We decided to upgrade our 12-volt battery bank that supplied off-grid power to our 2018 Forest River RPOD 176. This post is about that upgrade. I will share information about our original bank, why I felt it needed an upgraded, and then will show you the look of our final upgraded battery bank.
Original Battery Bank
We only had one group 27 deep cycle marine battery in our
12-volt battery bank. It was a battery stored
in a plastic battery box that was attached to the battery tray on the A-frame of
the trailer tongue. It had 650 Cold Cracking Amp (CCA) marked on
it. The battery had two sets of wires
running to it. One set of wires were for
the main power to the pod, and the other set was for the zamp solar panel
connection.
Original 12 Volt Battery
Why We Upgraded
Everyone has their reason for a battery bank upgrade. Here
are the main reasons we upgraded.
·
Didn’t know the age or state of the original batteries
·
Wanted a bank with more amp hour (ah) capacity
·
Plan more boondocking in the future
Upgraded Battery Bank
Our new battery bank consists of 2 6-volt golf cart batterie
at Costco. I purchased these batteries at
a cost of around $90 a piece, when I traded in two old battery cores. The new
Interstate batteries were flood-lead acid batteries, with a 210ah rating.
I hooked up the two 6-volt batteries in series to give me a 12
volts battery bank. This upgrade gave me
over twice the amp hour capacity of the old single 12-volt battery. I’m hoping this equates to more time
boondocking, while not being plugged in or running the generator.
Battery Boxes
I bought 2 golf cart battery boxes from Batteries Plus Bulbs
online. The cost of both of them
combined was a little under $24. These
boxes filled up the battery tray completely on the A frame of the RPOD trailer
tongue.
How to get 12-Volt Bank Out of a Pair of 6-Volt Batteries
In order to create a single 12-volt battery bank out of the 2 different 6-volt batteries, I needed to wire them together in series. To wire together, I purchased a 19-inch 4-gauge starter battery cable from a local auto parts store for $9.33. This battery cable was used to jump between the positive terminal on one battery to the negative terminal of the other battery.
Wired in Series
Installation
Here are the steps I took to install my new 12-volt battery
bank:
- Removed the old battery box.
- Dry fit new golf cart battery boxes
- Drilled 4 drain holes in each new battery box
- Drilled 4 mounting holes in battery boxes, that went through battery tray (2 in each box)
- Bolted down battery boxes with stainless steel bolts, and nylon lock washers
- Wired batteries in series
- Installed battery box tops and tie down webbing
Things I discovered Doing this Project
With every modification there are things that get discovered.
Here the list of things I found, as I installed my two 6-volt batteries into a
single 12-volt battery bank.
·
The latches for the lids of the Battery Plus Bulbs
battery boxes were hard to open and close, plus didn’t seem to always make a
positive lock.
·
Strap to hold down top and securely tie down the
battery were hard to figure out and get working.
·
Battery boxes are very close to skin of POD
Final Thoughts
All and all this installation came out fairly well. Only time will tell how well my $125 battery upgrade
will works, and how the inexpensive battery boxes from Batteries Plus Bulbs hold
up. I will follow up on this upgrade
down the road to share my thoughts on maintenance and the longevity of these
cheap Costco 6-volt Interstate batteries.
Comments
Post a Comment