Just to clearify....

[cowboy63645]

I am putting electric in my trailer (when I actually start to build it) A good basic, dependible design, for primitive camping, would be to put a deep cycle type of battery in the trailer, charge it off of my vehicle as it is running, and add a electrical outlet in the trailer. Is this correct? The most I will be running is a t.v., and maybe a fan. I wont have an AC unit, microwave, etc. The most would MAYBE be a very small refrigerator. Alot of the camping my wife and I do now is primite, no showers, no electric....

So one outlet would be all I would need. How long can I expect this battery to last? Will it last all weekend? A day or two? Any help is appreciated. I have searched and havent found the exact answer I am looking for. Sorry, I am a newbie at building a camper , as I am only 24 years old, and I have ALOT more questions than I have answers lol

[doug hodder]

I've gone a week on a deep cycle battery, running interior, galley, ceiling fan and porch lights plus a portable DVD player, in normal use. It still had plenty of power, but that's the longest I've gone. It started out with a full charge, and I don't charge as I go with the vehicle. Don't seem to need it. A fridge however will really sap it... Doug

[cowboy63645]

So would I be better off just running my electric off of the deep cycle battery, without worrying about charging it until I get back home? The longest trip that we would be on would be 3 nights tops. I will have 2 interior lights, a very small fan, just to circulate air, and a small t.v. I suppose I could bring along a charger to run off of my truck if need be.

[Miriam C.]

First all batteries are not the same and even have different amp hours.

I would not expect any battery I can afford to run a refrigerator and do a good job. Same for a microwave.

My trucker sister used one but her truck was a diesel power plant. You can use a generator for those things though.

You plan to charge the battery is probably good but if you are only going out for a few days, using only lights and a radio or small draw things you might not need it.

You can also look into a solar charger.

this will give you some information to start with
http://www.dcbattery.com/faq.html
http://www.batteryfaq.org/

[doug hodder]

I think you'd be fine doing that, I used to run a furnace, TV with a built in VHS tape player and lights in a tent trailer and get by for a couple of days with it once unhooked. Nothing ran continuously however. It did charge as I drove. I didn't run the line to charge on my tears since I don't always take the same trailer and swap the battery between boats and trailers, it's never mounted permanently. I just carry it in the truck. Doug

[madjack]

cowboy...first all, there is a massive difference in batteries...you will want one with as many AMPHOURS as you can afford...leaving out the fridge, you should have no problems getting 3 days with the usage you stated...there are 4 types of fridges...a regular dorm type mini fridge(120vac), a 12/24vdc compressor fridge, an absorption fridge(12vdc/120vac/propane) and the absolute worst of the lot, a thermoelectric cooler....

For your purposes, you can toss the first and last...a 120vac dorm fridge will havvta have an inverter and is too inefficient to run for an extended period in the boonies...likewise the worst of the lot, the thermoelectric, which is the cheapies you see at WalMart and such, will only cool (max) to 40* below ambient and will KILL a battery in less than a day...

That leaves a dcv powered compressor fridge, like an Engel, which sells for around 700+ bucks...they are very efficient and with a big enough battery will last the 3day weekend...you also have a 3way powered absorption unit these are similar to the standard RV type fridge...they can use 12vdc, 120vac and propane...Dometic sells a mid-cooler sized unit for around 350 buck...so there are your choices.........
madjack

[cowboy63645]

I appreciat the responces. From the looks of things, the fridge is out, I think I will stick with making my own ice at home and just carrying a couple coolers with me lol. For the battery I was thinking of the Optima Blue Top, as it has a specific application for RV's. For the few electrical things that I will have running it should have no problem running what I want it to for a weekend. Any thoughts? Now I just need to figure out which convertor to run with that battery with the highest amount of amp hours.

[Miriam C.]

I appreciat the responces. From the looks of things, the fridge is out, I think I will stick with making my own ice at home and just carrying a couple coolers with me lol. For the battery I was thinking of the Optima Blue Top, as it has a specific application for RV's. For the few electrical things that I will have running it should have no problem running what I want it to for a weekend. Any thoughts? Now I just need to figure out which convertor to run with that battery with the highest amount of amp hours.

