Need deep cycle starting battery recommendations

[Booyah45828]

Lol, you guys are dating yourselves now.

Like I said, I've ran them dead numerous times. I've jump started it a few, charged it up with the trickle charger the others. Leave the bus run on high idle for an hour or two and it will be good enough for another day/night. If I knew we weren't going to run the generator, I'd try and high idle it like that every day.

And I know this completely contradicts what I would advise as best practice for batteries and the alternator/engine. But it is what it is.

A low voltage cut out isn't a bad idea. I have no idea what that magic voltage number would be though. Depends on how much juice you need to start it, and whether or not you have a back up plan in case it needs charged or a jump.

[turf]

nyuk nyuk nyuk a wise guy eh? we'll see about that!


now, im wondering how lifepo works as a starter battery.....idk, i have no clue.

im pretty straight forward, trash goes to the landfill, poo goes to the sewer, and electricity comes from pluggy things in the wall.

i have long considered a solar maintainer, one of those ... someday, i'll get one, kind of things. since i have a big gen, i have little need for solar, so i never jump and get one.
one of the issues i had with my battery bank being left plugged was i boiled it dry at least twice, charging it and not watching water levels...nothing is foolproof

[TheHubbardBus]

Well, I went way down the rabbit hole today.

Found quite a few AGMs marketed as dual purpose featuring high cca and advertised as being better suited to deep / frequent cycling as opposed to traditional starting batteries. Deka Intimidators were one such example. Their 9A31 battery (group 31) is 1050 CA / 925 CCA. East Penn makes Deka, so I started looking around. Napa batteries are made by East Penn, and they happen to have a 9F31 with identical specs and case construction. They call it 'commercial agm'. $350 w/ a 12 month replacement warranty. Duracell 12v auto batteries are also East Penn, and their ultra platinum group 31 looks to also be the exact same battery. Its $300, and comes with a 4 year replacement warranty from batteries plus (by far the best, at least before reading the fine print). O'Reilly auto has a super start 'fleet and heavy duty agm', (AGM31T) once again appearing to be exactly the same battery. Best price I've found so far at only $240, but with the worst warranty... 18 months limited.

Also read multiple reviews citing premature deaths of oddyseys, but couldn't find any claiming they lasted significantly longer than AGMs with similar capacity like those I just mentioned. And they're 2x the price of the super starts.

EDIT: It appears the Napa 9F31 is different. Deka also has a 9F31, which they both advertise as incorporating 'Fahrenheit' technology. They claim up to 3x life in high heat environments. Looks like their version of the 9A31 is $280, so midpack in price.

[cadillackid]

like i say to the nay sayers. . my batteries Plus Blue-tops work flawlessly as starting batteries and i often leave the dashboard screens on when I leave the bus.. hang out wit hthe radio jamming.. in winter in the red bus ill run the webasto and the front driver heater for several hours and still easily start the bus..



I do charge them wit ha Victron charger set up for AGM batteries when the bus is parked at home-base.. the victron will charge and then does a maintain mode where you can leave it connected for months if you like and it wont overcharge them.. the alternator gives a decent charge.. but AGM batteries do like a little bit higher charging voltage than regular batteries.. mine are in fact dual-purpose.. I have them in my DEV bus and my Red bus. . actually I think theres one in my Superior now too.. its a gass bus so just one..

[TheHubbardBus]

Are those the X2s, Christopher?

[HamSkoolie]

I once put a used car battery on my 8 1/2 foot slide in camper. bolted down a black battery box secured to the rack on top and the roof. Fan my cables down the side attached with blobs of that well known two part epoxy. Ran that puppy for years with no problems.
Of course all it did was run a few lights and a couple of fans.
It charged off the truck alternator with a relay under the hood that automatically disconnected it when the engine wasn't running and had a shut off switch in the cab. When we'd start up in the morning I'd let it run a bit before letting juice go to the upper battery and I'd kill it when I figured it had enough charge.
Totally computer controlled by the gray matter computer in my skull.


