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How can we reserve a good campground site?

Diane McGovern
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How can we reserve a good campground site?

rvshrinkDear RV Shrink:
I know life is not fair, but some of these campground reservation sites need improvement. People have figured out how to game the system and bag all the best sites and times, trade them with friends, and snag walk-in sites at the last minute. I have witnessed all of these situations. I see campground host favoritism, park employees getting their relatives into parks that are booked solid, and have even noticed sites in popular parks being sold on Craigslist. Do we just have to get in the mud and wrestle if we want a site? Taking the high road often has us sleeping on the side of the road. —Be still my Cheatin’ Heart in Hillsboro

Dear Cheatin’ Heart:
Anyone who spends enough time on the road has witnessed some of the same. The reservation systems are not perfect. You will always have to deal with those who cut corners or bend the rules. However, there are things you can do to improve your odds.

My best advice would be to learn all the rules of the game, and play by the rules. When you find someone has broken those rules and it has affected your camping rights, you need to call them on it. You are correct. I have seen many of the same situations. The best one I have heard recently is a guy with a computer program that works like eBay auction software. It scans the campgrounds that he is interested in and snags site cancellations automatically. You can usually only hold a site for several minutes before you have to book or release it. His program snags it again and again until he checks the site and decides if he wants it or not.

How do you compete with that? You don’t find campground auctions on eBay anymore. That has been blocked. If they are still scalping campground sites on Craigslist I have not noticed. The same day walk-in sites are the hardest to figure out. Often the computer will show sites that the park employees say do not exist. A lot of people overbook and cancel what they find they will not use. That is often at the last minute. I call it campground Bingo. It often takes more time than I care to spend scouting a campground we want to visit and waiting for a cancellation. Again, knowing all the rules of engagement will help.

There are often subtle little understandings that make all the difference. Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. So keep working at it until you have made all the mistakes and before long you will be an expert Campground Bingo player. —Keep Smilin’, RV Shrink

How not to write an RV ad on Craigslist

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By Steve Savage, Mobility RV Service

As one who nightly peruses the RV ads on Craigslist, I am continually surprised to see so many poorly written ads. Some are so poorly done, in fact, that it often appears they may actually be designed to avoidselling something. Here are some things I would avoid if I were posting on Craigslist (and these are also tips to be aware of if you’re searching on Craigslist):

Unless you are trolling for someone who is hopelessly naive, do not say something is suitable for RV use that clearly is not. If you believe it might work in an unconventional manner, spell out what that might be. Be honest.

Do not try to cover things up:

• Mileage: We all know when someone posts a motorhome ad that does not include mileage, it is because the mileage is very high (very high is normally anything over 60,000 miles). I skip right over those ads. Better to note the mileage and say something about how it was maintained.

• Slide-outs: Everyone knows RVs with slides sell way better than units without — that is not debatable. Why not just say it directly when a unit does not have a slide-out? You are wasting peoples’ time and tricking no one by failing to mention it or showing only the passenger side of the RV in your pictures.

• Age: Wow, does anyone really buy an RV without knowing how old it is? I know we surely don’t, nor do the dealers we work for. Age has a direct bearing on how well something sells, so sooner or later you are going to have to cough it up — why not sooner?

You are posting on Craigslist and you really will not accept texts or emails? I just have to say it: Why are you limiting how possible buyers can reach you? You are posting on an electronic medium, but you insist on a phone call. When I read an ad, I want the basics and a simple way to contact you if I want more information. I am willing to bet you reduce the responses to your ad by 80-90 percent if you refuse texts and emails. And if you don’t know how to text or email, it’s easy to learn.

What, no pictures? Human beings are visual animals — they want to see things. Everything now is about graphics. Posting pictures on Craigslist is really simple and takes almost no time. If you are looking for a way to get folks to skip right over your ad, having no pictures works almost every time. So, now you have pictures but they are of such poor quality no one can tell what they are. Pictures taken using smartphones are often too small or not of good enough quality to be helpful. If you are willing to go to the trouble to post pictures, make sure they are high quality.

