Solving the Power Problem
One week in and we’ve finally gotten a hold of this power situation…
There is nothing worse than returning to a home with no power. This is how we felt with our trailer for first week of owning it. The fridge was always off when we returned from a day trip, and things were beginning to get warmer and warmer in there. It’s an awful feeling knowing that food can go to waste in a moments notice. We just could not keep the fridge going all day if we left for a day trip. I wasn’t about to start babysitting this trailer in any capacity.
From the get-go, I was determined to fix this power issue, and solar panels are not an option for us at this time. Solar without the proper batteries are a bit of a waste – one day we’ll get there.
In an effort to replace the dealer’s 12-volt battery that I believed to be defunct, we installed two 6-volt deep cycle batteries and ran them in series. Running the batteries in series converted two 6-volt batteries into one giant 12-volt battery. I read blog after blog encouraging this setup and this is what we went with.
My Initial Take on the Dual 6-volt Setup
The dual 6-volt setup has been an absolute dream. Charge and discharge rate is greatly improved from the single 12-volt battery. When we’re off the grid I run the generator for 30-minutes in the morning just to keep the batteries topped up. During this time we’ll typically run the coffee maker and get breakfast going. At 1,500 watts the coffee maker loves to pull a bit of juice, so it’s good to do that with the generator on. After the coffee is ready, the generator is off, and it’s smooth sailing for the rest of the day and overnight.
I estimate that we can go 2-3 days with this dual 6-volt setup without a single charge. It’s not a great idea to let the batteries fall below 40-50% charge, so for now I refrain from “testing” the capabilities of these deep cycle batteries. It is nice to know that we’ll make it 2-3 days in the boondocks without a single drop of gas.
Dual 6-volt batteries – ABSOLUTELY the way to go.
