Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Travel Trailer Batteries

I got hit for two new batteries i in my 2109 Duramax a few weeks ago. Shop said just change them every three years because it won't be long after that they will let you sit stranded.

I have slide in pop up camper, not a trailer, but I went the deep cycle at first. I ran into all the problems RC said. Now I have two 800 CCA truck batteries that I can charge with my generator and a charger or with the truck itself. I ran a set of heavy cables from the auxiliary battery in the truck, back to the truck bed. I put a set of connectors like you see winches hooked up with on them. I put another set on the two batteries. I can hook those batteries to my camper. If I need to charge with the truck, I hook them up to the cable in the bed.The truck will put 50 + amps into the batteries and charge them in about 155 minutes.

I put a cigarette type 12 v receptacle in the camper and I can charge my phone, Kindle and portable oxygen concentrator battery. Replacing all the lights in the camper with LED bulbs helped lot too.

I have 14 ft dump trailer and it has it's own charger or deep cycles, I disconnect that battery completely, but leave it in the trailer, I have no place to put it that doesn't freeze, but that trailer does not get used in the winter.

FWIW........

I use these 12V inverters while out with the drone & cell phone

Keeps my batteries up to snuff

Do you have faith in the Optima jell type batteries ?

Currently running two in different trucks....but they're only 2 YO

Firm believer in keeping trickle type NOCO chargers on stored vehicles

We have been running AGM for the last couple years on our 24' bunkhouse, two Weize 12v 100AH with a Zamp 230 volt portable solar panel to charge them.
Plenty of power to run the furnace all night, as well as led lights and a propane fridge. We also charge all the phones, speakers and ipads from the 12 volt outlet in the camper. We boondock in remote spots, the only time the camper is plugged in is at home. No TV or microwave.

Works great, park in the shade and put the panels in the sun. After a couple cold nights and cloudy days you start to wonder, but we have not drained the system yet. A couple hours of direct sun will charge the batteries to full, a day of clouds will bring them back up to 80-90 percent.

As my girlfriend is now self employed and fully remote working, we are thinking about upgrading for enough power to run starlink and a router. Coincidentally, that would allow us to run the AC as needed too.

Looking at server rack style LiFePo units, but will need to mount them inside due to the cold weather we regularly camp in. Will need a big inverter and more solar as well.

The only drawback to LiFePo so far is charging below freezing, but with built in heaters and BMS shutoff it seems closer to functional than just a couple years ago.

Not a fan of generators camping.