Ok! Now make everything you can 12vdc. You might also carry a 120vac power strip for those times when you do have power.

Can't tell you about which converter because I totally got that backwards (edited) I have a small inverter and only used it during an ice storm. Battery didn't last very long.

[madjack]

...a clarification of terms...
converter...converts 120vac to 12vdc to run 12vdc lights and appliances...usually has a battery charger component to it....

inverter...takes 12vdc and turns it into 120vac to run 120vac lights and appliances...

...they are two very different things, that do two very different things and have different names...........
madjack

[Alphacarina]

For the battery I was thinking of the Optima Blue Top, as it has a specific application for RV's

Excellent choice, though a yellow top might be even better, given your description of what you want to do with it . . . . you don't have an 'RV'

Don

[cowboy63645]

For the battery I was thinking of the Optima Blue Top, as it has a specific application for RV's

Excellent choice, though a yellow top might be even better, given your description of what you want to do with it . . . . you don't have an 'RV'

Don

My thinking was, if it has enough power for an RV, it will have enough power for my application LOL. and the convertor/inverter confusion, I would want to run an interter for my specific application since I will be using regular household plugins, correct? I really hope I am getting this right, as I am doing my best to understand this, so please bear with me!!

[Miriam C.]

You will only use house hold plugins for for those things that are normally 120vac like a TV. For that you use an inverter. and that is if you hard wire the inverter. The inverter will run off your battery. They have a receptacle in them.

http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/inverter.asp

http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/custo ... W2300-2AWG

PS http://www.roadtrucker.com/electronics-4.htm

[cowboy63645]

I have a small inverter in my truck now for when I was building my barn....there ws no power at the time out ther so I had to have a way of recharging my battery's for my cordless drill. Pluged into my cigarette lighter and worked really well. I will definatly hardwire this one in!!

[brian_bp]

For the battery I was thinking of the Optima Blue Top, as it has a specific application for RV's

Excellent choice, though a yellow top might be even better, given your description of what you want to do with it . . . . you don't have an 'RV'

Don

My thinking was, if it has enough power for an RV, it will have enough power for my application LOL. and the convertor/inverter confusion, I would want to run an interter for my specific application since I will be using regular household plugins, correct? I really hope I am getting this right, as I am doing my best to understand this, so please bear with me!!

Optima batteries can be different from each other in three ways:
- internal construction: "starting" batteries such as for a car (red top and some blue top), and "dual-purpose deep cycle / starting" for us (yellow top and some blue top; models starting with "D" such as the blue D34M)
- terminals: automotive-style posts and/or GM side terminals (red top and some yellow top), threaded studs like RV and boats normally use (some yellow top, some blue top), and both auto and threaded (most blue top); the letter on the end sometimes indicates the terminals (for instance, a D31A has automotive posts while a D31T has threaded studs)
- size: Optima has an extraordinarily narrow range of just a few sizes (BCI Group numbers) - 31, 34/78, 75/25, 35, and 51; some "colours" only have some of those sizes

The top colour sort of organizes the product by type of application, but if you pick the features you want it doesn't matter which top colour it has. For use in the trailer, it's going to be yellow or blue, just because all of the red ones are starting batteries.

The blue tops are "marine", and only the models with dual-purpose construction would be suitable (i.e. a D34M, but not a 34M). The "RV" section of the Optima site just points to the BlueTop selection. "RV" just means Recreational Vehicle, and camping trailers are RVs.

If you want threaded posts (I would) it looks like any of the Marine/blue units would have the right terminals, but so would some of the Yellow units (e.g. D31T).

For endurance, you want a lot of capacity (amp-hours), and the big size is the group 31 (75 A-h), with group 34 second-best (55 A-h).

So my choices in order, without considering price or availability (which would actually be big factors) would be
1. D31T (YellowTop Commercial) - biggest capacity, right type and terminals
2. D34M (BlueTop) - next biggest, still right type and terminals

All the specs are in the Optima Specs & Tech page.

[cowboy63645]

ok, so it looks like a D31T commercial yellowtop would be my best bet from the information given. Now it all comes down to price....if worse comes to worse then i will try to find a cheaper replacement of that battery, with similar to exact specs