GX sized Adventure Trailers & RTT's: Why/Why not?
- Thread starter r2m
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Don’t have any experience yet with either so I don’t know if the RTT or a trailer is going to be ideal for our needs. Any camping is done the old fashioned way with a tent and the ground Haha. I like the idea of a trailer but understand it’s limitations. I wonder which would be a better option for camping in the Rockies once we move to the pac west.
I'm researching pros/cons........suggestions welcome
I believe its a $275 option to go with dual 6 volt batteries...
opposed to one deep cell 12 volt
On the 2x6v in series vs 1x12v battery, one thing to keep in mind is that one battery declining at a faster rate than the other will take them both down quickly.
I prefer parallel 12v setups to get the capacity and redundancy.
I prefer parallel 12v setups to get the capacity and redundancy.
From my limited knowledge in researching solar, 2x6V is used because you can use deep cycle golf cart batteries, which nets you more usable Ah per $$ than 12V equivilents. A lot of people are moving to LiFeP04, which are really expensive, but when you take into account it has 10x the lifespan of lead acid and you can actually use the full capacity, it starts to look more attractive.
Last edited:
Yea if you continue to move your way up the trailer food chain you'll quickly turn your nose up at the smaller and less luxurious options. We have family members with Airstreams, 35' bumper pulls and even a 42' toy hauler which is like a house on wheels. I dog on the adventure trailer a lot but that's simply because it wasn't for us. If doing the base camp thing then I highly suggest you look at a Casita trailer, they are amazing for the money and built here in Texas. If I were to consider a non-tear drop style adventure trailer to setup as a base camp for my wheeling adventures Casita would be on my short list.
Travel Trailer Dealership Texas | RV Sales Rice, TX
Casita Travel Trailers offers RV sales. Visit us in TX, or call us at (903) 200-4981.casitatraveltrailers.com
If I keep moving my way up the trailer chain it's going to end up with me buying another house
.I've seen the Casita trailer, and the Boler/Scamp trailers, but they're kind of in this middle ground where it doesn't really fit well with any of my objectives. I either get a trailer small enough to take off road, or I get a large travel trailer to leave behind in a RV park somewhere and just do day trips.. All these small trailer fall into this middle ground where it does neither objective very well.
I almost went with the two 6V golf cart battery setup. Didn’t consider the two 12V in parallel pros though, good to know.
Last edited:
no hotels out here----------
This is all correct. Plus the significant weight savings of LiFeP04, and most importantly the flat discharge voltage curve so you can use almost all of the stored energy. On all lead acid batteries, at roughly 50% discharge the voltage drop is severe and youreally Can’t use the rest of the capacity.
A 2x6v with each at 50ah gets you a useable 50ah. A 1x12v lithium gets you about 80ah useable and weights half as much.
Downside is the cost of lithium up front.
Interesting....
www.expertpower.us
LiFePO4 Series
The battery's proprietary lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry takes the hassle out of maintaining and utilizing the power you need. Batteries are meant to be used when you need them and if you need them all the time then lead-acid becomes too unreliable and exhausting to keep track of. The lithium...
www.expertpower.us
r2m
Richard
- Thread starter
- #71
I too like the lithium batteries and am considering swapping them out when my Odyssey's finally burn out, which I hope is a long time from now, but these lithium's are still very expensive.
As far as weight, using them in my vehicle, I'd prefer as light as possible for the obvious reasons.
But for the size trailers we've been discussing, I don't see much difference between saving 50 lb or adding an additional 50 lb to a trailer. My biggest concern would be battery service, regardless of weight (within reason).
r2m
Richard
- Thread starter
- #72
I have to admit, I really regret that there are so many miles and so many states between many of us. You all come off as a really good crowd.You all are my kind of people
I agree, that I really would enjoy a few evenings around a camp fire, fire glowning, smell of pine in the air, clear starry night, wives refilliing our favorite beferages, kids tucked away in the RTT or trailer, all the GX's circled 'round with us all spilling a beer or two swapping lies about adventures past, present and to come!
All right, enough of that sappy stuff... Who's broken some knuckles lately on their most recent project??
There's always a GXOR event. The problem with those large gatherings though is waiting on the trail all day to traverse a section that shouldn't take any more than 3 hours. I love seeing rigs in person and meeting new people but the heavy concentration of rigs on the trails is awful and something I try to avoid. I hope to get out to Utah and Colorado in the GX next year so I'll definitely try and meet up with a few of you if possible.
r2m
Richard
- Thread starter
- #74
I may have to do one of those GXOR events. Where do they post their calendar? I probably won't do the trail for the only reason you mentioned, but I guess sitting around waiting for the trail line to move is all part of the fellowship of getting to know the several vehicles in front of you and behind you in line.
I had a MDC Jackson for a while and loved it! Now I am looking at an XT13 hybrid from them now (wife wants an inside bathroom 
)
www.mdcusa.com
)www.mdcusa.com