Don’t be so naive as to say you are not sure if something basic on the RV works, when all it takes is throwing a switch to find out. Saying, for example, you don’t know if a furnace works means you are either too lazy to turn up the thermostat or you are trying to hide something. It really makes you look bad and it causes someone who reads your ad to not trust you. Dealers, by the way, have gotten angry with me for posting this one in the past, as they often use it.

Failing to mention the obvious seldom works. Water damage is simple to tell, provided you have done your homework with your pictures. Likewise, most folks know that when an RV is posted by a dealer and shows spaces where furniture used to be or has been replaced, the unit likely was purchased at a repo auction. It is okay to address things that have been changed or might be problems, and it shows you are honest.

Want to write an ad that will grab readers? Include these:

• Manufacturer, model, age and size
• Basic information about features without infinite details
• Overall condition and obvious problems that affect price
• Positives that might affect price, i.e., super maintenance, unusual floor plan, options
• A picture of the front, back and each side with the slides extended, if it has slides
• Good pictures of the interior
• Price. Bear in mind that “below book value” is meaningless. Everyone, including dealers, sells below retail book price on almost every unit

Photo: AlishaV on flickr.com

RVing: Travel without the hassle

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By Russ and Tiña De Maris

Family vacations are a tradition as old as travel itself. But these days with far-flung family and dwindling free time, planning a trip that’s fun for everyone takes on greater importance.

Many people are finding that traveling by RV offers the perfect scenario for vacations. Hitting the highway in an RV is an increasingly popular choice for families who want to arrive at their destination happy and relaxed. With an RV, families can travel at their own pace and take in sights without worrying about finding lodging and meals.

No more searching for a restaurant when hunger pangs strike. In an RV everyone can eat when they’re hungry — without succumbing to over-priced junk food from the drive-through. Picky eaters or those on special diets are no problem when you travel with your own kitchen. Bring along a portable grill for barbecue meals, or pop in a pizza. On-board refrigerators make it easy to stock up on healthy snacks like fruit, veggies and dip.

RVs also mean comfort for every member of the family — including the four-legged ones. You don’t have to choose between kennels and cargo holds. More and more campgrounds and parks are pet friendly (provided you follow the rules), though you should double-check before you pull in. Most pets enjoy traveling, but do a few test runs in the weeks prior to your trip to make sure your furry friend doesn’t have issues with motion sickness or anxiety. Remember to tag your pet with your local address and to bring copies of vaccination records.

Pack as much as you need. RVs have plenty of storage whether you’re traveling for a week or for several months. As airline carry-on restrictions become tighter, it’s becoming more difficult to bring all the items you need for a family vacation. Packing cribs, car seats, toys and clothes can take up every square inch of space in the family car, and all of it needs to be carted across parking lots and up stairs at each stop. An RV means everyone can take along the items important to them, and you’ll still have room for fun extras like board games, in-line skates, musical instruments, art supplies and craft projects.

Prior to departure, ensure your safety and peace of mind by performing a thorough check of your vehicle. Careful planning and preventive maintenance can help you avoid bumps in the road, but it makes sense to be prepared just in case something does happen. A stocked toolbox could save you time-consuming and costly repairs. For a real feeling of confidence, consider joining an auto service club. The Good Sam Club, which began in 1966 as an association of RV owners, offers many benefits to its members, including roadside assistance. Even better, Good Sam members enjoy a 10 percent discount at hundreds of RV parks across the U.S., access to trip planning services and discounts on insurance rates.

Remember to use your travel time as an opportunity to connect with your family. Share stories, start traditions and make memories. Traveling by RV offers the opportunity to explore the scenic vistas, national parks, vacation hot spots and top destinations with comfort and convenience. Hitting the road gives families the chance to reconnect, relax and rejuvenate.

Photo: R&T De Maris

What kind of water filter do you really need?

