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Old 02-16-2021, 03:25 PM   #1
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Moving batteries to front compartment, how difficult is this?

Hey everyone, picking up a 2021 23DBS beginning of March. I don't have it in front of me otherwise I may be able to answer my own questions. I plan on starting with one 100AH BB battery and would like to relocate it from the tongue to the front storage compartment (mostly for theft and temp requirements). I'm wondering how difficult of a job this is going to be, wiring it etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated or a picture of what I'll be dealing with so I can better understand the wiring portion of it. I imagine it's probably not that difficult, just hard to picture what I may be getting into. Thanks in advance!!
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Old 02-16-2021, 04:49 PM   #2
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Congrats on the new 23DBS and welcome to the forum! While I have not done what you are describing on our 23DBS I can provide you with some pictures that will give you an idea of how things are laid out from the factory.

You can see behind the battery tray where the bundle of positive/negative wires from the battery goes up under the coroplast. You can remove the coroplast cover to gain access to the junction box which is located underneath the middle of the front passthrough. I'm guessing given this layout it probably won't be too difficult to re-route those positive/negative wires up from the junction box and into the passthrough. You'll need to add an extension for the tongue jack to run into the junction box and up to the new battery location.

Good luck with the project and let folks know how it turns out!
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Old 02-16-2021, 07:14 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by ttavasc View Post
Congrats on the new 23DBS and welcome to the forum! While I have not done what you are describing on our 23DBS I can provide you with some pictures that will give you an idea of how things are laid out from the factory.

You can see behind the battery tray where the bundle of positive/negative wires from the battery goes up under the coroplast. You can remove the coroplast cover to gain access to the junction box which is located underneath the middle of the front passthrough. I'm guessing given this layout it probably won't be too difficult to re-route those positive/negative wires up from the junction box and into the passthrough. You'll need to add an extension for the tongue jack to run into the junction box and up to the new battery location.

Good luck with the project and let folks know how it turns out!
Thats exactly what I was looking for, thanks for taking the time! Doesn't look too daunting at all. The wood panel then Is just the subfloor to the front compartment. Thanks for the help!
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Old 02-18-2021, 03:56 PM   #4
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You will want to make sure the battery box is a sealed unit and you have ventilation to the exterior of the trailer.
You really don't want explosive and corrosive fumes building up in the storage compartment.
My guess would be by the time and cost of doing it you could put a good quality locking battery box on the tongue.
Besides, if your the typical trailer owner you will NEED every inch of storage space available.
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Old 02-18-2021, 04:37 PM   #5
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This may be a little long winded but it may help in your quest to secure your BB's in a climate controlled area.
I installed my 2 lifepo4's and 2000 watt inverter under the bed at the front of the compartment so they would not take up too much under bed storage room. I ran 4 gauge battery cables along with AC feed to the breaker panel through the inner and outer floors from the power bay behind the A Frame and then up through the inner plywood floor under the bed in order to not have any electrical components in the front pass through compartment. I'm not sure I explained this very well but I've attached a picture that is after the connection center cleanup but prior to the battery move with a yellow circle that shows the route I used. From the connection box to the front of the bed compartment was only 18" or 24" so it was easy to fish the wires through with the assistance of a cheap endoscope camera from amazon. My thought was doing it this way I can have short runs of 4-0 wire between the batteries and inverter and then route the AC wiring to the a transfer switch I installed behind the trailer converter/breaker bay. only require the 4 gauge between the batteries and A frame connection. I can't find pictures of the final install but once it warms up here I can take some to show the final product.
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Routing for wires
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The enclosure that I built
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Wired and ready for testing and install
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The coroplast cover for the batteries installed
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Old 02-18-2021, 05:17 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BPTS View Post
You will want to make sure the battery box is a sealed unit and you have ventilation to the exterior of the trailer.
You really don't want explosive and corrosive fumes building up in the storage compartment.
My guess would be by the time and cost of doing it you could put a good quality locking battery box on the tongue.
Besides, if your the typical trailer owner you will NEED every inch of storage space available.
If I relocate to the FSC I'll be using lithium so won't need to worry about fumes. I'd like to leave them on the tongue but would hate for them to grow legs and walk away at the current cost of lithium haha. I have thought about a good locking battery box as an alternative to save storage area.
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Old 02-18-2021, 05:23 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by Grump010 View Post
This may be a little long winded but it may help in your quest to secure your BB's in a climate controlled area.
I installed my 2 lifepo4's and 2000 watt inverter under the bed at the front of the compartment so they would not take up too much under bed storage room. I ran 4 gauge battery cables along with AC feed to the breaker panel through the inner and outer floors from the power bay behind the A Frame and then up through the inner plywood floor under the bed in order to not have any electrical components in the front pass through compartment. I'm not sure I explained this very well but I've attached a picture that is after the connection center cleanup but prior to the battery move with a yellow circle that shows the route I used. From the connection box to the front of the bed compartment was only 18" or 24" so it was easy to fish the wires through with the assistance of a cheap endoscope camera from amazon. My thought was doing it this way I can have short runs of 4-0 wire between the batteries and inverter and then route the AC wiring to the a transfer switch I installed behind the trailer converter/breaker bay. only require the 4 gauge between the batteries and A frame connection. I can't find pictures of the final install but once it warms up here I can take some to show the final product.
That's a great looking set up! I had thought about under the bed but not having the trailer in front of me hard to visualize. I hadn't even thought of the fact that the back wall of the under bed storage area is the shared wall to the front storage compartment so would be an easy install there as well.

