Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 14, 2025 ...

Buyer beware!! Here is an article explaining the misleading information about "deep cycle batteries" in USA and Canada, such that few batteries labeled with "deep cycle" are really deep cycle batteries.
What is a Deep Cycle Battery? - Marine How To
A battery labeled with "dual purpose", "marine deep cycle", or "start deep cycle" are light duty for deep cycle because they will only provide circa 250-300 cycles down to  75% charged. This will work if you only occasionally boon dock.
A GC2 battery (wet or AGM) or a true deep cycle AGM battery will provide circa 900-1200 cycles down to  75% charged.
A GC2 GEL battery or a true deep cycle GEL battery will provide circa 2000-2500 cycles down to  75% charged. This is why Foretravel installed GEL batteries in our coaches when they were new. My personal experience includes 1200 cycles from AGM 8D batteries and 2400-2800 cycles from GEL 8D batteries.

EQUALIZING:
Any wet, AGM, or GEL battery can be equalized even if manufacturer says it cannot.
An equalizing charge is nothing more than a deliberate 15+volt overcharge to re-dissolve sulfate compounds. The problem with equalizing a sealed battery has to do with how quickly the gasses produced will recombine back to water. Producing gas faster than the recombining process will cause the battery to become pressurized and at about 5 psi, the excess pressure will be released into the air which means battery capacity is lost forever. If you see a sealed battery with bulging sides or top, it has been charge too rapidly while hot.
I do not equalize my batteries, I desulfate them continuously.