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By Greg Illes

We shower with it, flush the toilet, wash dishes, and (most importantly) we drink it. Behind the scenes, it also runs through all of our expensive, hard-to-service plumbing and fixtures. It hardly needs to be said that we want good, clean water in our tanks and pipes.

For most folks hooked up to an RV park’s water system, good water is simply a fact of life (although there are some noteworthy exceptions, usually associated with well water or old plumbing). But even if you are using “city water” direct, or to fill your fresh water tank, there are some good reasons to use a water filter, and the right kind, all the time.

1. Something you can see: Even the purest water will accumulate sediment, especially when it’s run through older piping systems. This fine-to-coarse material will crud up your valves and build up in your fresh water and water heater tanks.
2. Taste and smell: Chemicals in the water can make it stinky and nearly unpalatable.
3. Bugs: Parasites come in all shapes and sizes. Fortunately, typical certified water systems treat their products with chlorine, and most bugs are killed — but not all.
4. Invisible stuff: Some toxins and pollutants cannot be seen, tasted or smelled, but can wreak havoc with your health nonetheless. Again, properly treated water systems are rarely victims of such contamination.

So are you using “hook-up” water most of the time or do you occasionally draw from an untreated source? Your filter requirements will vary greatly depending on the answer. For the sake of this (short) discussion, let’s ignore “swamp water” users and focus on the vast majority of us “city water” consumers.

When you’re traveling about in your RV, you really can’t know what the next water-quality issue might be. So filtering for No. 1, No. 2 and maybe No. 3 are of the greatest interest.

For No. 1, a sediment filter is the type of choice. But these come in a bewildering array of “sizes,” meaning the filtration pore size. A typical cheapo in-line filter will have a pore size of about 100 um (micron), or roughly the diameter of a human hair. This is enough to keep out the sand, but not the silt. With this filter, the coarse dirt will be refused, but you could still see a fine brown film (rust) on your precious plumbing. Finer pore sizes are better, but will have slower flow. By the time you get down to about 0.5 um, the filter will keep out not only sediment but also the common biohazards like Giardia and Cryptosporidium cysts (which are not killed by chlorine). But at 0.5 um, water flow will slow significantly and you may need a larger filter (or two in parallel). A 5 um filter is a happy medium if you aren’t worried about cysts.

For No. 2, activated carbon is the choice, removing taste and smell and delivering great drinking water. Fortunately, many filter products are available that combine sediment and charcoal filtration in one cartridge; you just have to be meticulous about specifications so that you know what you’re buying and what it can do. In order to get exactly what you want, you will likely have to buy a housing and filter cartridge separately. These are widely available. I like the clear housings so I can watch for sediment buildup (see photo).

For a full-flow input filter you can use a 5 um type for good flow, and then deploy a 0.5 um filter for just your drinking water, which doesn’t need so much flow as filling a tank or running a shower. Extra trouble and expense, but what is healthy water worth to you?

There are some exotic filtration technologies available such as UV light and others. Please bear in mind that this short article cannot cover a lot of the detail in water filtration techniques and their advantages and/or disadvantages. Entire books have been written on the topic and extra reading is advised if you want to be well informed (and protected).

For reference only (your needs may vary), the products I use are shown in the photo:
Pentek 15071 housing (takes standard 10-inch filters)
Pentek EP-10 filter (5 um sediment + charcoal)
I also added quick-connect hose fittings for easy use. All are available on Amazon: water filters and hose fittings.

photo: Greg Illes

Greg Illes is a retired systems engineer who loves thinking up RV upgrades and modifications. When he’s not working on his motorhome, he’s traveling in it. You can follow his blog at www.divver-city.com/blog.

Get into the RV parking “routine”

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Get into the RV parking “routine”

By Jim Twamley

A novice RVer with a 5th wheel pulled in next to us one day with a sparkling new $60,000 unit. Pulling in, he almost sheared off the utility pedestal. He spent the next 15 minutes pulling forward and backing up into his pull-through site until he had it where he thought he wanted it. After what seemed like a long time, a loud exchange erupted between the husband and wife: “What are you doing? You can’t pull forward!” “What do you mean? What’s it gonna hurt if I pull forward? … and on it went. It took him well over an hour to get it all hooked up. Not bad for a newbie — I hope this didn’t cause a divorce.

