What battery should I get for a converted van?

I'm in the process of converting my Ford e150 van to live out of it. I want to make it off grid and I will have all my electronics run off of solar. I was wondering what would be a good battery to use if I'm running a cooler fridge, small electronics like toaster oven, and maybe even run a small monitor and Xbox. Links would be greatly appreciated!

The larger the battery the better. You can buy batteries designed for RVs. They are called 'deep cycle' or 'leisure' batteries. Google for size and cost.

You need a small generator dude.

Carry a long contractor extension cord because some of that stuff uses 120V power AC. Battery only gives 12V DC. You won't be off grid with those "toys".

You need to sit down and calculate the amount of power you can get from your solar cells, and the amount of power that your accessories will use. THEN buy a battery (or batteries) that will store and provide that amount of energy.

You also need an inverter to run your toaster.

Some of your other answers here make good points. A toaster oven usually uses 1200 - 1500 watts, AC. You can run it with a 2500 watt inverter, which will take 120 amps out of the battery while you warm your frozen chicken nuggets. The electronics, cell phone chargers, TV, radio, all that is low power usage, but if you can use DC products, they will use even less power. We have a DC system in our remote cabin, LED light strips, cell phone chargers, radio, MP3 speakers, ipads, all of it is powered by one 120 watt panel, has been for 18 years. The fridge would be better if I got a DC one, but in the end we decided to go with a more efficient model off the shelf, apartment sized, and use a small 750 watt inverter for it.

As far as the battery, there's a great deal of missinformation on that. But if you really want good storage bang for your buck, the best one is the golf cart battery, they are designed to do one thing, drain all day running the cart, then charge all night plugged in. They work quite well charging all day on solar and draining all night running your van. Specifically, I would suggest the Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries. Many batteries at places like Menards will say, "Deep Cycle," but if they have a rating in Cold Cranking Amps, or CCA, they aren't deep cycle. Deep cycle batteries have solid lead plates, lending themselves to feeding out light to moderate amounts of power all night. Cranking batteries have porous plates, making more surface area between the lead and acid, so you can get hundreds of amps out of them for several seconds, rather than 20 amps out of them for 10 hours. They cost less and are lighter because they have less lead in them, which accounts why they hold less total electrical power. It's almost impossible to find one at the store with a true deep cycle rating, the Amp Hour (AH) T-105's hold 220 AH each, they do not have a CCA rating, they aren't made to do that. You can find them at any golf cart repair place, the Trojans cost a bit more, brand new, maybe $140 each, and you need a pair of them because they are 6 volts each. We have been using them at our place, and at our barn for 18 years. Keep them watered and charged as much as possible and they will last a long time. Each one weighs about 82 pounds, so a pair will add 165 pounds to your van, but they will perform better than anything else that fits in the same space.

Keep in mind also that living on batteries is a little like growing your own tomatoes, you have to learn about tomatoe bugs, soil ph, watering, weeding and so forth. Gardners don't learn about this stuff for fun, they have no choice, people like me that grow our own electrons have a similar curse. If you can find it in your library, there's a great book by Richard Perez, "The Complete Battery Book." You only have to read the 2 or 3 chapters on lead acid batteries, but it explains all of it way better than all the car hacks in the world you'll meet. Richard was the founding editor of Home Power Magazine and spent his life living on the wind and sun. Try stopping in at a large RV supply place some time and see what they have that runs on 12 volt DC, and check out the links below too. Take care Conor, good luck with the project, Rudydoo