Residential Fridge & Best Battery Setup

[joyhunton]

Hello, fellow Montana owners! We are considering upgrading to another Montana and initially wanted to stay away from the residential fridge since we do like to boondock occasionally. Would like to hear from those that have been camping with a residential fridge, pros and cons and very importantly, anyone experienced with boondocking with one? How long do the batteries last? What kind do you have 12v or 6v, and how many? How long do they take to recharge? What about lithium batteries, a better choice? We would love to add solar in the future but not sure when that will happen so need battery info for now without solar. Oh, and another important factor is we will also be having an additional inverter installed to run a CPAP machine all night so that will use power overnight as well (dealer also researching wiring bedroom outlet to current inverter). Thank you for sharing your insight!

[cw3jason]

I added a second interstate 24 battery to take the trailer down to Disney. Here are my results. batteries were fully charged, fridge running on inverter. stopped first night at Walmart, next morning everything still running. drove to campground second night pluged in to shore power. everything worked. day 3 not enough juice left in batteries to keep inverter running if truck was shut off. The inverter shuts down before batteries are completely drained, safety feature to save the batteries I suspect. had to start truck and reset inverter everytime I stopped and shut off the truck. Lesson learned: 2 batteries are good for 1 day, maybe alittle more. after 24 hrs even being plugged in or when driving, the batteries do not charge fast enough to replenish what the inverter has used, so the fridge will only run off the truck alternator and inverter and shut down if truck is turned off. If you plan on Wallydocking more than 1 night, you need to get better batteries. 2 deepcycle 6 volts possibly. Same results on the return trip from Disney, accept we didnt Wallydock untill the seccond night and some time in the early morning the inverter and fridge stopped. just reset once truck was running and home we went.

[swanny]

how old was the original battery you added the new battery to. I have a friend in the battery business and he tells me adding a new battery to a used battery really has an effect on the new battery. he said always use all new batteries.

kevin

[Bigboomer]

The Interstate 24's whether single or pair are really only good for short term boondocking. Anything long term for these batteries you need a good source of charging to get them back to at least 90 percent with either hooking up to shore power or using a generator. If the batteries get above 50% discharge you are taking a chance on ruining the batteries.

If you are looking for more than a night of boondocking you need to look into a true deep cycle battery set up such as 2 Trojan T-105's and either a generator or solar panels to keep them charged.

[brenkco]

I have 4-6v batteries for my rig and residential refer. They are good overnight for running various items as well as the refer. As Les said, charging is needed the next day to bring the batteries back up. I use a Honda 2000.

Ken

[cw3jason]

quote:Originally posted by swanny

how old was the original battery you added the new battery to. I have a friend in the battery business and he tells me adding a new battery to a used battery really has an effect on the new battery. he said always use all new batteries.

kevin

only a couple of months old. Yes I had heard that too, but I didnt think a couple of months would be a problem.

[cw3jason]

quote:Originally posted by Bigboomer

The Interstate 24's whether single or pair are really only good for short term boondocking. Anything long term for these batteries you need a good source of charging to get them back to at least 90 percent with either hooking up to shore power or using a generator. If the batteries get above 50% discharge you are taking a chance on ruining the batteries.

If you are looking for more than a night of boondocking you need to look into a true deep cycle battery set up such as 2 Trojan T-105's and either a generator or solar panels to keep them charged.

I agree. as you can see in my post. I only got about 2 nights out of them and the charging while driving was not sufficient to keep them running by day 3.