Before you pull into a spot, whether it’s a pull-through or a back-in, you need to do a visual calculation of where you are going to place your rig before you proceed. I usually stop, get out and survey the spot before I pull in. Please don’t get in a hurry when positioning your rig into your campsite. Don’t take all day, but also don’t be intimidated by someone waiting while you back in— It’s an RV campground and the RV etiquette book says they must wait patiently until you are safely off the road.

Before you pull into or back into your campsite look for low tree branches extending over the site. If you have a large rig and back under a tree branch, you could tear your roof, rip off an air conditioner, vent or solar panel. I’ve passed up nice camping sites and driven back to the office to request a different site just because a tree limb was too close for comfort. After I’ve done a visual inspection of the site, I like to identify exactly where I will put my street side (port or driver side) front wheel of our 5th wheel (this is the side of your rig where your hook-ups are located).

Determine where you want to position your RV relative to the hook-ups. Is there a power pedestal where my slideouts will extend? I don’t want to bump into a power pedestal or a post with my slides. Nor do I want to have to put an extension on my electric power cord if I can avoid it. I also want the sewer drain to be relatively close to the sewer hook-up, but that’s not always possible. Try to position the sewer drain on your rig uphill from the sewer hook-up at the site. Making sewage move uphill is a challenging task — don’t try it unless you have a macerator.

After all these determinations (which only take a few seconds once you’ve done it a few times), I usually mark the ground with a visual marker, showing where I want to line up the wheels of my coach. You can use anything as a marker — a rock or stick — just as long as you can see it with your mirrors. Or you can have someone stand two feet off to the side and two feet behind (for a pull-through) or in front (if a back-in) where the wheels will eventually rest. You do this because you may need to level your RV and you need the two feet in order to pull up on the leveling boards. Self-leveling motor coaches skip this step unless you’re on a slope.

Once I have the rig at this point I check to see if it’s level. If I need to level one side or the other, I put the leveling boards in place prior to pulling forward (or backing) into the final stopping position. We also use handheld radios when backing into a site, and Marilyn can tell me when the wheels are on top of the leveling boards. Before we extend the slide, I double check that we’re not going to hit any obstacles. If you are not 100 percent sure you will clear the obstacle, measure and reposition the rig if necessary.

Following this procedure, or something like it, will give you confidence in your parking ability and actually make setting up faster. It will also set the tone for a happy camping experience!

photo: Jim Twamley

Dish time? Save time, water and soap

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By Bob Difley

Here’s a method for washing dishes if you’re trying to save water, soap, hot water usage and time.

•  Fill a small bowl with hot water and a few drops of grease-cutting dishwashing soap, such as Dawn.

•  Wash dishes with a sponge with a scouring surface on one side for tough, dried-on food.

•  Let soapy — but clean — dishes and utensils accumulate in sink.

•  When finished, load dishes into a sink drainer placed on the bottom of the sink.

•  Use a spray bottle to spray clean water on dishes to wash off soapy water.

•  Let stand in sink to dry.

With this method you will use the least amount of soap and water and your dishes will be clean.

photo:  Okko Pyykkö on flickr.com

You can find Bob Difley’s RVing e-books on Amazon Kindle.

Save money – extend the life of your entry step covers

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Save money – extend the life of your entry step covers

by Fred Burns

Carpet step covers are a great after-market item for your RV steps. They’re less slippery than the metal steps, look nicer, and help in removing dust and mud from the bottom of shoes. But they are fairly pricey at around $25 apiece ($75-$100 for a set of covers). Worse yet, the front where the cover wraps over the edge of the metal step wears out quickly, creating an unsightly look and a safety hazard: a hole you can trip on.