And I got away with it for three cross country trips, numerous weekend trips, and it was still up there when I gave the camper away some 15 or more years later.


But it wasn't a skoolie or van with lots of electrical demand.
Hey, if it works for you..... you do you.

[turf]

ouch! i just saw the price on those batteries.

a mechanical battery isolator is a lot cheaper than that.

my battery box fits 3 group 31s. why not use 2 for the starter and a third on the battery isolator for your stereo?

take your start battery out of the loop and depend on #3 for your stereo. that way you can stop worrying about your start battery.

all three batteries are connected when driving/charging, only 1 is connected when parked for your stereo.

a $30 switch is cheaper than ruining a $500 battery

( i think i paid about $130 for my last grp31)
lowes sellls the deka brand - watch them for sales
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Deka-12-Vol...ttery/50183735

on bigger batteries, i don't think i've ever seen a warranty longer than a year. at least not in the price range i shop in.

[TheHubbardBus]

That's really a great solution, Turf. I'm going to try to go that route if I can, even though again I don't know if I have room for a 3rd. We'll see.


Gracias everyone. Learned a lot & much appreciated!

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by TheHubbardBus

Are those the X2s, Christopher?

I believe they are.. ill check when I get home from my trip (I actually flew rather than bus on this one)..


they are pricey but they last..


the House batteries in the DEV bus at 6 years old are still giving me (according to my victron) at / slightly above the rated Amp hours on each one.. I did end up pulling them out to replace them with a set of 5 matched batteries (freebie nearly new deep cyclers from a customer's syste I pulled out).. so now I use one of those in my Gas SUperior as its battery, the other one is in my basement as a spare for now..



I *DID* hurt a pair in the red bus that I accidentilly ran DEAD! and by dead I mean DEAD!.. (3 volts)... they were 3 years old in my red bus and still worked even after the run-down but didnt seem to have the original capacity.. batteries plus did warranty them out for me.. I got complacent and left a USB device plugged in and didnt have the shore-power keepalive charger connected.. shame on me ... I need to find a Low-power device that can break the circuit to my USB ports and keepalive for the engine computers..

[turf]

my bus is set up with 3 group 31s and a solenoid style battery isolator. the #3 battery is for my generator. the generator's alternator is hooked to all three batteries just like the bus, so when either of them are running, all batteries charge.
its a nice setup done by the bookmobile convertors - not me.

for just a stereo on #3 - thats your new house battery

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by turf

my bus is set up with 3 group 31s and a solenoid style battery isolator. the #3 battery is for my generator. the generator's alternator is hooked to all three batteries just like the bus, so when either of them are running, all batteries charge.
its a nice setup done by the bookmobile convertors - not me.

for just a stereo on #3 - thats your new house battery

im using a solenoid style isolator also.. it can be auto or set to be on all the time.. I wanted all of my batteries to be similar type and voltage in case for some reason I wanted to use them all.. its not a great idea to use starter for house usage, however if I were trying to sleep a night with my electric A/C on (and have my portable generator).. then I might want to include my starters in the house bank, knowing I can use the generator during awake (non quiet) hours to charge the starters if I ran the whole mess too low..

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

im using a solenoid style isolator also.. it can be auto or set to be on all the time.. I wanted all of my batteries to be similar type and voltage in case for some reason I wanted to use them all.. its not a great idea to use starter for house usage, however if I were trying to sleep a night with my electric A/C on (and have my portable generator).. then I might want to include my starters in the house bank, knowing I can use the generator during awake (non quiet) hours to charge the starters if I ran the whole mess too low..

We have a generator backup for those days or weeks of cloudy weather (and intend to plan for a future deployable windmill since she likes to be at teh beach which is eternally: Overcast, Windy, but Cool. We still are installing 10kW of lithium to start and building room in the rack to just slide in another 5kW battery for 15kW if we find we need it.

