Need to replace house batteries

[sanddan]

We currently have 2 lifeline 8D house batteries that are getting weak and need changing. I'm in the Portland Oregon area and looking for a source to buy and get them installed. The reason I'm not doing the install is due to the weight. For simplicities sake I will stick with the current configuration. There is only room for the 2, 8D's or I would add more as we do a lot of dry camping. Any help on getting this done local to me would be a big help.

[twinboat]

Use 4 lifeline 6 volt batteries. Much lighter to muscle around and they will take up a bit less space for the same or more capacity. Just need 2 new jumpers to make 2, 6 volt batteries into 1, 12 volt one.

[Smitty77]

We have an 04 Allure. It was OEM X's 1 8D Chassis and X's 2 8D House - yep, for a total of X's 3 8D's in our battery bay.

I found that I had room in my battery compartment, to replace the X's 2 8D's, with X's 4 L16's. So we now have 800AH's of House Battery, which can of course yield 400 AH's down to 50% SOC. (When boon docking, we usually end up in the AM at 75% + or - 3%. And we do have the Samsung RF18, and assure you we do not try hard to conserve energy!).

Since your so close, I'd suggest a run down to Premier, and ask Jim Cooley if they can work you in for a changeover to the X's 4 L16's. (They fit in the same basic footprint of the 8D's, and the shop I worked with fabricated a simple hold down bracket for the four batteries. But IMP, simple strapping would be more then sufficient to hold them in place.)

As far a sourcing, I found form CC owner Tom (Now SOB Prevost), gives good advice as well as did a fair job of pricing. Link below.

Trans-Specialist - Your Source for Lifeline Batteries

You could also ask Premier to give you an estimate from their Lifeline source.

===

Now that being said, have you tried a few rounds of Conditioning the existing 8D Lifeline's. I found that due to some less then stellar software on the MS2812 (Set for Custom to do the new higher Float value for Lifeline's. But once it reaches fully charge, their logic does not kick back into Maintenance Mode until the batteries reach a certain lower voltage, and then it goes into Float Mode, for only 4 hours, before closing down again. The problem with this logic, is that the voltage they used to start back up maintenance, is for Wet Cells, not AGM's, so the batteries are down to about 30-35% before it kicked back into Float Mode, and 4 hours of Float is a drop in the bucket for 800AH's of House Batteries. These values were not customizable. And when the coach is is storage for up to 2-3 months at a time, with loads still on it, it did what is called 'Walking Down' the batteries.)

But back to Conditioning, I now do a 4 hour Conditioning run on my new bank of X's 4 L16's every 6-8 weeks, to keep the healthy - and shake off (Techie Word) any sulfation build up on the matts. You might try a few Conditioning cycles on your current bank of 8D's, and see if they restore enough to be useable.

Best of luck to you, have fun. And consider this to be my $.02 you can use for a new bank of House batteries!
Smitty

[sanddan]

Originally Posted by Smitty77

I found that I had room in my battery compartment, to replace the X's 2 8D's, with X's 4 L16's. So we now have 800AH's of House Battery, which can of course yield 400 AH's down to 50% SOC. (When boon docking, we usually end up in the AM at 75% + or - 3%. And we do have the Samsung RF18, and assure you we do not try hard to conserve energy!).

Smitty

Do you have any pics of the install? I would consider Premier except this time of year their wait period for service is very long. Good idea if I can nurse these through the rest of the summer. I still have the original invertor, a Trace modified sine wave, I'll have to look at the docs to see if they have the conditioning feature. I've been doing some measuring and it looks like I would have to do some trimming and maybe welding to clear out the depth needed. There is a structural tube at the back which doubles as the rear batt retainer feature that is in the way. I have a welder and I do a lot of fab work on personal projects so can handle the job, just have to be carefull welding on the coach due to electronics. I know the trans module has to be disconnected, I'll have to check if there are any others that I need to take care of. I also do a lot of dry camping so extra battery capacity would be highly desired. In the fall when running the heat I will run the batteries down below 12v even when running the gen until 10:00 pm quiet time. Really not a good idea I know. Could be why the current batts are getting tired.

[sanddan]

I just checked and this invertor only has an equalizing feature for non-sealed, flooded lead-acid batteries, so not for AGM. No way to tweak the charging cycles either, might be time to upgrade that too.

[CntryCoachRV]

Originally Posted by sanddan

We currently have 2 lifeline 8D house batteries that are getting weak and need changing. I'm in the Portland Oregon area and looking for a source to buy and get them installed. The reason I'm not doing the install is due to the weight. For simplicities sake I will stick with the current configuration. There is only room for the 2, 8D's or I would add more as we do a lot of dry camping. Any help on getting this done local to me would be a big help.

I replaced the 8Ds with 6 golf cart batteries, I buy them at Sam’s Club and they last about 6 to 7 years. I have solar panels so they stay charged up pretty much all the time. Reasonable price and do the job for me.

[426smartin]

Sams golf and marine batteries one day sell ---20.00 off Aug 3 !! FYI

[CntryCoachRV]

Originally Posted by 426smartin

Sams golf and marine batteries one day sell ---20.00 off Aug 3 !! FYI

Sams had the same deal when I bought them in May of this year, saved me $120.

[dons2346]

Originally Posted by sanddan

I just checked and this invertor only has an equalizing feature for non-sealed, flooded lead-acid batteries, so not for AGM. No way to tweak the charging cycles either, might be time to upgrade that too.

You can use the settings you currently have. to "condition" your AGMs. Call Concord Batter to confirm.


If you are in a pinch to change out your batteries and/or iinverter, give Bobby Voden a call. He replaced our stock inverter with a Magnum 3012H plus doing some other custom work. Very happy with his work. He and his daughter are great to work with. He is in Junction City

https://kustomcoachworksrv.com/

[DJ55]

+1 regarding Bobby Vodden, he does a great job.

You can double-check Magnum inverter pricing at donrowe.com; they often have good sale pricing and they're in Monroe, not far from Junction City. Kevin Waite is also a Magnum dealer.

[dons2346]

I checked al over for inverter pricing. The best place I found was https://www.imarineusa.com/



They have free shipping on anything over $75 which is good because those inverters are heavy. You have to put the item in your basket to see the discounted price. Had mine shipped direct to Bobby.

[sanddan]

Finished installing the Magnum inverter except for adding an exhaust fan to ventilate the compartment. When bulk charging at max amps I got an over temp fault, this was when it was about 80 deg out, the sides of the compartment were hot to the touch. For a temp fix I removed the smaller access panel, this was enough to allow a full charge without any faults. The plan is to add one fan controlled to go on at 90-100 deg and a vent opening to improve air flow, all done on the larger removable panel. I think the fan will go at the left end blowing out and the vent at the right end where the inverter is to allow fresh air into the compartment. Just have to collect the necessary parts.

[twinboat]

Have you set the max amp output to the AH capacity of your batteries ?

I believe the max charging recommended rate for AGMs is 25% of capacity. If yourset higher then that, it may be why its getting so hot.