motor home house batteries


ravengsc

Junior Member
I bought a 2005 Monaco La Palma, gas, GMC Workhorse chassie in 2011. When plugged into shore power, my 4 house batteries( 3 years old) need additional water every 10 days to 2 weeks. This seems excessive. I have always used distilled water in them. The charging system is three phase. The batteries are now bad and need replacing. I have 2 questions. Is this normal water consumption for the batteries? What are the best replacement batteries?

Greg
 

LEN

Senior Member
Best are AGM's but very costly, but they are maintenance free and they are not lead acid. Best lead acid are Trojan and come in various sizes of deep cycle 6 volt. I run T105's and you can go up to T125's or T145's which of course are more costly. A lot depends on if you boondock a lot or very seldom. Then there are the cheaper but still good Costco or Sams club 6 volt deep cycle that are good, and I don't think I would go any lower in quality. Butr you might have your charger looked at, it might be set wrong or the batteries may have reached there life span limit.

LEN
 

akjimny

Senior Member
Hi Greg and welcome to the RVUSA Forum. I use two 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series that I bought at Costco and they have done me good for three years now. I also agree with Len in that you might want to get your charger checked by a competent RV mechanic. If it is puting out too much voltage it will boil the batteries and runi them real quick.

Good luck and post back to let us know how things turn out.
 

ravengsc

Junior Member
Thanks Len. I've got 4, 12 volt batteries now. Would I need 8, 6 volt batteries, or just 4, in tandem. No, we don't boondock often.

Greg


LEN;84268 said:
Best are AGM's but very costly, but they are maintenance free and they are not lead acid. Best lead acid are Trojan and come in various sizes of deep cycle 6 volt. I run T105's and you can go up to T125's or T145's which of course are more costly. A lot depends on if you boondock a lot or very seldom. Then there are the cheaper but still good Costco or Sams club 6 volt deep cycle that are good, and I don't think I would go any lower in quality. Butr you might have your charger looked at, it might be set wrong or the batteries may have reached there life span limit.

LEN
 

LEN

Senior Member
True deep cycle batteries have been 6 volt, but there are a few 12 true deep cycle batteries popping up. If I were going to new batteries and you don't boondock often I would not invest in the higher end batteries. You simply will be paying for more than you need. Costco deep cycle 6 volts will do fine. Four 6 volt in series parallel, that is two 6 volts wired in series, thny other two 6 volts wired in series and then the two sets of two wired in parallel.The two sets of two in series gives 12 volts each then wiring these in parallel give you a bigger storage capability.
Here is a good view of the battery set up and a bit of talk about batteries in general for RV's and more than one really needs unless your interested.

http://rvroadtrip.us/library/12v_system.php

LEN
 

C Nash

Senior Member
I have 2 6 volt Interstate workhorse batteries that have served us well. We have boondocked for a week with no problem. I leave it hooked to shore power all the time and very seldom add water. My converter has the battery mizer
 

Kirk

Senior Member
You can easily change from 4 batteries at 12V in parallel to four batteries at 6V in series/parallel at 6V. You connect them differently but you do not need to add more batteries.

As to water consumption, the #1 reason that happens in my experience is that the converter is probably set at too high a voltage. The proper voltage for a converter is 13.6V, +/- 0.2V. If it is much higher the result is over charged batteries and boiling out of the water.
 

Wyotraveler

Junior Member
Monaco usually delivers their MHs with Interstate deep cycle 6 volt batteries. My MH was delived with 2 and they added 2 more. Four 6v get me through a winter night without hookups. Like previous posts I would have your regulator checked. Most RV supply carry them. Not cheap though. About $160 each.
 
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