Batteries

[Duckmangt]

I just purchased 1984 Pace Arrow 454cu. There were no batteries in it I've added two batteries but don't how to hook them up, and should there be a third one, Any help would appreciated.

[Dunner]

I don't know about your motor home, but most newer ones have three batteries. Two 6 volt ones wired in series for 12 volts for the house batteries, and one 12 volt battery for the engine starting battery. I can't tell you how to wire it as most MHs are different.

[jlyon69]

Your MH has 2 separate battery sources. 1 is for the engine/chassis. The other is for the coach itself. Your chassis battery may be close to the engine, or it may be next to your coach battery(s). Generally speaking, older MHs will have 1 chassis battery and 1 coach battery...but not all. Newer MHs will have 1 chassis battery and sometimes 2. They will have at least 2 coach batteries.

If your MH starts and runs, your chassis battery is working. So the remaining 2 are for the coach. If you have 2 12v batteries, you wire them up in parallel. If you have 2 6v batteries, you wire them up in series, giving you the required 12v.

The below link is a must read for RVers, it contains info on how to wire 6v and 12v batteries. The link to (Part2) is on the bottom of that page.

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

[whem2fish]

when looking under hood at battery's the left one is the motor starting battery next to it to the right originally had 2 group 24 deep cycle batterys if you need to know how to wire it up let me know im off tomorrow i can look for you
dave.

[Duckmangt]

I downloaded a site 1983 Fleetwood PaceArrow and got most of everything I needed, but was wundering if there's another battery for the onan generator. My slideout tray is broken and I can't pull it out. I didn't know if there was a battery behind the generator.

[jlyon69]

Its doubtful you have another battery. You will have 1 for the engine and one or two for the coach. Usually the coach battery starts the generator.

[wa8yxm]

Now, I get a bit nit picky when it comes to batteries.

Most motorhomes have two batteries, One, for the engine, is a starting type, (Standard automotive type) and is usually one box with six cells (A standard 12 volt battery)

The one for the house. is often made up of 2 boxes with 3 cells each (two six volt golf car batteries when they are sitting on the shelf) wired in series to make one 12 volt battery.

Some have 4 (2 pair) or six (3 pair) but no matter how many pair, it is one battery.

The bottom line is a number's game. AMP HOURS. if you plan on running on batteries you need a lot of them.

If on the other hand you plan on always having shore power.. You don't.

Some have multiple 12 volt boxes wired in parallel (Each pair above is also wired in parallel) It is still one 12 volt battery.

The more you put in parallel, the longer you can run without recharge, and by the same token, the longer to recharge.

[whem2fish]

your gen. runs or coach battery not house battery so no other battery.
the slide gets stuck loosen the 2 screws then with w-d40 or oil move the slide in and out it will free up

[Duckmangt]

Tha generator works fine now. Thanks for the help. The only left that puzzles me is the power for the lights inside don't work unless plugged in, generator going or motor running. This doesn't work because I do a lot of camping where theres no power.

[kartvines]

First welcome, and allow me to give you a link to my manual website that should have almost everything you need for you new motor-home.

1983 Fleetwood Pace Arrow Owners Manuals

Your Motor-home only came with 2 batteries and the other post was correct, the one on the left is the starter and the one on the inside is your house battery. I went ahead and added a 2nd house battery just to have more power when I needed it.

If it would help I can also send you a link to my restoration website, that has a section on the batteries.

Your Genny doesn't have a standalone battery and used your battery bank to start,

[Lokahi117]

So how long can you run an 1980 coach on 2 6 volt trojan batteries. I plan to use a flat screen LCD TV, my furnace, some LED lights, and perhaps a playstation. (I'll be in north Dakota with nothing else to do). And how long to run generator to get them recharged.

[Dunner]

I did basically the same as above, plus the fridge and occasionally the water heater and water pump. I had 96 watts of solar and ran the genny about 3 hours in the morning and another 3 hours in the evening. Still, the batteries were not fully charged. I did this for over ten days one time, then the vacation was over. :(

The furnace blower will use most of the power. I did have to get more propane that trip. I had a propane genny. Before I switched to LED lights, I was using about 1 1/4 tanks of propane per trip. With LED, it went down to 3/4 tank per trip.

[jlyon69]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lokahi117 So how long can you run an 1980 coach on 2 6 volt trojan batteries. I plan to use a flat screen LCD TV, my furnace, some LED lights, and perhaps a playstation. (I'll be in north Dakota with nothing else to do). And how long to run generator to get them recharged.

I have 2 T-105s and recently did the LED TVs and all LED interior lights. Had every intention to do lots of boondocking when arriving in FL a week ago, but hasn't happened yet. Anyway, although plugged into shore power, I unplugged my Intelli-Power PD9245C 45A Electronic RV Converter/Charger and have run a few tests. When it's been cold overnight (furnace set at 60 and up to 65 in the morning) I'm lasting about 30 hours, otherwise 2 days. Now that is allowing the batteries to go down to only 12.2 volts, which is still 60% charged at 70 degrees. Battery capacity (how many amp-hours it can hold) is reduced as temperature goes down, and increased as temperature goes up. So your results could me much different in the Dakotas.

You should be able to go down to 11.6 volts which is about 40% charged. It's not recommended to go below that before re-charge. The reason I was recharging at 12.2 is a mistake on my part. I wired the rear 12v LED TV into the circuit board on the rear AC because it was only a few inches away. When reaching 12.2v at the battery, there isn't enough voltage in the rear to run that TV. DW couldn't care less about my tests and she's going to watch her TV in bed at night.

I haven't yet done any recharge times, but here's some stuff from Progessive Dynamics.

The below shows the amount of time it took a converter set to three different output voltages to recharge a
125AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was discharged to 10.5 volts.


14.4 Volts (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 8 hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.

13.6 Volts (Normal Mode) – Required 40 hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78 hours to reach full charge.

13.2 Volts (Storage Mode) – Required 60 hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100 hours to reach full charge.


As you can see, anyone boondocking would do much better with a multi-stage charger. A single stage only puts out 13.6v. Now that I really look at this myself, if I had a single stage charger, I might consider charging with the engine as the alternator puts out 14.5 volts.

[Dunner]

I have 4 portable chargers and am going to see if they work better than my converter. What I don't know is if I should use the charger and the converter or just the charger.