Battery for 2018 T@B 320

Terry

Newby questions:  Deep-cycle wet-dry battery provided by the manufacturer does not seem to hold up well especially when Boondocking.  Have already replaced two.  What is the best or most "cost effective" battery for the T@B 320?  
An obvious question: when charging the battery in the garage on electrical when the 120V source is directly plugged into the T@B I assume the switch connecting the battery to T@B must be turned on (to green) closing the wired connection to the battery from the T@B. 

pthomas745

Your battery switch should be turned on. (Although, it is  not clear what you mean about charging in your garage:  with the camper plugged in?  Or with a separate battery charger connected to the battery?)

Your real question should be:  why are these batteries being ruined? 

How do you monitor your battery state of charge?  And, do you allow it to run down well below 50 percent state of charge on a normal basis?

Sharon_is_SAM

@Terry, when hooked to 120 v or when towing, the battery switch should be on to allow for battery charging via the 120 v or TV and to allow the break-away brakes to deploy in case of a TV-Trailer disconnect.  Make sure you use a surge protector when plugged in to 120 v to protect the TaB electronics.  

If you use a battery charger directly connected to your batteries, you can turn your switch off.  I know ours specifically directs to not cause a load on the battery while charging.  

Battery management is something that we have all needed to learn.  The stock batteries provided by most dealers rarely provide more than 75 amps.  As a standard rule of thumb - you don’t want to use more than 50% of your available amps as you will shorten your battery life.  So, you can use less than 40 amps before you should thoroughly recharge.  So, the dealer battery is not ideal for boondocking unless you have solar or a generator to recharge.  As pthomas745 noted, you need to monitor your state of charge.  You can start with a cheap 12v meter like this Innova from Amazon.  

Here is a battery state of charge chart.  Aim to stay above 12 V.  If you have a KIB monitor, be aware that it works within a range and it does over estimate the actual charge.

With boondocking you need to understand your average amps used daily and plan your battery management around that.  You may decide that you need a larger battery, more solar, or both.  

BrianZ

@Terry, we have only limited boondocking experience, but we prepared for it by getting a larger 12V golf cart battery with 150 Amp-Hours, plus a solar panel & charger, and a battery monitor.  The new battery is twice the standard size, so could last up to 4 days even without the solar panel.  We used both frig & Alde on propane - did you?. 
See my writeup here..
https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/133815
There are links at the end showing how I upgraded our battery & installed solar, etc.
I'm wondering how long each of your batteries lasted before you recharged them & which devices in the camper you powered?  Did you ever turn on the SeeLevel battery monitor to see what the voltage was, and if so, do you recall what the lowest voltage was before you stopped using it?

ScottG

I'll second the above recommendations to learn about battery management. I killed my first battery in one season. My second battery--a a basic $100 group 27 wet cell--is starting its fifth season. While it is showing a bit of age, it is still very serviceable.

The bottom line is that you can throw a lot of money at upgrading your batteries, but if you don't understand how they work or how to manage them to meet your needs, you are likely to kill them as well.

Denny16

The fastest way to kill a wet cell battery, is to discharge it past 50% capacity, or less than 12 VDC.  Once the battery hit 12VDC, it needs to be recharged ASAP.
So a 100AH wet cell will only give you 50AH of energy.  You need to determine what your power use age is, and a shunt style battery monitor,is the best way to determine this and prevent battery damage.
cheers