Of course if we do, we'll have to find a place for all the stuff YOU KNOW we'll accumulate in that drawer reserved for a third battery. LOL

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

ham?
there are beaches in oregon?
just giving you a hard time?
never been there and no desire.
but never had a desire to go to michigan but fly out there in the middle of august.
we will see how that goes.

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

ham?
there are beaches in oregon?
just giving you a hard time?
never been there and no desire.
but never had a desire to go to michigan but fly out there in the middle of august.
we will see how that goes.

We have beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, lots of big rivers, snow. But we'll be traveling so there are 5000 miles of Continental US coastline to explore. Hawaii isn't on our list to visit in the rig but Alaska is. However I don't think we'll visit much of that coastline, a bit, but not a lot.
And then if you're in Wyoming.... forget solar, just put up some wind mills! LOL

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

I'm really enjoying the Turf / TheHubbardBus love-hate thing you have going on. You guys were meant for each other. Which one of you is Walter Matthau and which is Jack Lemmon in this scenario?

I here for the show.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

We have beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, lots of big rivers, snow. But we'll be traveling so there are 5000 miles of Continental US coastline to explore. Hawaii isn't on our list to visit in the rig but Alaska is. However I don't think we'll visit much of that coastline, a bit, but not a lot.
And then if you're in Wyoming.... forget solar, just put up some wind mills! LOL

my Superior Loadstar came from one of those wonderful oregon Deserts (people laugh whe ni tell them yes thwere are deserts in oregon).. the reason the yare wonderful is because it allowed me to find a 40 year old bus with virtually Zero rust on it... and I didnt roast to pick it up in august...


Love the idea of a windmill on a beach.. im more of a Hot florida beach sort, however the one thing is its always breezy.. seems like esp at night when youd want it to be.. maybe in oregon its always windy at the beach...

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

.. maybe in oregon its always windy at the beach...

And in those deserts. I went on a 3 1/2 hour flight from Medford (southern border of Oregon) to LaGrande (NE corner of Oregon) in my Cessna with a pilot and student pilot to pick up another airplane. My Cessna has about 4 1/2 hours fuel on board. EIGHT HOURS LATER we got to LaGrande after a fuel stop in Prineville.

While winds aloft are usually higher, they're not usually 60 mph at teh height we were flying (barely 6000 above sea level (over 3-4000 foot terrain) so 2-3 thousand feet above teh ground. When you're only doing 110mph, that makes things TOUGH.
Of course when we arrived the wind on the ground was 26 gusting to 30, right down the runway. I practically hovered to the ground and had teh shortest landing roll I ever experienced.

[Dragonpop]

Have you looked at the 8D batteries versus the group 31s. They are about as close to a deep cycle battery you can get with a start battery. They also have a higher amperage capacity than the group 31 battery. My 1996 Bluebird AARE came with two 8D batteries in the battery tray originally.

[Booyah45828]

1 8d is roughly the same size as 3 group 31's fwiw. With 3 group 31's typically having more cca's and less weight. A lot of equipment has been switching over to parallel 31's over 1 8d, as they're cheaper, lighter, and get the job done just as well.

If you have 2 8d's installed you have a much larger battery tray then what he is working with. Standard tray will hold 2-31's or one 8d. Might be able to squeeze 3-31's in there, but it will be tight. No way a standard tray will hold 2-8d's, that was an option though.

[turf]

I'm not sure what size is a standard battery tray.

here is a pic of mine, 2+1 group 31's,
the battery tray part is 23" and there are a couple of inches room for the cables next to the batteries.

this set has last me since 2019...knock on wood.

unrelated funny story....
i had a bus a couple years ago with an 8d battery.... ropes on the side to carry it ...its a workout.
last year on my van build, i got a big lifepo in the same 8D case with ropes on the side.
big difference!!!!!
the first few times i picked up the lifepo, darn near broke my jaw, knocked myself silly. they are big and heavy like...30 lbs.... not the 130lbs an 8D is that i was expecting to pick up