schmenke

Sorry, not necessarily a towing question, but a recent thread got me thinking.


A friend of mine has two twin 6 volt batteries connected in series on his trailer. He says this setup provides more current than a single 12 volt battery, and that many campers do this. Not being an electrical genius, I couldn't really understand this logic.


Any truth to this? Any downside to this scenario?

sunofabeach

this is true and a lot of people that dry camp do this.


2 - 6 volt batteries will provide you more amp hours than 1 - 12 volt battery.


only downside I know of is added cost and tongue weight.

EventHorizon

And if one battery fails you're screwed. Also with 2 12v you can loan one to a buddy if needed.


I use 2 12v group 29 deep cycle and have gone 5 days/4 nights running furnace/lights/water pump and have not ran out of power.

CP34

I bought a new TT last month and went to 2 6v batteries for that reason. My rig came with a group 24 deep cycle 12v and I didn't think that'd be enough as we do mostly dry camping. To get the same amp hours from 2 12v that I will out of my 2 6v, I would have to go with group 31's which would have been too wide for my setup.

I've also heard people saying you're screwed if one of the 6v goes bad but in the same sentence say you won't know a 12v has gone bad until it ruins the other one. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

acadianbob

If you dry camp more than a few days, you are going to need a small generator anyway. 2 6V batteries take longer to charge than a single 12 volt. There is no free lunch. Once those amp hrs are depleted, you have to replace them. More amp hrs with two 6's but twice as long to recharge.

We dry camped for 8 years with one 130 amp hr Trojan Deep Cycle 12 volt. It worked fine. We ran the generator for about an hour in the morning so DW could run the microwave and her hair drier. And we ran it about an hour at dinner time for microwave, etc. We would camp 2 weeks at a time with no problems whatsoever.

IMO, two 6 volt setups are highly over-rated. Possibly a benefit if you never dry camp long enough to need a recharge and then head back home.

lewisra

Everybody has their own situation and needs. Bottom line is you'll get more hours out of 2-6volt than one 12volt.

schmenke

LOL! Don't tell my wife that you camp with a hair dryer!


Thanks for all the replies. I guess I never considered the two 6 volts because we don't dry camp often; perhaps only once or twice a year.

EventHorizon

Why???


First I'm not singling you out AcadianBob but I hear this comment a fair bit.


I don't understand people who state that if you don't have at least a 2000w gen you need to get hook ups because you wont have enough power.


Our trailer has no tv, microwave or AC unit (that's the way we wanted it). The only thing that needs 110v is the built-in coffee maker which never gets used because we don't drink coffee. So a campsite without power is all we need. If the weather isn't the greatest than we play cards or board games maybe do a craft or something. My daughters always smile when they talk about the poster that we all coloured together. We've done 4 nights at one site and not needed any kind of outside source of power, 16 nights with a little 45w solar panel and been fine. Campsites here run about $6-$10 more per night with power vs no services, for $10 I can fill a 30lb propane bottle and run my fridge for months I bet.


Maybe it all comes down to what you want to get out of your camping trip.


I know I'm off topic a bit but just wanted to point out that you don't need a TV, microwave, gen set and all that goes with it to have a good time.

Dirttracker18

Everything I understand and have read tells me there is no difference between 2 6 volt batterie and 1 12 volt other than the potential for the lifespan to be better with the 2 6 volt set up.

Amp hours are amp hours regardless of how you achieve them. If you have similar amp hours in both set ups, they will last the same amount of time give the same discharge rate.

As noted, the double 6 volt set up could conceivably have a longer life span due to the construction of the plate within but it does not give more power or longer lasting power.

If you can show why this is not true I would most certainly be interested in looking at it but I doubt you can find anything to support this theory unless by more hours you are referring to the life span of the batteries.

acadianbob

Just meant to recharge the batteries. For most people, 2 days on one 12 volt or 3 to 4 days on 2 batteries; whether 12's in parallel or 6's in series.