Has anyone used...

[g1g]

Has anyone used a deep cycle battery as their vehicle battery?
I know it will work but will it shorten the life?
I do have a piece of machinery that I do this with because it doesn't have a generator and I only run it for short periods of time and it has been doing fine. It is on it's second battery but maybe that is because I run the first one dry several times.
What I am thinking about doing is to have both house and vehicle batteries the same and permently wire in my batteryminder. ) I understand the batteries must be the same) Then I just plug in one thing, or disconnect just one batteryminder.
Any thoughts?

[FLSTFI]

We had 3 Deep Cycles in our Class C ; 2 for the coach and 1 for the chassis. Also had 2 in my old Suburban; one for the truck and 1 for the winch. Never had a problem with any of them.
On our RT I use a waterproof Battery Tender Jr. instead of the regular BT Jr because it has a molded cord to plug it in instead of plugging it directly on an outlet. I plug it into the 120 volt kitchen outlet and the 12 volt end with an adapter into the dash 12 volt outlet. Then I hang the unit itself on the cupboard knob above the dash so that I can see the green lite thru the back windows when I walk by.
I don't know anything about a Battery Minder but what I like about the Battery Tender Jr. is it comes with a plug on the 12 volt end and 2 adapters for it. One with ring lugs and one with clamps like on battery jumper cables. And you can also get one like I use with the cigarette plug adapter so you can do it all inside without opening the hood.
I keep it all rolled up on a shelf so whether we are plugged in at home or in a campground it is handy to keep the chassis battery topped off.

[markopolo]

On my Trail-Lite the chassis battery gets charged when I'm plugged in. (Chassis and House combine when charging)

When charging, I don't think the batteries have to be the same. I know it is the best practice to have them all the same though.

Dissimilar batteries could confuse a smart charger I guess. My RV doesn't have a smart charger, just a basic Parallax that puts out a constant 13.8 volts.