All Fueled and Testing My RV House Battery

I made a visit to the fuel pump this weekend in preparation for our next trip in a couple of weeks. The best deal was $3.95 per gallon at ARCO. Many folks have figured this out now which results in some serious over crowding at the pump during the day. I had to return early in the morning or at night to squeeze my rig in there without the added stress of a traffic jam. The rising cost per gallon of gas really gets you thinking "should I fuel up now, or wait and see if it goes down". Needless to say, I've waited a week or two and it keeps going up. What can you do, it's the sacrifice we pay to drive our second home around.

I also, figured out that my mileage is about 6.7 MPG towing the CRV as compared to 7.5 to 8.7 MPG without the TOAD. This is good to know, since we'll be taking a long trip this summer (about 2,600 miles) with the CRV in tow. We'll definitely have to bump the gas budget up a bit to compensate. I can't wait to see what the price per gallon is in 6 weeks when we go on that trip.

Changing out my House Battery
I've been doing a lot of research lately on deep cycle batteries. There seems to be a bit of an on-going debate over whether 12 volt deep cycle batteries (one or more) are as good as 6 volt batteries wired in series. There seem to be benefits and drawbacks to both options. I plan to replace my house battery soon and will stay with the 12 volt system currently installed. I did some research on several battery manufacturers (like Optima and other higher priced brands) and have decided to just stick with the Interstate SRM-27 brand that's in there now. I'm going to wire up a second battery as well but haven't yet found the perfect spot to put it. I wish there was space next to the existing battery, but there's no room in the existing bracket. I'll probably just add a vent to one of the small storage compartments, reinforce it underneath with some metal bracing, and stick the second battery in there. I'll keep you posted on my progress. -T