recommendation for new battery

Lou · 07-30-2015, 06:16 AM

Anyone have a good suggestion for type or brand of battery to replace the one in our 2008 Pleasure-Way Excel ?
I am sure I have read about this on the forum but searching didn't produce any useful links.

Today was the first time the new site would allow me to log in. I didn't do anything different it just decided to recognize me.
We have had problems since the beginning with our battery power. We thought it was just adjusting to only having one. Although the battery is supposed to be okay it won't make it through the night with the furnace turned to come on only at lowest possible temperature. This time after driving all day it was empty by 4am because the porch light was accidentally left on.
Our generator is okay but you can't run it until 9am.
Usually we drive every day and have been able to manage all but the furnace. This time we were camping with our grandson and thought a good drive every second day would keep it topped up for using only LED lights and water pump, but no such luck even without leaving something extra turned on.

wincrasher · 07-30-2015, 12:36 PM

If your still on the original battery, it's quite old now, and is probably also a small battery - most likely a group 24.

Also, your charger may not be the smart type that will do proper 3 stage charging.

So what battery do you have now, how much space do you have in your battery box, and what brand and model of charger do you have?

As far as brands go, Trojan and Lifeline are excellent choice, but have a high pricetag. I'm sure others will chime in with their favorites. Check your dates on whatever you buy -- some places don't maintain them very well and they can be quite old.

Mike · 07-30-2015, 02:07 PM

West Marine has their Dual Purpose AGM batteries on sale now. They're made by East Penn who make Deka, among others.
Dual-Purpose AGM Batteries | West Marine
I'm thinking of replacing our set with 2 of the GR27 models before our next trip, which may take us to Alaska. Don't want to run into the furnace problems you mentioned.
Batteries + also has a house brand made by East Penn, or so I'm told.

Davydd · 07-30-2015, 02:10 PM

A 2008 Pleasure-way would have a smart converter/charger with built in Charge Wizard 3-stage charging. They used the Progressive Dynamics 9200 series. If not the battery would not have lasted that long. The battery is simply worn out and can no longer hold a charge. Replace with a deep-cycle marine/RV battery of the same size and type you already have. That would be the no-brainer, don't upset the apple cart approach. If you have a wet-cell lead-acid battery now you might want to upgrade to an AGM which requires less maintenance (or worry). If your battery is old, then I would not replace with anything exotic or much more expensive since you probably have practiced good battery management over the years. It kind of depends on how long you expect to keep using the B you have if you want to seek a top of the line battery like Lifeline.

Lou · 07-30-2015, 06:06 PM

Thanks for the help and sorry for misleading you. Electrical systems are something we don't know much about. The battery is not 2008. It was "fairly new" whatever that means when we bought our 2008 Pleasure-Way Excel in 2013.
It says it is an Interstate Deep Cycle SRM-24 550 CCA 690 140 reserving capacity. It is 10 " long by 7" wide by 8" high and the battery tray won't hold an extra battery.

wincrasher · 07-30-2015, 06:51 PM

If it will take a battery that is 13" long, 9" high and 7" wide, you could fit a Group 31 battery, which would give you around 110 amp hours. That would be significantly more capacity than your current Group 24 battery.

Mike · 08-02-2015, 02:10 PM

West Marine (still) has a Group 24 sized AGM rated at 79 ah (not bad for that size) on sale until today. It should be able to run your furnace easily overnight. Probably for a few days.
- battery stats according to their website - btw, the battery case dimensions listed on their website were wrong for the GR27 model, so likely are for the GR24.
Group 24 Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) Battery, 12V, 79 Amp Hours, 135 Res. Min., 525 CCA, 800 MCA, 9 7/8"H x 10 7/8"L x 6 3/4"W, 53 lb.

The ah ratings were based on 20 hours. I also had their staff measure the case footprint to make sure they were actually standard GR24, GR27 case sizes, and not what was stated on the website.

booster · 08-02-2015, 02:58 PM

You didn't mention how much the furnace ran overnight, but in moderate weather (down to about 35-40 degrees) ours will use 10-20ah when set at 62 degrees. I would expect on the lower settings you would use considerably less. A porch light is probably between 1 and 2 amps, so could use as much as 10+ah in that time. That is not a lot of power, but you also have only one battery. It does sound like the battery is going bad, or you are not getting it totally charged to full (very common).

IMO, it is almost always worth the cost and effort to put in a battery monitor like a Trimetric, especially with a single battery setup that is using much of the capacity a day. Having the monitor will allow you to see where your power is going, but as importantly, how well you are doing at replacing it with daily charging of whatever sources.

I think you may also want to look at things like LED lights and maybe more efficient other items like TV if you use them. They can make a big difference in run time.

Lou · 08-05-2015, 03:54 AM

Do you think this will work? The battery we thought of buying won't fit. We decided to try for West Marine Group 24 sized AGM rated at 79 ah but it is half an inch too tall to fit through the opening in the battery compartment. My husband is thinking of filing a gap in the fiberglass lip of the door frame so the battery post will slide through. The door will still cover the gap.
Is this a good idea?
Thanks to everyone who gave advice. We really appreciate it and we are learning. I also asked Pleasure-Way about their new lithium batteries but they said the van would all need to be rewired so not a good idea.
Thanks to advice many of you have given to others, we have already replaced most of of our lights with quality LEDs. I posted about some of the weird things that happened and how we solved them.
We don't use the TV and when we used the furnace it was set to come on only if it got very cold. I think the idea of a real battery monitor is great but will have to figure out where to get one. The monitor that is built in says the battery is totally refilled after 5 minutes of idling and even I know that, that is ridiculous.
One of the the reasons we went to West Marine as Mike suggested is that it was only 10 minutes from our house. Almost no-one around here has any kind of RV so we have to drive across the entire city and across the inner suburbs to get to any kind of RV related place. It never occurred to me that with so many boat owners around us that there would be nearby Marine equipment stores that might have some things we need.

Lou · 08-05-2015, 03:58 AM

Do you think this will work? The battery we thought of buying won't fit. We decided to try for West Marine Group 24 sized AGM rated at 79 ah but it is half an inch too tall to fit through the opening in the battery compartment. My husband is thinking of filing a gap in the fiberglass lip of the door frame so the battery post will slide through. The door will still cover the gap.
Is this a good idea?
Thanks to everyone who gave advice. We really appreciate it and we are learning. I also asked Pleasure-Way about their new lithium batteries but they said the van would all need to be rewired so not a good idea.
Thanks to advice many of you have given to others, we have already replaced most of of our lights with quality LEDs. I posted about some of the weird things that happened and how we solved them.
We don't use the TV and when we used the furnace it was set to come on only if it got very cold. I think the idea of a real battery monitor is great but will have to figure out where to get one. The monitor that is built in says the battery is totally refilled after 5 minutes of idling and even I know that, that is ridiculous.
One of the the reasons we went to West Marine as Mike suggested is that it was only 10 minutes from our house. Almost no-one around here has any kind of RV so we have to drive across the entire city and across the inner suburbs to get to any kind of RV related place. It never occurred to me that with so many boat owners around us that there would be nearby Marine equipment stores that might have some things we need.

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