Dual battery help!!!!

How long do you plan on full-timing the RTT? I once ground-tented it for 6 weeks as part of a college class, and while a lot of fun for a young and dumb kid, even that short stay got rough.

High winds and cold snaps suuuuuck. 90 degree windless nights suck worse. And even though RTTS run a stout canvas, that shit breaks down. Those were not structures intended for much more than vacation use - my ground tent was shredded after 6 weeks despite me taking immaculate care of it. Weird, because the equivalent of 20-something weekends and that tent would have been still practically new. Yes I know a RTT will last longer than a polyester tent, but its still going to deteriorate under full time use. It'll suck worse if just the right storm comes through and you have to make repairs while still using it.

If this is a living situation that's going to be longer than a year (or even 6 months) I would strongly rethink my entire plan. If this is a short term solution (1-3 months), you could save a lot of grief if you lowered your electric demand and bought ice every 5-7 days instead. Thats the answer nobody likes, but ice-chesting it removes 60% of your solar needs, and thats reason enough to not put your nose up in the air without considering it.

 

ahh that is a good call. I would assume thats where the folks end up having the dual battery setup up front. If your not wheeling hard that works. Or as noted before run the second one as a Lithium in the bed or cab which is save to do so.

 

I have a dual battery system (24F northstar AGM) with the ctek devices (included solar input). On the roof I run two 100W flexible solar panels.
So far I have enough power to run my arb fridge and my wifes and my laptop when we were both working. On the days we were working it was mostly sunny with some clouds.

 

I generally agree on the ice chest but after doing long trips less than 3 months Ice Costs add up and just in general is a pain. Once i went to a fridge I never went back. You can pick up a knock off brand on Amazon or some other vendors on this site for under $500 for single or dual zone. I was running that up until recently when I scored a Dometic on a deal.

The simple forgoing the cooler is the all in one portable lithium setups and a cheap fridge. If you go for a small one it can be had for $2-300. If its winter time then the cooler may make sense with blocks but in summer if you are in high heat areas you will go through ice even with the higher end Yeti style coolers. Overall still cheaper but a lot more maintenance. You could prob do the cooler, battery, solar panel for under $1k. Still not cheap but its possible.

There are a lot of no name brands or not as popular brands that will get you where you need to be. You don't need to get the all in one solar foldable or blankets from the companies. and honestly you may not even need it if your on the go or near shore power (120v) on a regular basis.

 

Back in the day my fridge came with the truck, but when it would break tomorrow i would not even hesitate a second to buy a new one. They are just so convenient to have a beerfect cold drink and at the same time not having everything else soaked. Also a dual zone fridge is not absolutely necessary, because they tend to be colder in the bottom, so you can just stack up the food...frozen meat in the bottom and vegetable on the top.

 

Curious why you didn't cut the factory ground cable and connect it directly to the new sdhq terminal? I've never seen a terminal bolted onto of another terminal like that before.

 

I actually find myself running both ice and fridge, but I'm a strange use situation. I have a 3-way fridge in my pop-up, but its small and difficult to access on the road. So I have a ice chest in the bed for transferring groceries and drinks, and frequent use items go in the fridge to reduce constantly opening and closing the ice chest. It works until it becomes a big enough pain in the ass to invest in a better option.

These days though, my camp trips never last longer than 10 days. But when they do last that long, my little 120W solar panel and lithium battery are enough to sustain everything in that camper - lights, charging station, radio, and even the heater. Fridge runs in propane mode so its not eating my battery. I find myself refilling ice about as often as I have to refill the water tank (and where I find one I can find the other) so its to my advantage to run ice instead of another electric appliance.

 

RTT is nice but I like TruckHouse more. Hopefully someday, I get it installed on mine.

 

My Househouse doesnt appraise as much as the sticker on a truckhouse.

 

I know it's expensive...

Lottery? You never know.

 

Ah I did not notice that. I left my stock connector for now as I did not feel like cutting the stock one. they do include a new connector to adapt to your stock cable. There is plenty of room to do what he did in 3rd gen. Gen then no way you can do it as it hits the hood. IN that setup I would run it direct to stock or cut but it does add a lot of extra connection points.

 

Well in this case you need at least 2*1500W portable power station to fit with your existing 120W solar panel system, for example:https://yargopower.com/products/togopower-portable-power-station-advance1550-1512wh , such 1500W portable power station and portable solar panel solutions is recommended.
of course you have many more brands to choose from, for instance, Jackery, ecoflow or Bluetti, they do provide such solutions also.

 

That is why I chose the SDHQ battery terminal kit. I wanted to have the option of taking the electrical back to bone stock ahead of a trade-in or sale. I'm glad I made that decision because just recently I ended up listing my build for sale. I suspect that due to today's expensive rates for car loans, in a few months from now I will have to part out the GFC and OGE battery setup to then get the truck to sell separately.

 

I highly recommend you calculate how much power you actually need.
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Find the wattage(P) and divide it by voltage(V) to get amps(I) P/V=I
or just look it up

Laptop 50watts
50/12=4.7amps

If you had a 100ah AGM battery with a DoD of 80% that's 80 usable amps.

4.7/80=17 how many hours you could use your laptop for

add up all your stuff, think about what your night might look like, what about in the winter?
this isn't a perfect system but it'll give you a good understanding of your needs
and which setup would work best for you.
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Dual batteries with ACR

• ACR closes when either battery is charging, so you'll charge both batteries from the alternator and solar
• you'll only draw off your "house" battery at camp
• gives you a backup start battery with the push of a button if your start battery dies
• ideally should use 2 of the same batteries which means your paying for a start battery you're never going to live off of
• does not provide batteries with a proper charge profile

Dual batteries with B2B charger

• in my opinion the best option
• keep your start battery
• B2B charger can double as a solar charger
• no need for big expensive battery cables to run into the cab
• charges the battery with proper profile significantly increasing life

Do you have a tow package? they came with upgraded alternators from the factory.

You might be a good candidate for a Dakota lithium, they make an impressive 280ah group 31 (similar size) that won't require any extra wiring. It's not cheap but once you start buying ACRs, batteries, battery cables, and brackets needed for a dual-battery setup it isn't a bad option. plus it has an 11-year warranty which I guarantee you won't get out of most other systems especially mixing chemistry charging of an alternator.

Idk about 3rd gens but in 2nd gens, if you have a 4 door 2 batteries fit behind the seats perfectly. Idk if id put a wet cell lead acid in my cab but one or two sealed batteries in your cab aren't gonna kill you, especially with a good charge profile, you'd have to release a lot of hydrogen to get to the concentration where it's gonna be a problem plus your cabs pressure vent is within inches back there.

few of the words you'll see
AH (AMP hour)- Current measured in amps used in 1 hour
DoD (Depth of Discharge) How much-stored energy a battery can release measured in %.
Lithium- Lighting in a box, last up to 6 times longer than AGM stores more energy not as resilient to environmental factors 90-95% DoD
AGM (absorbent Glass Matte) - improved lead acid battery, some can charge off alternators but ideally should have a charger or alternator controller using an AGM-specific charge profile. 50-80% DoD
ACR (Automatic Charging relay)- Combines two batteries or banks when charging source voltage is detected on either battery, some have the ability to manually combine banks in case your start battery dies.
B2B Charger (Battery to Battery Charger)- charges one battery from another, allowing you to charge dissimilar chemistries off one charge source.


Not the most in-depth just figured I dump some info.