Riggins with little brother Charlie and little sister Sadie.

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Friday, June 10, 2011

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.

Rigbatteries06-10-11a

                        New batteries, just fit.

Rigbatteries06-10-11c

            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.

Sam06-08-11c

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

Grandpa06-011b

                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……..

6 comments:

  1. My head is spinning from all of the amp hours,6 or 12 volts, deep cycles...Holy Crap..I guess that's why Donna I and Donna II let Sam and Dennis handle that stuff.
    You sure looked all calm and cool in that pool...I was jealous...Stay calm and cool..It cooled off up here to 70 degrees.!

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  2. I tryed out the gen set in the rig I just got and it works great A/C,TV and lights.

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  3. Love the photo of you in the pool...way to cool off!

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  4. Pretty soon you will really be set up to fulltime. But if you are like us there is always something more needed.

    Since we left your place:

    1. Ordered two wall hugging recliners. Tired to our current onces taking up so much needed floor space.

    2. Bought a satellite system. Now have DirecTV. Len and I both happy - he with his Westerns, me with my Fox News addiction.

    3. This new truck just does have give when traveling down those horrendous bumpy interstates, especially with the rig traveling behind us. So today ordered an air ride King Pin system. Just can't take my insides getting shaken around any more.

    So, friend - as I said, there always seems to be something else to make life more comfortable - even when a fulltimer.

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  5. That pool water looks soooo good and cool. Just what you need on a hot day!!

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  6. My DH is working on figuring out a solar set up for us. I have watched him measure and measure, listened to the difference in battery set ups and so much stuff my head spins. He is an engineer so he has to research everything for a long time before he actually does anything. It sure gets complicated quickly. Glad you are almost ready for vacation. :)

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