Community Forums

Leary54 · 09-22-2012, 06:49 PM

I have a friend that just picked up a 2005 bounder 35E today. It's a real nice motor home.we were going through everything to make sure it is all set to go out next weekend and I checked the house battery under the stair.There is one 12 volt marine battery in there, but there is room for two batteries . Can any one tell us what type of battery we need to add? Another 12 volt or does it call for two 6 volts? Thanks

**CLIFFTALL** · 09-22-2012, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leary54

I have a friend that just picked up a 2005 bounder 35E today. It's a real nice motor home.we were going through everything to make sure it is all set to go out next weekend and I checked the house battery under the stair.There is one 12 volt marine battery in there, but there is room for two batteries . Can any one tell us what type of battery we need to add? Another 12 volt or does it call for two 6 volts? Thanks

Two six volts for sure.

RELHUB · 09-22-2012, 07:08 PM

You can use (2) six volt or (2) 12 volt. HOWEVER they will be wired much differently. If you use 2 six volt and one went bad while in the woods then you are screwed. If you have (2) 12 volt and 1 went bad you could still function.

Leary54 · 09-22-2012, 07:26 PM

I like the idea that relhub mentioned about the two 12 volt batteries. Could you explain how to wire this set up? Thanks

tomwalt · 09-22-2012, 07:37 PM

Two 12V are wired + to + and - to -. The batteries should be matched (same age and same amps) or the weak battery will pull down the better one.

tomwalt · 09-22-2012, 07:40 PM

If you camp in campgrounds with electric, one battery is all you need. The 2nd battery is for boondocking - camping without hook-ups. One battery should last you 2 days if you conserve electric.

AvoJim · 09-22-2012, 08:33 PM

If you have two batteries, call them battery A and battery B. If they are 12 volt batteries, connect A + to B + and A - to B -. This is a paralllel connection. The + connections go to all your loads. The - connections go to ground. If they are 6 volt batteries, connect A - to B +. Then connect A + to your loads and B - to ground.This is a series connection." Load" is another way of saying "user of electricity". Ground is usually the frame of your RV or some chunk of metal connected to it.

I think you will find most people would reccomend you go with two serially connected 6 volt batteries instead of two parallel connected 12 bolt batteries. You will usually have more amp-hours ( a good thing ) available with 6 volts. If one of your batteries goes dead you will probably be in trouble whether you have 6 or 12 volt. By the time you figure out that one of your batteries has gone dead it will have already drained the other battery.

Good luck,

Jim

Jim

Tony Lee · 09-23-2012, 12:04 AM

There are technical reasons why two six-volt batteries in series are better than two 12V batteries in parallel but they don't add up to all that much in practice and either would be ok. If your current battery is less than say 2 years old, then you will spend least by just getting another 12V battery of the same chemistry and construction and adding it in parallel.
Main reason for suggesting 6V batteries is they make millions of 6V golf cart deep cycle batteries so they are relatively cheap and well-suited to MH duty.

If you use two batteries in parallel, it is good practice (also technical reasons) to make each battery share equally by connecting the external 12V leads to the positive terminal of one battery and the external negative ground lead to the negative terminal of the other battery (while hooking the two batteries together as described above)

Clayobx · 09-23-2012, 08:47 AM

You will find a very large percentage of motor home manf. Use 6 volt in series as mentioned before, this doubles your amp hours. Think about it, all golf carts, well most probably all, use 6 volts in series or 8 volt in series. My 2012 Fleetwood uses six, 6 volt in series, while the starting engine batteries are two 12 volt agm's in parallel.