Be aware that batteries are one of the things that appear so simple but actually are much more difficult to understand than most give credit. One of those is how we find the charge of a battery. Voltage is the quick and simple but it is also easy to get the wrong answer!
Putting a charge in a battery is like pouring black ink into a barrel of water. If we put the ink in and look right away, we see it really black and we think it is fully black, but if we give it time and the black spreads all through the barrel we may look and not even notice the black!
When we put a voltage on a battery to charge it and then take the charge off and look at the posts to measure the "surface charge" of the battery tells us it is good but after it sets and the chemicals all through the battery get stable, we may find it looks like the barrel and not much charge!
To get a better idea on a battery condition, we need to charge it over a much longer period as it is a slow chemical process that may take a full day or more, but we need to leave it alone for several hours and then check the voltage.
A better way is to test the specific gravity of each cell but that is rarely done and shops now are more likely to do a load test, which is a way to simulate an actual use put on the battery. Auto parts places often do this for free.
One of the reasons we see so many problems with RV batteries is the way we often use them. We drive to a site, know the batteries are charged, so we use them overnight and take a fair amount of charge out, so we drive or run the generator for an hour and check the voltage. It shows the battery is fully charged (surface charge?) and we do the same thing again for a night or two and then all of sudden, in the middle of the night, the furnace stops and we may find the batteries are dead. What the heck is wrong?
If we take power out for 8 hours, put it back for one hour, and do it often enough, it does get too low to operate but how long that takes varies a lot---just to confuse us!
We operate in pretty much the same way you describe as most often we do want water and electricity. That leaves me to be okay with the far lower cost of batteries from Wal-mart as good enough for what little battery use we put on them. I use the deep cycle but do not pay premium for extreme hour ratings as we find they last plenty long if I keep from drawing them way down to damage or let them go dry when stored or charging.
This is one we use for the coach batteries but in the size/shape to best fit the battery compartment.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart...-MCA/180350522
This is not the best choice if one uses the RV in a different way as we each need to setup our RV for the way we use it!
We will camp without hookups only under extreme conditions but far prefer to have convenience and comfort and drive out to view the remote. No point in doing lots to get out in the woods if you grew up in the woods. It's a nice place to visit but you can't sell us on wanting to live there! We did that when we slept in tents!
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