| Re: [GMCnet] dual 12v house batteries -birchaven [message #269990] |
Mon, 19 January 2015 11:45 |
Ek_Lektro
Messages: 167
Registered: March 2011
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Hey Joe,
My Birchhaven originally came with only the rear battery, under the closet (and half dead), and nothing but the start battery up front. First thing i did was get a couple of the "standard" RV house batteries: (2) Trojan T-105 6 volt golf cart batteries, and mounted them next to the engine battery, with a triple battery tray made by Ragusa. The original (2 gauge?) cable running through the frame rail looked like it was in decent condition, so i kept it in place, to run the batteries back to the fuse-box and generator. i disconnected the old rear battery and gained more storage space below the closet.
Soon after, i wanted add a heavy duty inverter into the system, so i had to run heavy 4/0 cable about 18 feet, back from the battery bank to the inverter. Later, i added another pair of T-105's, up front on the drivers side, with another Ragusa tray. With a couple of Perko marine battery selector switches, i could then choose which battery bank was feeding the inverter, and which was getting charged by the alternator, or shore power charger, and finally, solar panels.
If one of your 2 batteries is still in decent condition, and you're wanting to add a second (new) battery, but NOT have to run these 2 batteries in parallel, then you might want to consider a battery selector switch (like the big red Perko model), so you can keep one bank as reserve power, for boondocking purposes, etc. I've learned that its just fine to combine the 2 (dissimilar sized or dissimilar aged) batteries during bulk charge times, but usually best to choose individual batteries (or individual battery banks) when float charging, or discharging.
A long time ago, i heard of a book called "Living Off 12 Volts"... Maybe its still in print
Anyway, Good luck!
Greg / SolarSonic / Los Angeles
(currently re-wiring the re-built '76 Birchhaven custom cut-down 21 footer, today,
with (4) Trojan T-125's, (2) big 12v gel cells, Magnum MS2012 invertor/charger, 520 watts of solar and a BlueSky boosting regulator, and of course (4) of those Perko battery switches!)
> My birch has the 2nd house battery at the back under the closet, with a manual cut off in the bathroom under the medicine cabinet.
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