What do I need?!

One of the most common questions we get about 12v camping setups is “what do I need?” this question is as open ended as “how long is a piece of string?” when considering what you need to operate a successful 12v setup is to sit down and do a handful of calculations on what accessories you require to run and what sort of timeframe you will be requiring your 12v setup to operate these accessories.

At the core of every 12v setup is a reliable AGM battery. AGM is different to your standard vehicle crank battery, AGM Technology is designed to let you pull small amounts of power over a long period of time, it achieves this by having an Absorbent Glass Matting which is how it earned its AGM title. This glass matting is soaked in sulfuric acid which creates the chemistry where power is generated!

The size of your AGM will be determined by the overall power requirements of your campsite, this could be as simple as some LED Camp Lighting and a USB charger or as complex as running a 12V Fridge Freezer and inverter. To calculate the size of battery you will need to calculate your overall requirements which are referred to as “Amp Hours” or AH.

To begin with, we need to consider the amp draw and time of operation of our camping accessories:

This total consumption is over a 24-hour period, and is relatively small in comparison to other 12v setups. However this is where things start to get a little bit confusing, most 12v batteries are rated for their overall capacity, where in the real world you are lucky to use around 50% of a deep cycle batteries rated capacity before potentially damaging the internals with a process called “sulfation” which can reduce the overall recharged capacity by many factors and even destroy a batteries ability to be recharged. This is called depth of discharge or DOD, and is where the term DEEP in Deep Cycle Battery comes from with a standard crank battery only being able to be drained effectively to 85% capacity before it suffers, whilst being able to output many more cranking amps in a short period, they are ideal for starter motors and the like, but require recharging as soon as possible.

As you can tell two identical capacity batteries offer completely different performance for different tasks!

so with this in mind our simple 12v setup with a fridge some camp lighting and phone chargers, we will need a battery with at least 90.6 Amp hours of capacity, the Adventure Kings 98Ah Battery is perfect for at least 1 day at camp with these calculations.

But what if you need to stay a while?

If you are looking at staying at camp for a handful of days, then an auxiliary charging system such as a 12v Solar or a 4-Stroke Generator, these systems offer an easy and painless way to recharge your camping 12v setup.

When you start looking into 12v charging solar setups you can equip your campsite with an incredible 18.5 amps for up to 10 hours of sunlight a day resulting in a surplus of charging capacity in the realms of double your battery capacity, in the realms of 200+ Amp hours of charge per day.

For your simple 90.6 Amp hour requirement, effectively extending your stay indefinitely thanks to the excess, whilst this math adds up on a clear sunny day, obviously effects like cloud cover and even shady campsites will reduce the overall effectiveness of your solar charging setup, so equipping your setup with an excessive battery capacity like the Adventure Kings 115Ah battery and the largest solar charging system in the range, like the 250W solar panel your setup will have a reliable and trouble free silent and easy to use charging setup!

Find out more about the whole range of 12v accessories, and charging options within the Adventure Kings range head to www.4WDSupacentre.com.au call our team on 1800 88 39 64 or visit one of our stores to speak to one of our experts in person to figure  out the best possible setup for your campsite and to pickup your solar equipment for the best possible prices!