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sipNgas · 05-04-2015, 05:30 PM

Hello everyone. I have a 2014 Fleetwood Excursion with (4) 6v house batteries. 2 groups of 2 in series and the 2 groups running in parallel (picture attached).

It looks like they are pulling the load side (inverter, charger, etc.) from one of the series pairs. My question is, can I connect a solar charge controller to the other series pair or does it need to be on the same side as everything else?

I'm not sure why they picked the one series pair over the other but it looks the same as they are both connected in parallel. But then again, I'm not an electrician either.

So looking at the picture, the current load for all 4 batteries is coming off of batteries 3 & 4, positive of 3 and negative of 4. Can I connect the charger to the positive of 2 and the negative of 1 fo the same results?

Any insight/thoughts are appreciated!

Knightab · 05-04-2015, 05:39 PM

I believe the best way to,wire the inverter is the positive on one end of the entire group and the negative on the opposite so the juice pulls thru all the batteries. I connect my solar the same way

Imurphy907 · 05-05-2015, 11:08 AM

Move the Neg lead from Battery 4 to battery 1. This balances the bank. Otherwise battery 4 and 3 are the shortest path and will do more of the work.

BatteryPro · 05-05-2015, 12:16 PM

The diagram has a few problems. The inverter and loads should be equally distributed through the battery bank. If you follow the current path, there are more wires and connections from the inverter to battery 1 and 2 than there are through 3 and 4. This is an unbalanced design. That means that battery 3 and 4 will do more work than 1 and 2. They will also receive higher current during charging.

You should balance the system. Connect the inverter and chassis negative to battery 1 negative terminal. Or instead you could move the positive back to battery 2 positive terminals. You should connect the PV sollar in the same manner, equal distribution.

You show a 300 amp fuse connected to unknown loads. You also show a branch from the fuse. This is dangerous. Every branch circuit (every wire that splits from another) must have its own circuit protection sized for the wire rating and load. A 300 amp fuse must be connected to a 3/0 cable (305 amps@75° C) or the wire may heat too much before the fuse blows damaging the wire insulation.

Larry

sipNgas · 05-05-2015, 02:12 PM

Hi Guys, thanks for the replies and the great info!!

I attached an updated drawing to reflect what I believe you were recommending. Is this what you guys were talking about? I moved the neg connection to battery 1 and noted (what I think is) the unsafe connection BatteryPro mentioned. I'll be taking it back into the dealer for these mods as it's a new MH and shouldn't be wired the way it is now.

Also, I want to connect my solar charge controller to this battery bank. Can I just connect via battery 2 positive and battery 4 negative BEFORE I make the mods? This crosses the entire bank as you described; just want to make sure I understood correctly. Or should I be using the same pos and neg terminals as the inverter?

sipNgas · 05-07-2015, 10:27 AM

And a follow up question, how bad is it that the negative and positive are pulled off the same side of the battery bank? I will be moving the negative over to the other side to "balance" the setup, but not immediately.

Is this something that damages the batteries over 5 years or 5 months? Just curious as to how serious it is.

Thanks!

Imurphy907 · 05-07-2015, 11:00 AM

Physically it would take a while to damage a battery.

Electrically you will notice the difference.

Swap it when you can, but if you cant just know you work 1 battery ~30% more then the other. So it will fail faster then drag down the other battery.

BatteryPro · 05-07-2015, 01:18 PM

Kurt,

The second diagram is correct. You can connect your PV solar in the same place or on battery 2 positive and battery 4 negative.

What is the wire size going to the other 300 amps fuse? The wire splitting off the left side of that fuse is an unproitected circuit.

Larry

will stevens · 05-07-2015, 02:12 PM

Wow what a good read
Thanks everyone

sipNgas · 05-09-2015, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BatteryPro

Kurt,

The second diagram is correct. You can connect your PV solar in the same place or on battery 2 positive and battery 4 negative.

What is the wire size going to the other 300 amps fuse? The wire splitting off the left side of that fuse is an unprotected circuit.

Larry

Hi Larry. The unprotected cable that shoots off to an unknown connection looks to be 2/0. I tried tracing it again today but it disappears into the frame somewhere. I'm going to ask my dealer to put it on the other side of the AGM fuse so everything runs through the fuse. Sound like a good solution? Or should it have its own fuse?

Imurphy907 · 05-10-2015, 05:45 PM

That lead may run to your generator

BatteryPro · 05-12-2015, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imurphy907

That lead may run to your generator

...or your alternator. If you disconnect the cable and isolate it, try to start the generator. If it won't crank, that's it. If the gen still starts, crank your main engine and see if the alternator is charging the house battery, if not then it is from the alternator.

If you move it to the fuse side, you may have a problem with the fuse blowing. That type fuse does not have any surge capability like a Class T fuse does.

Larry