Don’t throw those unholy holey step covers away at the first sign of wear. There are several ways you can greatly extend their life. The first thing to do is adjust the cover so the worn spot is now over the edge — and under the step. You can usually get two of these adjustments out of the cover before moving on to the next strategy.

Next, reverse the step so the old worn spots are towards the back of the step where they are not a safety hazard, although they’ll still be noticeable. After you’ve run out of these adjustments, then it’s time to apply a strip of Duck brand outdoor anti-slip tread tape over one of the worn sections and position it so the tape is right along the front edge of the step. This increases the safety factor of the cover, improves the look, and significantly extends the cover’s life.

As you can see in the picture, the top step has gone through all of the adjustment stages including the addition of some tread tape over a worn spot. The bottom step has been previously reversed and is now ready to add a piece of tread tape.

Of course you can also apply the tread tape to a new set of covers and greatly reduce or eliminate the carpet wear altogether. Apply the tape as close to the front edge as possible, as the wear and holes will appear right on the front edge, which takes the most scuffing abuse as you climb the steps.

The first signs of wear or holes will usually show up in less than a year if you full-time. These adjustments can extend the life of the covers at least another three to five years and end up saving you $300-$400. In our case, that $400 savings will cover the cost of a cheap, off-season cruise to the Caribbean out of Houston next fall.

Oh, deer! Don’t get clobbered by a leaping Cervidae!

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By Richard Hughes

When deer or elk are about to cross the road, the natural urge is to lay on the horn. This can disorient the animals and cause them to panic, and we have all seen the results. One solution I have found that works quite well is this:

If you see animals beside the road, honk the horn in short bursts. Honk for two seconds, wait for two seconds, honk for two seconds, wait, etc. This allows the animal to determine where you are and will urge them away from the sound.

Caution: If the animals are already on the roadway, tap the horn and slow way down. If they panic, they many times slip and fall on the hard surface. By tapping and slowing it gives them a chance to move away and warns the others to get away from the road.

When you have passed the area, watch for approaching rigs and flash you lights in sets of three bursts, using the same timing as you have just used on the horn. I use three instead of two (cop ahead) or continual on and off to wake up the oncoming driver.

One time, at night, I flashed an oncoming car and the sky lit up with flashing lights. The officer swung his car around and told me, “It is illegal to flash to warn of a police car.” (How did I know he was a cop?) I tried to explain that I was warning of an elk herd up the road. Just then a car shot past, and soon skidding tires were heard followed by a THUMP!  The officer said, “Be sure to drive safely. I have to attend to an accident.”

[Editor’s note: Don’t blame Richard for the horrific story title — Bambi made me do it.]

Why don’t campgrounds show pictures of sites available?

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Why don’t campgrounds show pictures of sites available?

By Steve Savage, Mobility RV Service

One of the things that drives me nuts is lack of transparency — and when it comes to searching for a campground that problem really hits home.

My wife and I spend literally hours trying to choose campgrounds, because we’ve been slammed often enough to know what you see on the Internet is not always what you get. Now you might be thinking, “No problem, just use TripAdvisor, Good Sam, or something similar.” Again, not as easy to do as it sounds.

If you go to TripAdvisor you will find a great many campgrounds with pretty good ratings and we do read the reviews posted by others. The first problem with reviews is they’re often outdated. The second problem is even when a campground gets good reviews it does not mean you are going to get a good campsite.

Take, for example, a recent experience we had with a campground. We reserved a spot about two months in advance, supplying the length of our fifth wheel at the time we reserved. We actually listed our fifth wheel as two feet longer than it is because in our experience many campgrounds will put shorter models in the smallest possible spaces. Arriving at the campground, the space was short. It was so short we could not park our dually in the space unless we parked at an angle, and even then could just barely get its butt out of the road.