With the inverter mounted under the bed how are you plugging the trailer into it? Do you have it wired to an an accessible spot to plug into? Im actually looking at that same inverter unless that's Renogy's inverter/charger....
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Old 02-18-2021, 08:29 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by mtedelen View Post
That's a great looking set up! I had thought about under the bed but not having the trailer in front of me hard to visualize. I hadn't even thought of the fact that the back wall of the under bed storage area is the shared wall to the front storage compartment so would be an easy install there as well.

With the inverter mounted under the bed how are you plugging the trailer into it? Do you have it wired to an an accessible spot to plug into? Im actually looking at that same inverter unless that's Renogy's inverter/charger....

It's a Renogy 2000 inverter only, I've upgraded the converter to a Wildcat PD4655L which is lifepo4 capable , your 2021 may have one or similar installed from the factory. The inverter is hardwired to the breaker panel of the power center of the trailer...actually it's hard wired into a transfer switch that I installed behind the power center and then into the breaker panel. The transfer switch is a Go Power GP-TS-30 and it switches between shore power and inverter power, so when the trailer is not plugged in to shore power it has a circuit to the inverter and when shore power is connected it energizes the transfer switch, disconnects the inverter and connects the shore power to the power center. When boondocking, which is about 90% of the time we just turn off the inverter when not needed to conserve power. Although the draw is less than 200 mah at idle. This whole setup is scalable and can be built out over time. Our TT was purchased in late 2017 and has been a work in progress as we figured out our needs. There is also 3 100 watt panels on the roof with a portable that fit into the front pass through and slides into brackets hung from the top of the pass through. The battery monitoring and solar charge controller are made by Bogart Engineering and are the TM-2030 and SC 2030.There are lots of choices out there for Monitoring and Solar charging and this is just what I was comfortable with when I made the purchasing decision. Good luck with your adventure, if you have any further questions, fire away here or just shoot me a PM. If I can't find the finished product pictures, I'll get new one to post once it warms up a little bit more.
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Old 02-18-2021, 09:57 PM   #9
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It's a Renogy 2000 inverter only, I've upgraded the converter to a Wildcat PD4655L which is lifepo4 capable , your 2021 may have one or similar installed from the factory. The inverter is hardwired to the breaker panel of the power center of the trailer...actually it's hard wired into a transfer switch that I installed behind the power center and then into the breaker panel. The transfer switch is a Go Power GP-TS-30 and it switches between shore power and inverter power, so when the trailer is not plugged in to shore power it has a circuit to the inverter and when shore power is connected it energizes the transfer switch, disconnects the inverter and connects the shore power to the power center. When boondocking, which is about 90% of the time we just turn off the inverter when not needed to conserve power. Although the draw is less than 200 mah at idle. This whole setup is scalable and can be built out over time. Our TT was purchased in late 2017 and has been a work in progress as we figured out our needs. There is also 3 100 watt panels on the roof with a portable that fit into the front pass through and slides into brackets hung from the top of the pass through. The battery monitoring and solar charge controller are made by Bogart Engineering and are the TM-2030 and SC 2030.There are lots of choices out there for Monitoring and Solar charging and this is just what I was comfortable with when I made the purchasing decision. Good luck with your adventure, if you have any further questions, fire away here or just shoot me a PM. If I can't find the finished product pictures, I'll get new one to post once it warms up a little bit more.
It all looks great! Yes the converter in the 2021 model has a switch on the back of the mother board that allows for charging of lifepo4 batteries luckily. All this planning is going towards 1 BB for now and a 2nd shortly after (maybe a DIY battery), a Victron charge controller, Victron shunt, Renogy 2000W inverter, and to start one REC Solar 365w Alpha panel... if it fits, they're about 37"x 65" so not sure if there is room on the roof of a 23DBS. These panels are incredible and cost about $250ea. Im familiar with the concept of the transfer switch, but absolutely no idea how to wire one up, may fall beyond the range of my capability. The solar install I can handle. When I get the solar done I may PM you with some transfer switch questions. Thanks for all the help so far to everyone on this thread!!
