Community Forums

One legged c · 10-12-2019, 07:12 PM

I just purchased a Class C 1996 Tioga Montara 29 Ft. It has two batteries under the hood. One is a house battery and one is the engine battery. Which is which? The owner put two identical non Marine batteries in it. They are forever more dead. I need to know which is the house battery. I want to try to get a large as possible 12 volt marine in the hole. I think the battery on the drivers side is the engine battery and passenger side is the house. Does anyone know how big of a battery will fit for the house battery? I would like a 29 or 31 if possible. Thanks, Bill

Gary RVRoamer · 10-13-2019, 11:23 AM

The crude but simple way to determine that is to remove the wire from the positive post on one or the other and see what stops working. Another way is to follow the positive wire to see which ultimately goes to the starter motor (and thus is the chassis battery), but that can be challenging on a Class C front end.

twinboat · 10-13-2019, 11:42 AM

My 1999 e450 had the chassis battery on the curb side. The positive cable was short and went to a solenoid tucked up next to it.

Hope that helps.

Take some pictures and post them. We may better ID stuff.

One legged c · 10-14-2019, 06:07 AM

Is the drivers side the curb side?

One legged c · 10-14-2019, 06:19 AM

I am going to pick the motorhome up on Thursday. We jumped it to test drive it and still afterwards the batteries were totally dead. Would not even run the lights. So I wrote down the battery size, a 65-N. But there was a little more room on the passenger side for a bigger battery. So if that is the house battery it will hold a bigger battery. The battery on the drivers side is a tight squeeze. The 65-N is the correct starting battery according to Ford. If I were close I could easily test and tell which was which by unhooking the batteries and using my jump pack to see which started the engine. It's a 100 miles away. I want to take the new batteries with me so they have a nice hundred mile drive to top them off. I am disabled and cant lift batteries to install them. The old folks son is a welder and is going to help me. It would be nice to get it done. I have searched on the internet and have seen people saying different sides for the 1996 F53 chassis. Thanks for the help folks! Bill