Community Forums

kayla44 · 01-16-2013, 08:29 PM

My son has a 1992 MH, the previous owner changed the 2 house batteries to 12v. My son needs to replace the house batteries, I've told him everything I read says to stay with 6v for house batteries. When he switches back to 6v is there anything special he has to do? Or is it just a matter of replacing with new 6v, connecting the batteries and he's good to go. Thank you!!

RickO · 01-16-2013, 09:07 PM

Hi and welcome.

It's really important to understand what you're doing when changing systems from 12v to 6v or vice versa. It's not really complicated but one needs to understand series vs parallel circuits or at the very least have a good wiring diagram to work from. Be aware that it will probably require twice as many 6v batteries to exceed the capacity of the current 12v system so IMHO it's not something to be done without first understanding all of the ramifications.

I'm sure we'll have some experts with helpful suggestions along shortly.

Best of luck.

Rickl

nightriderrv · 01-16-2013, 09:10 PM

When the other owner put the 2 12V batterys in they wired them to stay at 12V at the end which is Pos to Pos and Neg to Neg = 12V

When you wire the 6V batterys they need to be Pos of the first battery to the Pos wire on the coach the neg on the first battery goes to the Pos on the second battery and the Neg to the Neg wire on the coach which will = 12V in the end

TdogKing · 01-16-2013, 10:00 PM

"Google" how wire 6 volt batteries and you'll get a diagram showing you how to wire 2 or 4. RVSolarElectric.com has good information that your asking

Wolfpack Fan · 01-17-2013, 04:50 AM

There's a lot of posts on here about battery change out. Try using the search feature. I considered going from 2-6v to 2-12v and wiring them to end up with 12v. Seems I remember that the 6v batteries are true to the core deep cycle batteries and withstand discharge re-charge better than even the marine grade 12v. Made sense, since 6v are routinely used in golf carts and those things see heavy discharge and re-charge. I don't know that any 12v compares to a good ole trojan 6v for durability.

nightriderrv · 01-17-2013, 05:01 AM

Agree X2 on the trojan

Gary RVRoamer · 01-17-2013, 07:35 AM

If you buy good quality deep cycle 12v's, e.g. a Trojan, there is no particular advantage to going back to 6v. However, good 12v deep cycles are typically expensive, so it might be cheaper to get the 6v golf cart deep cycles - they are made and sold in higher volumes, so the price is usually lower.

fighterpilot · 01-20-2013, 06:35 AM

I would go with two 6volts. Sam's Club has good price and selection where I live. Changed the house batteries on the boat to two 6volts in series as well. Used two 12 volts in parallel to start the two 3208 cats. Batteries were in a tough place to get to so did this to get rid of two 8Ds.