Stereo and Batteries

teardropper · Post by **teardropper** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:18 am

OK. I've got an old motorhome. I'm putting a stereo in the cab, with new speakers in the door and existing speakers in the back. It should provide it with enough sound. I don't listen to music much out there, but occasionally it's nice.

My question is, I have a spare 55 a/h AGM deep cycle battery. When I get to the playa, can I take out my starting battery and put the AGM in and then listen to the stereo as much as I want, then put the starter back in on exodus? It would seem to be OK. Or should I just put the AGM in the RV at home, drive with it to BRC and carry the starter as the spare? The AGM is a Blue Top Optima.

junglesmacks · Post by **junglesmacks** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:45 am

Personally, I would use the deep cycle as the listening battery and the starter as the spare. Those deep cycles are meant to be fully drained and then charged up again.. rinse and repeat. You'll probably wear the battery down a few times and need a jump to start up and charge it, and you could use that regular battery as your jumper. Regular car batteries are meant to provide quick peak cranking amps for things like starter motors. Deep cycle.. lower amps but for longer durations..

teardropper · Post by **teardropper** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:00 am

Though they can be drained down, and I would do it there, they will give more cycles, they'll last longer, if you only take them down 50-60%.

mudpuppy000 · Post by **mudpuppy000** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:03 am

I doubt the deep cycle will last the whole week, but you can just start up the engine to recharge. (hopefully you don't run the battery dry)

Solar panels might be handy for this setup too, but kinda late to get some of those.

teardropper · Post by **teardropper** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:12 am

Hmm. Actually I do have a solar panel. I'll be taking it to the playa. It's 64 watts and will be used mostly for camp music and lights.

I'll bring my charger.

Jackass · Post by **Jackass** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:12 am

If you're just using it to power the stereo for a couple of hours per day, you will be fine with that deep cycle...if you're not running any amps

Just_Joe · Post by **Just_Joe** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:48 am

Yer good. Drive the rig down with the "normal" battery.
Switch out to the deep cycle on playa.

(Come to the Friends of Black Rock trailer on Tues 10-2 and say hey.)

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:31 pm

Is it a deep cycle optima or the regular one?

Optima differ from most deep cycle in that their deep cycle is identical except for having thicker plate, and slightly lower output.
Not a major difference.

You can use two identical deep cycle optimas for cranking and backup.
Be sure to buy from the same lot number and at the same time.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:37 am

Did you verify if the optima is the deep cycle blue top or the cranking blue top?

teardropper · Post by **teardropper** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:58 pm

It's a D34 and is listed with cold cranking amps. The caveat from Optima was to make sure it has enough CCA. That must apply to cold weather starting. I put it in under the hood and drove down with it. I ran my radio to BMIR or iPod or flash drive actually quite a bit. I brought my starting battery, too. But I started it up on Sunday, just to check, and it spun and started great. I hard wired the radio so it was not key dependent and used no power amp. I had lots of batteries.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:40 pm

They don't seem to have as large a separation between the cranking and deep cycle batteries, mostly at the expense of the deep cycle batteries.
And there doesn't seem to be both listed for the marine style blue tops any longer.

I would still suggest two, identical and from the same lot, with an isolator diode set for charging.
The blue tops should work fine.

Even at a lower rating, the deep cycles usually cranked okay, due to the fast recovery of these batteries.
They used to rate at 525 or so.