Battery

Cram,

Any battery may have a reduced working life, depending on how it is treated or used. Prolonged deep discharge will reduce the life of a battery. When a battery becomes sulfated, it will result in the symptoms you describe.

A wet cell deep cycle battery shouldn't be taken below 30% charge. (Some people state 50% but this is impractical IMHO)

An AGM battery, whilst being more expensive to buy, will withstand deeper discharge cycles and charge quicker and more fully than a wet cell battery.

Before adding a low voltage discharge protector to my setup, I killed a couple of batteries that were no older than 6 months each by letting them drain down to dead flat. (Below 10.4 volts)

Bill

Also Bill, can you explain how you install/set these up....

Cram,

We migrated our second battery to a Full River AGM 100Ah battery and have been very happy since. Like you we were going through wet cell batteries every 18 months or so, we changed to the AGM have have had it in service for at over 3 years (from memory). They are more expensive to buy and weigh a lot more but they are maintenance free and work very well indeed.

I would strong recommend moving to AGM from the wet cell types. There may be better solutions now and I will stand to be corrected if this is the case but I will be added a dual battery to my boat soon and an AGM is on the buy list.

Good luck.

"We have two batteries, one in the trailer that is the wet cell and one in the cargo area that is AGM both are similiar age but the wet cell is the one that's given up the ghost. "

Marc,
Wet cell batteries only usually come with a 6 month warranty because they often die prematurely. They die because of the way people use them, and because they are difficult to fully charge (high internal resistance and need higher voltage), especially in a trailer on the end of a very long cable. I'm guessing the wet cell in your trailer was never fully charged.

So next time round, by all means use an AGM - they are easier to charge off your vehicle's alternator. But its an expensive investment, so you need to look after it, and keep it fully charged as much as possible.
You may want to use an Arrid Twin Charge to boost the voltage they receive.
You may want to regularly use a 3 stage charger, so the AGMs are stored fully charged.





When it is recharging off the alternator, the voltage drop is usually significant, and these batteries need more volts than your alternator puts out anyway. Thats why there is a market for devices such as the Arrid Twin Charge which boost voltage to 14.4. Hooking the trailer batteries up to a 3 stage charger when they get home is also worthwhile.

Assuming good wiring and earthing, An AGM in your trailer will recharge better than the wet cell you had. But its still good practice to rcharge it off a good 240V charger when you get home.

The only negative the AGM batteries have (besides purchase cost) is the weight and footprint. (size)

Before spending money on an AGM battery, confirm the cradle in the vehicle can handle the extra weight and larger footprint, especially the height.

You may find the largest capacity AGM that will fit an after market cradle in an engine bay is about an 80 Ah.

Bill

Hi Cram

I too had trouble wioth camper battery, i had a 100 amp agm, no one told me not to leave it flat wich i did reulting in it not holding charge once charged, i have since bought a 120 amp deep cycle thumper for the resone it is supose to beable to recieve charge at 25 amp/ hr i have been told ordinary deep cycle batteries have to be charged slow, but when your camping and need power for fridges you need the battery charged as quick as you can hence the larger one and also have a cteck charger that can charge at "25 amp / hr " the dollars spent to keep things working !!!!!!!

I have had a Delkor Calcium battery in the camper trailer for over 5 years.
It really has been quite neglected & has done heaps of Outback kilometres.

I'm not sure if this is relevant to your situation, but I have found that under-bonnet temperature kills deep cycle batteries. Since installing a sealed gel battery in the cargo area, I have had no further battery hassles. Just have to fully charge it on a 240V charger every month or so when sitting at home waiting for its next trip.

Regards
John

Cram, how long did the battery last???

AGM's are all well and good but VERY expensive. Maybe justifiable if using it full time but for occaisional intermittent use you can't beat a wet cell for value for money.

I use a Trojan DC and it's been running now for just on 5 years..

Hi Cram, if you know somebody with a smart charger with the pulsating charge, try that as you will find that if you have been charging the battery solely from the vehicle alternator, you will find that it would not have been fully charged to total reserve capacity of the battery, as a standard alt will not charge any battery to full reserve capacity of the particular type or design. You will find many people on this site disagree with these remarks, but if you try the smart charger on what you think is a stuffed battery and then put it back in service, you may save your self a lot of dollars over many replacement batterys. If you find this solves the problem the money you would spend on a new battery could be spent on a smart charger, and therefore prolonging the life of other vehicle batterys you may have. Col