw.

If you live in Phoenix or Las Vegas... we’ll I don’t know.

 

[Rhust]

Thanks for the reply. I live in Idaho, and in spring and fall I will be using the heater at night.

Are the 6 volt batteries it comes with good quality? Are they lithium, Amg or wet cell?

Thanks

 

[Norsman]

Thanks for the reply. I live in Idaho, and in spring and fall I will be using the heater at night.

Are the 6 volt batteries it comes with good quality? Are they lithium, Amg or wet cell?

Thanks

Yes, the batteries are good AMG ones from Leoch.

 

[camper rich]

I ordered our Grandby with the duel battery setup but bought my own 6 V Lifeline AGM golf cart batteries. I also have a folding 100 W Renogy Solar panel to supplement my 160 in times of not enough sun.

Whether you have enough sun can vary depending on the campsite. We have camped in some campgrounds in the PNW where there is very little sunlight due to the big trees, and on our trip to Alaska we had so much rain that we never saw the sun for 4 or 5 days at a time. I carried our Honda 2200 generator for that trip and ended up using it several times.

 

[craig333]

Under normal circumstances I'd say you should do fine. I have about 225ah worth of batteries. The other day (night) in very cold temps my heater ran probably every twenty minutes. Microwaved my breakfast burrito and still was only down to 93% S.O.C. It doesn't take much sunlight to recover 7%. I should be able handle five days before I have to recharge. I haven't yet had to use the alternator to supplement solar but it should work well on say an Alaskan trip where I'd be driving a lot anyway.

The only thing I'd check is making sure your charge controller is outputting the correct voltages to keep your batteries happy.

 

[Bjammin]

The battery setup on our Hawk has been great. We have the 160 Watt solar panel into to 6-volt AGM batteries which run the fridge, and heater. We live in Oregon and can often get grey, dark skies, but so far we've only gotten a little worried. It's true that on dark winter days we wake up with the batteries below 12 volts, but even with grey skies, they perk up pretty quickly in the morning.

 

[Vic Harder]

Under normal circumstances I'd say you should do fine. I have about 225ah worth of batteries. The other day (night) in very cold temps my heater ran probably every twenty minutes. Microwaved my breakfast burrito and still was only down to 93% S.O.C. It doesn't take much sunlight to recover 7%. I should be able handle five days before I have to recharge. I haven't yet had to use the alternator to supplement solar but it should work well on say an Alaskan trip where I'd be driving a lot anyway.

The only thing I'd check is making sure your charge controller is outputting the correct voltages to keep your batteries happy.

Microwave? Now that's glamping!

 

[Vic Harder]

It's true that on dark winter days we wake up with the batteries below 12 volts, but even with grey skies, they perk up pretty quickly in the morning.

Below 12v with no load on them? That would put you at well below 50% SOC which is not good to do on a regular basis as it greatly decreases battery life. For reference, with no load 12.2V is about 50%.

 

[craig333]

Yeah, not good. I wake up with 12.8 volts on my batteries.

The microwave is cheap 600 watt thing I bought years ago. How its stood up to the abuse I have no idea.

 

[billharr]

I copied, printed and laminated this chart years ago. keep next to a small voltage meter.

 

[pvstoy]

If looking at chart only, make sure there are not loads on the system and the battery has had a chance to equalize (rested).

 

[camper rich]

I try to not let my batteries get below 12.4 volts (75%), and only occasionly down to 12.2 (50%). I think there are a lot of people who will run them down to where the lights get dim--not good for the batteries. 11.6 volts is essentially a dead battery.

 

[Rhust]

Thanks for all the replies.