3 months in and confused, but happy lol

[4x4gamer]

Hello everyone, just launched, or fell depending on how you look at it, 3 months ago. Ofcourse I launched half cocked I think my life's motto is "if I didn't do it twice I didn't do it right". I'm sure there is a ton of good info on this somewhere and vie read a ton on here but I'm ready to buy my first deep cycle "house" battery and I would love some up to date recomendations. I'm going to go the continuous duty solenoid route till I can get solar. I'm going to have the typical things 12V fridge, small TV, game consoles (one at a time), and charge stuff like phone, tablet, the like. I know it would be impossible to nail it down to specifics without knowing my exact needs and budget but if I could get a good up to date starting place as far as size of battery and manufacturer to go with. Or just point me in the right direction there are just so many choices I'm afraid I'm gonna regret anything I choose this first go at it. Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[Wabbit]

Hi 4x4Gamer, I can't help with battery, but I can welcome you and say hi! I'm thinking when I was looking into game consoles, the PS2 was about the best I could do energywise. The others just sucked up to much power. Other than that, best of luck to you and prepare yourself for expectations not being met with your gaming requirements. I hope they are met, just prepare and don't be too disappointed or look into other options. Best of luck to you!

 

[highdesertranger]

Welcome 4x4gamer to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.

you should read up on battery systems. that's a lot of stuff to run off one battery. then if it's not returned to 100% state of charge(SOC) at least every day it will have a short life. if you take the battery to 50% SOC it will take about 8 hours of driving to charge to 100% off the alternator. you need to keep your usage down until you get this figured out. it's easier to conserve energy then it is to make it. highdesertranger

 

[4x4gamer]

Thanks for the replies oh and for the link to the tips I went and updated my profile and bio. Yeah ill keep it in mind that I may not get to do all that at first. I don't plan on running it all on just one battery. I assumed whatever I buy now Id prolly buy another one and then solar. I did not know I would have to run the truck all day though to charge back up. That's not going to be possible money wise so ill prolly go ahead and get my battery and constant duty solenoid hooked up but plan on just running the basic needs like charging things up until I get to upgrade. I just really don't want to rely on my start batt any more than I already have. So thanks for that also.

 

[highdesertranger]

more bad news, if you put one battery in now and then add another battery say 2 years down the road you will ruin the new battery. well maybe not ruin it but you will significantly shorten it's life. when dealing with battery banks you treat multiple batteries as one big battery. you can't(shouldn't) put batteries of different ages in one bank. I am not trying to discourage you but you need to start reading up on electrical power. a lot of us here(me included) have thrown a lot of money away learning the ropes. highdesertranger

 

[DannyB1954]

Some people will disagree with my thinking here, but If I am charging with a generator or vehicle alternator I prefer to use a cheap Walmart battery. I like the Maxx 29DC. The reason for this is the plates inside are not as thick as a true deep cycle battery so it will charge faster. With Solar, a slow charge all day long is acceptable, running your engine all day is not. Another good feature about the Walmart maxx 29DC is it comes with a nationwide 2 year warranty If you kill it in 2 years, you get another, If you kill it after that, consider that you got your monies worth out of it. For a hundred bucks, they are hard to beat.

 

[4x4gamer]

Thanks HDRanger. And that's my problem or rather why im so gun shy on this cause that's another thing I had no idea about so thank you for that tip.

I think im gonna go with Danny's recommendation that's kinda fail safe and maybe by the time its no longer useful ill be better informed from first hand experience. Thanks brother im going to go with the Walmart deal like you suggest.