Battery Upgrades

[hermanmullins]

Bill,

Thinking of doing the same to mine this year. I would like to have them sand blasted then primed, powder coated and then having the tubs insides rhyno lined. there seems to be enough room, but will check before.

Herman

[BillAdams]

That's what they did.  The rack was sand blasted to raw metal and then powder coated.  Great job and for a couple of hundred dollars it has held up well for year after year.  Seriously, I don't remember what is cost but no matter it was totally worth it.

[alltooledup]

I had some problems trying to buy batteries at Sams Club. My group 33 starting batteries come as a pair. Sams had a split pair with an 9 month difference in the date code. Paired batteries should always have the same date code or just call it age. When I asked about it they said that they could not get anymore batteries until they sold the ones they had.

Then when I looked at the golf cart batteries ( wetcells) they were on a rack that had them tilted about 15 degrees, were some of the plates left high and dry? I was in a small town in AZ.

I wanted to get AGM's from AutoZone but they did not stock the deep cycle. Finally went to Batteries Plus and they ordered everything with the understanding that the dates must match. They followed through and it all came out well. The X15 AGM's that I got were heavier than equivalent Duracell so I took that to mean more or heavier plates. They have gold plated terminals (marketing hype IMHO) and came with stainless nuts and washers. Their guarantee is better than Duracell or the AutoZone AGM's.

Sams is charging for the warranty so if comparing them find the cost to make an accurate comparison. I agree that buying from a vendor with a lot of locations makes good sense. I was fortunate that I did my change out while some rebates were going on as the AGM's were pricey.

If you don't like watering and cleaning terminals and fighting battery box corrosion AGM's seem to be the cure. After 10 months of use they are still corrosion free. My Intellepower converter with the charge wizard is fully compatible for AGM. I am a firm believer in Rustoleum damp proof primer for rusted or corroded metal and applied a quick coat as we were in a campground and did not want to bother my neighbors. 

[wildebill308]

I bought groups 33 start batteries at Freightliner. They were OEM about a month old and only $69.95. 

Bill

[davidh07]

That looks a lot like my battery bay but I have 6 - 8D batteries, 2 chassis and 4 house. Unfortunately the previous owner or the truck sales place where I bought it put in all start batteries, no deep cell. I am still investigating what to do about my house batteries (may go with Lithium - LFP) but I ended up replacing the start batteries with maintenance free 8Ds from Sam's. The price is good and they definitely have plenty of locations. 

As for your house batteries, I would definitely recommend AGM 8Ds. I purchased the Deka (East Penn) 8D AGMs for my previous MH and get them from a local battery supply house. If you look at the East Penn website they will have a listing for dealers all over the country. I think they have one in just about every decent size city. I went through two Xantrex inverter/chargers on that MH and both had settings in the control panel for AGM batteries. My Deka 8D AGMs were still going strong after 7 years when I sold the MH.

A 20 watt solar panel won't do much other than keep your batteries charged up if you disconnect them from the MH. More than likely parasitic loads will pull more than a 20 watt solar panel will charge in a 24 hour period. If all you are trying to do is keep the batteries fully charged when in storage then it should work.  

[casuall454]

On 12/8/2016 at 10:47 PM, WILDEBILL308 said:

When you pull your old batteries out scrub the bay with baking soda and rinse well then paint with an acid resistant paint.

Bill

If you can "pull" the battery box (remove it) consider sand blasting and powder coating. I used to remove my battery tray every 2 or 3 years for "brushing" and painting. After I had it sand blasted and powder coated I never removed the tray for servicing again. When my current 2014 battery tray needs to be cleaned up and painted, it will be removed sand blasted and powder coated.