Now we were only staying for three days, so we didn’t think that was any big deal. We really are not super-fussy about campsites. So far, so good. Then about midnight, our camper was lit up like an airport runway while the work camper, seated in a service cart sporting four halogens, provided light for a young couple to set up their tent. The space they were wedged into was so small that the corner of their tent actually crossed over into our space. It was as though we had a couple camped under our awning. Yeah, I know — RV sites and tent sites should be separate, but some campground owners will do anything for a buck!

I don’t want to go into length about this other than to note the following: If we had known ahead of time the campground was going to put a tent onto part of our site, we would not have stayed in that campground. The kicker, of course, is the way most campgrounds operate — you never know ahead of time which space you will be in, and if they have a “no cancellation” policy or you are traveling in “high season,” you are out of luck.

So here is what I would propose: Many state parks we frequent have pictures of the exact site you are reserving on the Internet. You pick the site, you pay your money, and you have at least a fair idea of the site you will be camped in, weeks or months before arriving. They also have maps that provide an idea of the campground layout rather than a load of PR pictures showing fancy motorhomes and conversion buses. I want commercial campgrounds to do the same.

For campgrounds owners who say it would be too expensive, increase your rates a dollar a night. The increase in occupancy will more than make up for the cost and I promise you, if you will do that, I will actively avoid the campgrounds that don’t. I bet other RVers will, too!

To cut to the chase, when I go to a website I want to see a readable map with spaces labeled. When I reserve a spot, I want to know what spot I just reserved. A generic description is not adequate. If I am paying as much as everyone else, I don’t want us or anyone else to be camped next to a row of dumpsters or the storage building. It is about time we RVers put an end to the “bait and switch” which seems to be endemic among some campground owners. There are some really great campgrounds out there that deserve our business. But some “campgrounds” are little more than glorified parking lots and some are simply shanty towns that do little other than serve as an embarrassment to the campground industry.

CNN report shows importance of work campers to Amazon.com

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CNN report shows importance of work campers to Amazon.com

VIDEO:  This news report from CNN follows a work camping couple in Fernley, Nevada, both on-the-job at Amazon.com and in their RV where they explain the benefits of such a job, which pays $12 an hour plus a campsite in the company’s RV park. Amazon.com hired 11,000 seasonal employees including 1,100 work campers in its 40 warehouses last year and is always looking for new ones.

Truck campers, do you “dismount” your camper while camping?

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Truck campers, do you “dismount” your camper while camping?

By Russ and Tiña De Maris

tc-at-bryce-718924Call it the truck camper dilemma: Do you, or do you not, dismount the camper from the truck when you’re out camping? In the main, the answer is a vague: “That depends!” And the depends? The answer there ranges from, “If I have some other form of transportation (ATV, towed car, buddy’s vehicle) I’ll leave it on the truck,” to “If I’m going to be in one spot for more than 2 or 3 days, then I’ll take it off,” to the “If I’m towing my boat with me, I take it off, because it’s so much easier to launch the boat with the camper off the truck.”

There are some who’d much rather leave the camper right where it is, and it sometimes seems to have something to do with the loading and unloading process. Newbies to the TC world often seem to have “separation anxiety,” as does the distaff side in our family. Admittedly, it does take some amount of effort to off-board and re-board that big old camper. Seems like the older we get, the less inclined we are to go through the motions of driving out from under our big camper.

tc-at-coast-783532We did hear one that caused us a bit of a smile: One couple, presumably new to truck camping, was not open to the thought of staying in their truck camper when off the truck: They were afraid that somehow their weight in the “cabover” bed would cause the whole works to topple over on its nose.

We have fifth-wheeling friends who are the same way — won’t “live” in the trailer unless a tripod is set up under the kingpin. Well, let’s put your mind at rest: It would take a very big amount of weight to ever “tip over” a truck camper. My unproven theory is that the amount of weight required to tip over a truck camper would probably “go through the floor” of the cabover section before the rig ever tipped.

