Battery recommendations for off grid with electric lift

[Galaxie Girl]

It appears we need a new deep cycle battery for our camper. It's a 2012 Jayco model 1207 that we recently bought, with an electric lift. We will be going on a trip next month: 3 nights with no hooks ups. We'll need to be able to use the electric lift (though we can use a drill to manually do it if needed) and the water pump at a minimum. We can use battery powered lanterns for lights to conserve the camper battery. Gonna look into doing LED lights in the camper but not sure we'll get that done before the trip.

I don't know anything about deep cycle batteries, any recommendations on what to get and where to get it? I don't foresee us typically camping without hook ups so I don't think it's worth getting any solar stuff.

 

[OTR1522]

if you have a Costco near you they sell Interstate under their own label - deep cycle 24 or 27. Should do fine for 3 days with minimal use

 

[OTR1522]

To save on lights these work great and have magnets so attach to bed poles easily and charge with USB- we have three and helps a bit

 

[Arruba]

if you have a Costco near you they sell Interstate under their own label - deep cycle 24 or 27. Should do fine for 3 days with minimal use

Interstate makes a decent battery IMO. Nice thing about them is they are carried by a wide range of outlets should you need to replace it on the road. Another brand I’d consider is Deka. Point S Tires carries them here, some Google foo should find your local dealer. OEM battery size is typically a 24, but if your battery box will hold it, go with a group 27.

As for LED swapping, most light fixtures will take an LED bulb. Pull one to get the bulb number and your local auto parts store should be able to cross reference it and likely have it in stock. Any reputable online retaile should be able to do that too. That should speed up the process, and they do save on your battery draw A fair bit.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[BikeNFish]

Last year, before we sold our pup, I upgraded the battery box from a Group 24 battery to a Group 27 battery. The reason we did this is the same as you describe, we do a lot of dry camping and boondocking. I also bought a new Duracell Deep Cycle battery from Batteries Plus. Upgrading to a Group 27 gave us a bit more juice for our trips. You do not need to upgrade to a larger battery, but it does help. Either way you go, you will need to make sure you have good power management if you want to keep the battery charged up enough to lower the roof, but the roof does not need nearly the power lowering it as raising it.

We also had a Jackery and a couple of 100Watt solar panels that we used to run and charge our other stuff (cell phones, camera batteries, CPAPs, etc...). The Jackery setup made dry camping easy. I was also able to use the Jackery to recharge the camper battery using charging cables. Jackerys are not cheap, but they do make camping life easier.

 

[Anita B]

It appears we need a new deep cycle battery for our camper. It's a 2012 Jayco model 1207 that we recently bought, with an electric lift. We will be going on a trip next month: 3 nights with no hooks ups. We'll need to be able to use the electric lift (though we can use a drill to manually do it if needed) and the water pump at a minimum. We can use battery powered lanterns for lights to conserve the camper battery. Gonna look into doing LED lights in the camper but not sure we'll get that done before the trip.

I don't know anything about deep cycle batteries, any recommendations on what to get and where to get it? I don't foresee us typically camping without hook ups so I don't think it's worth getting any solar stuff.

I am a newbie too I was told to lift with 7 pin still connected to the vehicle still hooked up uses vehicle battery instead of camper battery but the most important is to make sure you battery is fully charged and purchase a solar trickle charger they are a god send since it keeps it charged with normal use