Adding a deep cycle battery to your 4WD is one of the natural steps in everyone’s camping life. You’ve had a few trips with the old ice box and simple lighting setup – you’ve fallen in love with camping – and you’re a bit envious of one of your mates that runs a fridge and lights – it’s to take this camping thing  bit more seriously – get set up to camp for longer and really throw some fuel on the fire that is your passion for camping.

Then it all comes to a grinding halt when you start research deep cycle batteries – you see different types, different sizes and different brands all with different prices for what seems to be the same product – where do you bloody start?

At Adventure Kings and 4WD Supacentre – we’ve made it simple for you – for starters – to run a fridge – you need an Adventure Kings AGM deep cycle battery. These batteries can be drained a lot further than normal batteries, and are made to be constantly discharged and charged again. And then there’s size, and again I’ll explain it simple then in depth further on…

If you run just a fridge and go away only on weekends – get an Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 98AH. If you run a fridge, lights and a few other bits of gear and mostly use it on weekends – get the Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH. If you travel more and camp for weeks – get two Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH – and match a solar panel to this battery bank.

Now – let’s explain why we say this… If you go away for a weekend camping – your camping fridge will run off your battery with no charge input from – say – 6pm Friday through to 10am Sunday. That’s 40 hours. An Adventure Kings 60L Fridge/Freezer draws about 1 amp every hour – so it’ll take about 40 amps out of your Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 98AH, and you can usually safely draw about 50% out of AGM Deep Cycle Batteries. 98 minus 40 = 58 – you’ve kept your battery in the safe zone and had your fridge running all weekend. This allows for it to work a little harder should you be in and out of it all weekend grabbing food and drinks.

If you add Adventure Kings LED Camping Lights on this – you’re only adding an extremely small power draw for a few hours a day. Charge a phone etc. as well and you might push your Amps use for the weekend to 50-55Amps. This is when you might look at upgrading to the Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH. 115AH minus 55 amps = 60 Amps. Again in the safe zone.

Even if you’re doing a week camping trip – you’re often not driving the 4WD for the whole week – so if you’re doing a 30 minute/1hr drive – you’ll give your Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH enough charge to last that little bit longer.

If you’re planning a big trip – say to Cape York, the Gulf of Carpentaria, or even a big lap – you really don’t need any more than two Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH – here’s why. 230AH gives you about 110 hours of non stop use of a fridge and accessories. That’s 4.5 days without moving, without plugging into a solar panel. If you add an Adventure Kings 160w Solar Panel with PWM Regulator to your setup (extremely cheap) – you can put about 60amps a day back into your system. That’s about what your drawing every day. Worst case – say you’re drawing 70 amps a day, and putting in 60 amps – you’re only removing 10 amps from your battery supply every day. If you have 110 to remove from your battery bank – and removing 10 amps a day – you don’t need to turn your car on for 11 days! If you’re camping in one spot without moving for longer than this – we’re bloody envious!

Camping is made so much more comfortable when you add a few of those mod cons from home. Whether it’s the portable DVD players to keep the kids entertained, or a way to charge the laptop and camera batteries, having reliable 12v power in your vehicle is a game-changer. Just imagine how popular you’d be around camp if you had the ability to run a hair-dryer for after those afternoon swims!

This can all be done incredibly easily too, with the addition of an Adventure Kings 1500w Pure Sine Wave Inverter. Mount one next to your Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery and you’ve got a portable 240v power station you can take with you anywhere you go camping! The pure sine wave technology allows you to power even the most sensitive equipment like laptops, and it’s tough enough to run anything up to and including some hair dryers or coffee machines!

Gone are the days when camping meant roughing it, and to be honest, we’re happy that’s the case. The more comfortable you can make your campsite, the more you and your family will want to go camping – and that’s a win for everyone. Add in a quality 12v system to your car or 4×4 and watch it supercharge your next camping adventure!

Whether you’re after Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 98AH or the Adventure Kings AGM Deep Cycle Battery 115AH – you can be sure you’re buying a high quality deep cycle battery that’ll turn you into a proper camping expert (or close enough, anyway!). They’re not just high quality – they’re also one of the cheapest deep cycle batteries you’ll find. 4WD Supacentre can offer such high quality gear at such low prices because they buy in huge volumes, cut out the middle men, and work on razor thin margins – and they pass all these savings onto you.