What about us? We’ll, I guess we fall into the, “That depends,” category. The photos are out of our archives. At Bryce Canyon we camped next door in the national forest, but since we weren’t too sure about our research plans, we simply left the rig on the truck. Worked out well for us, we had our “home” with us when we needed to rest from the rigors of high elevations. The lower photo finds us unloaded along the Oregon Coast. We could beat around the countryside to our heart’s content.

To round out the picture, we have encountered situations where even if we’d wanted (and were so inclined) to de-camper the truck, “house rules” would have precluded it. How so? Some RV parks (don’t laugh) prohibit truck camper users from taking their camper off the truck while staying on. Why such a rule? Maybe it goes back to a ‘trailer trash’ mentality, or perhaps they fear some sort of liability issue if someone goofs up the job while unloading and drops the unit on the ground.

Is an AGM or lithium battery in your future?

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Is an AGM or lithium battery in your future?


By Greg Illes

If you thought you knew a lot about batteries, be prepared to go back to school in the near future: The world is changing.

Once upon a time, RV batteries came from familiar factory names such as Lifeline, Trojan, Interstate, and the like. They were 12V, or better yet 6V “golf cart” styles, made with 19th-century lead-acid technology. They had a great deal of energy storage, considerable weight, and some obnoxious idiosyncrasies associated with their chemical technology.

Around 1980, AGM batteries (Absorbed Glass Mat) were developed, initially for aviation and military use. Still of lead-acid construction, AGM soaked up the acid in a fiberglass mat. Then the whole affair was sealed up tight. Presto, no more leakage, no more water maintenance, no more dry cells. Still pretty heavy, and a bit less energy storage per pound.

Sitting on the sidelines, gel cells and variations on sealed lead-acid were lesser players in the battery market.

Then, electric cars started to become a reality. Almost overnight, vehicle battery needs changed from a few hundred amp-hours of capacity to a few thousand amp-hours. Lead batteries having that capacity made up more than half the weight of early electric vehicles. Something else was needed, and lithium was the answer.

But lithium started out with a very black eye. Laptop battery fires poisoned the market’s enthusiasm for years, due to the very real fears of a major vehicle fire. But eventually, a fireproof lithium technology was developed, and today lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is the choice for any kind of vehicle battery.

After studying this field for some time and working my way through wet cells and then AGMs, I recently bought a set of LFP batteries to run in my motorhome. While my “jury is still out” on what constitutes the perfect battery configuration, I’ll summarize what I know for now.

Flooded cell — This is the common wet cell battery that everybody loves and hates. It’s cheap, messy, widely available. They have to be mounted in a well-ventilated area and must be kept right-side-up at all times. They can accept up to about 20 percent of their rated capacity when charging. High discharge rates will quickly drain them and shorten battery life. Normal life span is about 4-5 years or 500-1000 charging cycles.

AGM — About 50 percent more expensive than wet cell, there’s never an acid mess or need to replenish water. They can be mounted in a closed compartment and in any orientation. Charge acceptance, discharge, and life span are like wet cell.

LFP — Nearly four times the cost of wet cell, but life span makes up for it: easily 8-10 years and 3000-5000 charging cycles. Fully sealed, any orientation, and about 1/3 the weight of wet cell or AGM. Perhaps most importantly for RV/solar applications, LFP will accept 3X its capacity in charge rate, which allows use of full solar capacity at all charge levels. They also can be discharged at very high rates without any penalty (I run my microwave on battery power). LFP batteries have been full-custom applications until recently, but there are now drop-in replacement LFP products for lead-acid batteries.

There is a great deal more to say about all these batteries, but space is too limited here. Clearly, AGMs are worth the expense if you want a cleaner, lower-maintenance setup. But LFP batteries are a total game-changer. Lighter, faster, higher charge/discharge rates. And lots more money up front. LFPs aren’t for everybody — but they do have some compelling advantages.

photo: Claus Ableiter / wikimedia

Greg Illes is a retired systems engineer who loves thinking up RV upgrades and modifications. When he’s not working on his motorhome, he’s traveling in it. You can follow his blog at www.divver-city.com/blog.

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