Smooth Battery Replacement

[DKO]

I asked advice HERE a few weeks ago about changing my chassis batteries and you all really came through. I changed them Friday December 30th and every thing went very smooth.

I disconnected from shore power and turned my inverters off. I took pictures of each battery post and made detailed notes as to the numbers of wires and where they were going if I could tell.

As I said, all went well and it cranked beautifully. My Battery Balance light comes on occasionally but it did that before. I probably need to ask about that in a Prevost forum.

Here are a few pictures of the change.
Thanks again,

DKO



Easily accessible is important for a fat guy...



There are four batteries so I numbered the posts 1-8 and marked each wire as I took it off. Several posts had four wires and all but one had two or more wires. By labeling each wire I wanted to make sure I didn't mix any up. Even with every wire marked clearly it could have easily been confusing. I would never have wired this up correctly without labeling and detailed notes.


Old Batteries-One of them was reading 10.8 volts when I took it out so it was probably the culprit.


New Batteries






Finished

[Fencebuster]

Thank you for sharing! I had seen your request about the battery changing question and noted the responses as it covered things I may not have thought of.

Glad it went so well.

[tomwalt]

Congratulations - Nice job - You are now a full fledged Do It Yourselfer.

[336muffin]

Looks great! A little tip, I just replaced mine last month and I take a zip tie and the post with two or more cables, when I remove the nut I zip tie the cable ends through the holes together. In the finished pic I see four ends on one post, run a ziptie through the ends so they have to stay together.

[DKO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 336muffin Looks great! A little tip, I just replaced mine last month and I take a zip tie and the post with two or more cables, when I remove the nut I zip tie the cable ends through the holes together. In the finished pic I see four ends on one post, run a ziptie through the ends so they have to stay together.

I actually had four posts with four wires each. In fact every post but one had at least three wires. I started to wire tie the wires from each post together but I wanted to wrap each lead in tape so to eliminate any possibility of sparking something. So instead I made careful notes of how many wires came off each post. That way I would know how many wires to look for when re-installing.

Also as you can see in the 3rd picture several wires were removed completely and laid over to the left side because they ran from battery to battery. If these had been wire tied to the other wires it would have been more difficult to remove the old batteries and install the new ones along with the brackets for bracing.

DKO

[DKO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fencebuster Thank you for sharing! I had seen your request about the battery changing question and noted the responses as it covered things I may not have thought of. Glad it went so well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomwalt Congratulations - Nice job - You are now a full fledged Do It Yourselfer.

Thank you very much!
DKO

[DAN L]

[QUOTE=DKO;1047291]
''My Battery Balance light comes on occasionally but it did that before. I probably need to ask about that in a Prevost forum.''

this info, method 4, may help keep your batteries balanced.

SmartGauge Electronics - Interconnecting multiple batteries to form one larger bank

[DKO]

[QUOTE=DAN L;1048050]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKO ''My Battery Balance light comes on occasionally but it did that before. I probably need to ask about that in a Prevost forum.'' this info, method 4, may help keep your batteries balanced. SmartGauge Electronics - Interconnecting multiple batteries to form one larger bank

Thanks for the link. I believe those configurations are for straight 12 volt systems. I have 24 volts that run to an equalizer that gives me 24 volts for the starter and some of the other things on the bus and 12 volts for the lights and many other things on the bus.

The configuration for 24 volts requires connecting the positive side from some batteries to the negative post on others. It blew my mind when I saw it and I had to confirm with experts before I could believe my eyes.

By the way, I discovered the problem while looking things over this morning. The wire that runs to the 24 volt post on the equalizer was loose. I completely overlooked it while replacing the batteries. I haven't cranked the bus yet but I am pretty sure that solves it.

Thanks again,
DKO

[SteveJordan]

When working on the batteries remember to take off your wedding ring. If you accidentally short your ring out you will wish you had removed it,you will have a serious burn and a badly damaged ring. It only takes a minute to remove it so be safe. There is alot of energy stored in the battery.
Just hoping I might save someone some grief

[RSchleder]

A little time now and then will keep your batteries/battery compartment looking like it does today. A clean area with uncontaminated battery posts and connections will give you years of trouble free service.