Dual Battery - Deep Cycle or Cranking

Sam, I think that we all tend to get brain washed with all the trends and fads.

I been through the Deep cycle bit, I did not experience any advantage of disadvantage. The battery eventually died.

I have for the last five years used two Cranking Batteries in my dual battery setup. It has never presented any problems. I buy batteries that have a two year garranttee.

This is the old ... "How long is a piece of string, and what colour" ... question. I agonised over the same question for a long time, and eventually bought a deep cycle battery ... but you know what ... I am not that sure that it matters a whole heap. They all tend to die just after the warranty period, and they all still seem to give you 12V ( or there abouts ). So the answer is .... Go the cheaper battery and replace it when it dies. Unless of course that you ALWAYS run the battery flat between charges etc etc etc....

I hope that this is helpfull .... or not ....

The Rotronics Idependant isolator will help a great deal as well. Parallel systems tend to rob the batteries of life a bit ....

I personally have a deep cycle coz it suits my use, but from your proposed use you would probably be better with a normal battery, or better still something like the Century MarinePro series (Exide have a similar range), that can cope with small amounts of cycling.

Stay away from maintenance free starter batteries coz once they are flattened fully they die very quickly.

We run our fridge nearly every weekend plus the deep cycle gets a full cycle on our monthly camping trips (2 nights without recharge).

Sam
Check out the last issue of 4WD monthly - there was an article dealing with that subject in there. Buy the magazine anyway - it is terrific.

Sam, I'm using the Exide Extreme - essentially a hybrid between the two - more rugged construction, 2 year warranty, and has served us well on quite a few extended stays. Cheers. Andrew