Inverter; Check, Battery; Check, now what?

[Puckuck]

Hello,
my name is Puck and this is my first post. A little about myself, I've recently turned 23 years old, quit my job as a GM front end tech, and I'm taking my 6-month project van on the road to finally live a life of adventure and spontaneity that I dream of. I have a 1991 GMC vandura G1500. This is my third van but my first time officially living in one full time. I've done a lot of work that I will be posting to a blog, eventually...

I've got my living situation setup. Very low budget, but it works. The only thing I don't have figured out is my electrical system. I have a 750 W inverter (1500 W peak) and 850ish CCA deep cycle battery. Great. Now what's my best route of charging this battery?

Hook it to the alternator? Cheap, but costs gas... How do I go about doing it? Can I safely charge while driving? I've heard something about an isolater to cut off charge to the deep cycle?
Or do I just sit outside with the van running with the van mounted battery cables switched over to my deep cycle? Or jumper cables?

How about a jumpstart/charger battery like the one in the picture attached? I could use that to charge my deep cycle battery, then when I go to a park, gym, library, fast food, friends house, I could charge the jumpstart battery via 120v wall outlet. But these things can't handle constant draining and filling like that, can they?
So many thoughts and questions with so little money and time. Lease is up in 2 weeks!
Solar is out of the question, although I would love to set one up if I could afford it.

Hope my questions made sense, like I said I'm looking for cheap, practical, and effective ways of charging my deep cycle battery. This is a 3 month trip.

Spanx!
Puck

 

[LeeRevell]

You have a few basic problems......
1) If you talk "CCA", it's NOT a 'deep cycle' battery, but at best, a Marine battery, certainly more a starting battery. A house battery is rated in Amp Hour capacity.
2) Charge a bigger battery off a jumper battery? Uh..... no. The jumper pack battery is a tiny battery, similar to a motorcycle/small equipment battery. Not made for charging big batteries.
Best bet early on is to go back through the forum here and read up on batteries, charging, etc - especially look for Sternwake's longish posts. A lot of reading, but some very valuable info.

And, welcome to the madness that is vandwelling!

 

[SternWake]

A 850CCa battery, is likely a group24 size battery and has about 75 to 85AH capacity,  Hopefully it is a marine battery and not a starting battery.  A marine battery is not even a psuedo deep cycle battery, despite the words 'deep cycle'' right on the sides.   The very rare 12 volts Psuedo deep cycle batteries are not in the same league as 6volt golf cart batteries, and still ~30% more expensive than marine/dual purpose batteries

However for a 3 month trip, even if your  battery is just a starting battery, it will likely not fail during your 3 months.  it will not be  healthy happy battery  at the end, but it should still work at the end of it.

Hook it to the alternator to charge, use a simple solenoid triggered when the engine is running and wire/cable no thinner than 8awg. MPG loss will not be measurable.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...ke-a-cheap-isolated-dual-battery-setup-for-50

Carry a grid powered 115vAC battery charger of at least 10 amps for when you can plug in at a friend's house and carry a quality extension cord to reach the charger. You will likely need to fool the charger into starting at the full rate if hooking it up soon after driving. Turn on loads until battery voltage falls below 12.8v then start the charger.

Think about an inexpensive jumper pack for those times when you depleted the battery too far and need a jumpstart.  if not a jumper pack, at least carry jumper cables and the patience to wait for somebody willing to jumpstart you.  Also know how to properly attach jumper cables so you do not risk your vehicle or the donor vehicles electrical system by incorrect procedure.  You'd be amazed how often people do Dumb things when jumpstarting vehicles.