Out of Battery Terminal Space

[wanderer69]

I am using 6 Trojan 6v batteries wired in series parallel. With all the stuff I have to wire to the positive terminal on the end battery I have now run room on the terminal. Currently hooked to the it are inverter, converter, Trimetric battery monitor, and the cable to rest of the battery bank. I am in the process of install solar and don't have room to attach the positive from the charge controller or battery temp sensor. I've checked autozone, o'reillys and battery plus for some kind of extender but no luck. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[road dogs]

Try a good car audio shop, they usually stock all kinds of devices to add high power circuits to automotive batteries. I would run an auxiliary fuse block with a few extra fusable taps than you need so you can add something later. If the device is already fused, just put a 50 AMP fuse in the fuse block.

[vsheetz]

Do you have room somewhere nearby to place connecting lugs? Batteries connect to the lugs as well as some or all the loads.

[bluepill]

Google "Battery terminal distribution block"

[Bigd9]

Originally Posted by wanderer69

I am using 6 Trojan 6v batteries wired in series parallel. With all the stuff I have to wire to the positive terminal on the end battery I have now run room on the terminal. ....

Are all of your connections hooked to one battery? With 6 batteries there are 3 good locations where you will get 12 volts (follow the red wire in picture) and since they are all connected together they are the same.

[Bigd9]

You could also replace one of the wire terminals with something that looks like this. It gives you extra room to hook up all of those wires. Just use a bolt/nut in one of the holes.

[chuckbear]

Find room to mount a power post and attach it to any battery post. You can install one for positive only or one for positive and negative. Photos attached of examples. Chuck

[wanderer69]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

Are all of your connections hooked to one battery? With 6 batteries there are 3 good locations where you will get 12 volts (follow the red wire in picture) and since they are all connected together they are the same.

My understanding had always been that when in series parallel that you had to hook everything off the end battery. Am I wrong on that?

[wanderer69]

Originally Posted by Bigd9

You could also replace one of the wire terminals with something that looks like this. It gives you extra room to hook up all of those wires. Just use a bolt/nut in one of the holes.

Where did you get that?

[Old Scout]

Do you have the std battery post or are you talking about the 5/16 vertical stud? If the vertical stud, I have and am using a generic threaded rod coupler to hold down half of the cable ends to the battery stud, then add a short piece of threaded rod to the top of the coupler. Finally, add the remaining cable ends to the rod extension and tighten with a top nut--make sense?

[JFXG]

[Moderator Edit] The term you're looking for is "buss bar". [Moderator Edit]


John & Diane, fulltiming since '12
'02 DS, FL, 3126, '04 Element
NHSO RVM103

[twinboat]

West Marine carries 500 and 600 amp 4 post buss bars. They have 3/8" studs.

Try not to pile to many terminals together on a post.

The heat can cause them to expand and contract and come loose.

[alvo]

Originally Posted by wanderer69

My understanding had always been that when in series parallel that you had to hook everything off the end battery. Am I wrong on that?

Electrically the terminals are all the same. Hooking something to a different terminal effectively adds the few inches of cable between batteries to the circuit, which is negligible.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by wanderer69

My understanding had always been that when in series parallel that you had to hook everything off the end battery. Am I wrong on that?

Actually the favored practice is to use opposit ends like the picture in the earlier post.

I don't know how much difference it makes.