May I Have a Little Wine, Please?

Aaahhmm make that whine.... oh gosh, I hurt.  All over more than anywhere else. Moving around will be a sad process for me today.  Ok whine over, on to what I am thinking about today.

Remember a few posts back when I said I had the power.  I still do, actually I have more.  I had to ask for that second Trojan 4D.  I could not stand the thought that it would probably get shuffled into a corner somewhere and ruin. Uncle L had already told me he had no use for it. So now I have the equivalent of a full time passenger on that side.  Those batteries weight 115 lbs each for a combined weight of 230 lbs.  That is the negative, the positive is that I have 330 amp hours available. Since I only want to use the top half of those hours.  I need to find a way to keep the batteries charged. I want solar but I don't think I have enough roof space for the amount of panels I need to keep those "bad boys" charged.  I think it will have to be a combined system of solar and alternator. I was really trying to avoid that.  I think the alternator is one of the few things on Gypsy that has not been replaced over the years.

When I was playing with the refrigerators I messed up and ran one of those batteries almost completely dead.  Although it was not all my fault.  The charger I had purchased to keep the batteries charged was defective.  Remember only a dummy buys a charger with dummy lights instead of a gauge.  I knew that, I just chose to overlook it at the time. Anyway once all of the return and replacement of the charger was done, I had to charge that battery back to full capacity. Let me tell you, that was a chore.  After a day on trickle charge (2amp) my inverter was still giving me a low voltage squeal.  It actually took another day at medium (6amp) to get that thing back to full capacity.  I really don't want to do that again.

Truthfully, I know enough about batteries, solar, etc. to be dangerous. I know the equations for converting amps to watts, visa versa and ect.  I also know all the pieces needed to tie it all together.  But I don't think I have the physical capabilities or complete knowledge to do it myself.  I think I am going to have to have help on this one.