[Motor31]

We dry camp very little. Only when we need to transfer to overflow here at DM AFB in Tucson.

We are still on our first set of batteries going into the 6th year of owning the rig. The trailer came with a single 12 volt deep cycle. I purchased a second right after we got the trailer as I never wanted to rely on the single battery to operate the hydraulics. Since the hydraulics handles quite a bit of weight on the front landing gear I wanted to have plenty of juice.

I felt the dual 12 volt was the better option because if there is a battery failure, usually a bad cell, I can cut out the second battery and still use the hydraulics on one battery. You can't do that on 2 six volt batteries. Why spend twice the money on 2 six volts or a gel cell when a cheaper wet cell 12 volt will handle the job? If you like spending money, have at it. I see no reason to do so when we dry camp so little.

I check the water level on the batteries every 3 months. A gallon of distilled water goes for the trailer batteries, the tow vehicle batteries (4 of them) and the toad (jeep) for almost the entire year. It seems far cheaper to do that than to buy gel cells. That is using the standard converter unit and not one of the "smart" charger style units.