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:59 AM   #10
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It all looks great! Yes the converter in the 2021 model has a switch on the back of the mother board that allows for charging of lifepo4 batteries luckily. All this planning is going towards 1 BB for now and a 2nd shortly after (maybe a DIY battery), a Victron charge controller, Victron shunt, Renogy 2000W inverter, and to start one REC Solar 365w Alpha panel... if it fits, they're about 37"x 65" so not sure if there is room on the roof of a 23DBS. These panels are incredible and cost about $250ea. Im familiar with the concept of the transfer switch, but absolutely no idea how to wire one up, may fall beyond the range of my capability. The solar install I can handle. When I get the solar done I may PM you with some transfer switch questions. Thanks for all the help so far to everyone on this thread!!
I have not yet decided if I am going to install any solar on the roof - still evaluating our needs and am not in a hurry as the current 200 watt portable has been doing just fine. However, I do have some measurements from the front half of the roof - see attached picture. Should give you an idea on what you have to work with on the 23DBS.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:13 AM   #11
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Hey everyone, picking up a 2021 23DBS beginning of March. I don't have it in front of me otherwise I may be able to answer my own questions. I plan on starting with one 100AH BB battery and would like to relocate it from the tongue to the front storage compartment (mostly for theft and temp requirements). I'm wondering how difficult of a job this is going to be, wiring it etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated or a picture of what I'll be dealing with so I can better understand the wiring portion of it. I imagine it's probably not that difficult, just hard to picture what I may be getting into. Thanks in advance!!
One thing you have not discussed is the locks. Look at your keys and see if the baggage locks are just for your unit. If it is the CH751 or R001 these are used by millions of RV owners. If considering moving to inside for reason of theft prevention, think about getting your locks changed out.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:49 AM   #12
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I have not yet decided if I am going to install any solar on the roof - still evaluating our needs and am not in a hurry as the current 200 watt portable has been doing just fine. However, I do have some measurements from the front half of the roof - see attached picture. Should give you an idea on what you have to work with on the 23DBS.
That was absolutely awesome of you to send those dimensions!! I figured the panels Im looking at would be to big. I think I'll look at the 175/200w Renogy panels. Plenty of room to fit quite a few of those it looks like. Thanks for all your help!!
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:53 AM   #13
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One thing you have not discussed is the locks. Look at your keys and see if the baggage locks are just for your unit. If it is the CH751 or R001 these are used by millions of RV owners. If considering moving to inside for reason of theft prevention, think about getting your locks changed out.
Good point to bring up.... I actually just got my "RVlock" brand keyless/keypad lock for the entry door, they were running a 20% off Presidents Dat weekend sale. They also make baggage door locks so should probably look into those based on all these trailers using identical keys. Won't have an idea on the keys until 3/8 when I pick the trailer up.

But this brings up another question. I know the walls on these trailers are thicker then the normal industry standard. Are the doors the same same thickness as the walls? Or closer to the 1"-1.5" norm? The RVLOCK I bought probably won't fit the thickness of the door if it's the same thickness as the walls.

Thanks for the advice!
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Old 02-19-2021, 11:07 AM   #14
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That was absolutely awesome of you to send those dimensions!! I figured the panels Im looking at would be to big. I think I'll look at the 175/200w Renogy panels. Plenty of room to fit quite a few of those it looks like. Thanks for all your help!!
I like the Renogy panels - reasonably priced and good quality. I used a pair of their 100 watt panels to build my portable. Added bonus was the frame size was perfect to slide right into the front pass-thru and take up a minimal amount of room.......
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