Batteries are better then ever. Way back in the good old days, a top shelf car battery had an 18 month warranty.
The 12 volt system was introduced in 1956 - then new high compression engines, AC, power accessories, meant the 6 volt electric system couldn’t keep up, especially with generator charging systems.
Modern cars and trucks have all that stuff and more. Security systems, satellite comms, all sorts of parasitic drains. Check the voltage after a few days and they are depleted. There is enough juice to reliably start the engine - but the battery will be toast in just a fraction of its potential service life.
My last trip with lead acid was the Deka sealed 12 volt ones.
Didn’t get five years before almost every one was dropping one cell. New they were going for $450. I bought them 3 years old and had nothing but issues.
My usage was 4 in series to get 48 volts for a solar inverter. I could float them to 54v, but when called upon, they would undervolt within unreasonable time.
Not worth the details, they are in the heap.
Today I am a happy camper with 280ah LiFeP04.
“Batteries are better then ever. Way back in the good old days, a top shelf car battery had an 18 month warranty.
The 12 volt system was introduced in 1956 - then new high compression engines, AC, power accessories, meant the 6 volt electric system couldn’t keep up, especially with generator charging systems.
Modern cars and trucks have all that stuff and more. Security systems, satellite comms, all sorts of parasitic drains. Check the voltage after a few days and they are depleted. There is enough juice to reliably start the engine - but the battery will be toast in just a fraction of its potential service life.
Yep, very well explained. The trick with lead acid batteries is never let them get below 10.5 volts or let them sit down on charge too long and they will last much longer. We lived off grid for quite awhile, and with proper maintenance and “rotation” in the bank our cheap common 12v marine deep cycle batteries would last at least 4 years. Something about the slow discharge and slow recharge from wind and solar actually helped the life expectancy vs the fast discharge and fast recharge from vehicles.