TGIF

Up at 04:30AM with my bride, had coffee and then she was off to the truck company. I decided that today I would replace the batteries in our rig. At 08:00AM I started calling around and could not find anyone who had 6volt deep cycle batteries in stock, I wanted to compare what kind of amp hours I would get with two 12 volts in parallel or two six volts in series. I called Wal Mart, Farmer Charlie's, Auto Zone, no six volts.

I decided to go down and remove my batteries and measure the two shelves they sit on to see what would physically fit. The two 12’s that were in there were group 24’s which are a medium size battery, it looked like I could go larger in size. so armed with the dimensions I went to Wholesale Battery of MO. in O’Fallon MO. When I arrived from the amount of big trucks having their batteries replaced I figured this is the place for heavy duty batteries, I talked to the Manager and he showed me the 6 volt deep cycles they had but they were 10 inches tall, which was the height of the bay but would not leave room for the cable hook ups on top. He showed me the amp hours, and said the only way I would get a dramatic increase is to go to four 6 volts. He suggested going to group 27 deep cycle 12 volts which will give me 400 amp hours, but he said all those numbers are misleading since you can only go down so far and they need recharging. But since I didn’t have a big inverter to run A/C stuff while I’m unplugged until I went to a bigger system the group 27 would have plenty of power and amp hours for camping with the equipment I have.

I decided to go ahead with them and found out batteries have shot up a bit in price in the last 3 or 4 years, but these have a 5 year warranty so I will try it.

Got home and found out if the group 27’s were going to fit I had to make a small alteration to the trays, The width was just right and the height gave me room for the cables to clear, but they were about an inch longer in length than the tray, so I looked and there was plenty of room in front to the door when it is closed, So I bent the shelf lip down so it was flat and they slid right in like they were made for it. They are quite a bit heavier, so that weight will be added to the trailer weight.

                        New batteries, just fit.

            Now were ready to roll on vacation.

I had comments from others and I if I go to an inverter for more A/C power my next change will have to be either make room for more batteries or a bigger trailer. I do however see a generator in out future, I did put a larger diameter (gauge), fused charge line on my truck but if you set without being hooked up that won’t do you much good.

So now after the shake down cruise to the Lake I feel like were ready for our vacation. It is still in the mid 90”s today maybe I should have stayed a few more days at the Lake. But Adam’s Mom was missing him so I took him home.

Ah now this feels good, got my swimming hat on too..

                Does it get any better than this.

Well that’s about it for today, Not much else going on. We will be having company this weekend, Donna’s Brother Pat and his wife Kathy will be in St Louis from their home in Cincinnati. They want to meet us for Dinner on Sunday at JJ’s where Donna works, luckily Donna is off on Sunday. Kathy is putting up a good fight against cancer and we are all hoping she is being successful.

Everyone be safe out there. Sam & Donna……..