[prairieschooner]

Steve, what brand of 8D deep cycle are you using?

Please remember that I treat my Battery Banks as separate Battery Banks and have to manually Energize the Merge Solenoid in order to Charge say the House Bank with the Alternator or say the Starting Bank with the Charging function of the Inverter/Charger for the Hose Bank. I have made this change because I see each bank to have a different purpose and different need.

I am not using Deep Cycle size 8D Batteries, I am using a typical size 8D Starting Batteries for the Starting Bank. These are relatively inexpensive and designed for Heavy Equipment (like you have been around lately) I think they are about $130.00 each. This Bank is only Charged by the Alternator unless Merged.
For the House Bank I am using Trojan T-105, Flooded Lead Acid, 6 Volts DC Golf Cart Batteries. These are Charged by the Power Inverter Charging Function of the Heart Power Inverter or the SOLAR Panels unless Merged.

[whatsnewell]

Thank you to both Steve's for your replies!

@ Steve Bare......how many amp hours do each of the ProGuide 8D batteries provide?

@ Steve Ward....by the way, all four of my batteries charge off the alternator, or charger/converter without me merging them. I only use the merge switch when one bank, or the other is to low to perform its designated function. Have only had to merge them twice in the 5 years I have owned the coach. I leave the merge switch in the "off" position 100% of the time.

[rheavn]

Clarke,
220 amp hours per battery

[Chester Stone]

I may have resolved why the positive on one end of the bank of batteries goes to the inverter and the positive and negative are on the other end of the bank. When supplying 12v power to the house, the ground coming from the same battery end is of little consequence. However, when the inverter is supplying 110v to the house, having the ground at the other end of the bank of batteries spreads the heavy load more evenly among the batteries.

If anyone is interested in using 6 volt golf cart batteries, I have attached a schematic of how I plan to connect the batteries in the upper and lower trays. Let me know if this is incorrect. It is desirable, but not practical to use the same length of the cables.

Using low profile, automatic water fill caps, the clearance on the bottom tray is only about an inch. I will take the battery trays out and raise the top tray by two inches resulting in more clearance for the bottom tray.
   

[prairieschooner]

@ Steve Ward....by the way, all four of my batteries charge off the alternator, or charger/converter without me merging them. I only use the merge switch when one bank, or the other is to low to perform its designated function. Have only had to merge them twice in the 5 years I have owned the coach. I leave the merge switch in the "off" position 100% of the time.

As I stated I have isolated the Battery Banks and treat them as 2 Separate Banks with 2 Separate needs. Sounds like what you have has been working well for you guys so no need to change.
***One thing to remember is that our DD wants 2 size 8D batteries for Starting according to the Manuals. I would want to be sure that the House and Starting Batteries are Isolated at least when Dry-Camping.

[cknuth]

        At the risk of replying to a 7-year-old thread....

Chester, I'm finally replacing your golf cart batteries with Battle Born lithiums.  There will also be some changes to the charging equipment, so I'm making as-built and revised diagrams of the cabling.  And it raises some of the same questions you had back when you did the last change. 

- The cutoff switch is on the negative house battery connection, and it only disconnects a chassis ground (there is a shunt upstream of the switch.)    The input side of the switch is basically a terminal block for the cable that continues to the inverter.    So what's the function of this switch?    When it's off, the coach still gets 12V, and the inverter is still charging the house batteries.

- Why indeed are there two different positive cables, one from each end of the battery bank?    One goes to a terminal block that appears to connect Echo charger, house load center, and battery isolator.  The other appears to go to the inverter.

- I have not found any over-current protection on any of this - is there a big breaker somewhere on the positive side?  Magnum certainly recommends it.

- Is that bundle of small wires that's connected across the shunt the sensor for the Xantrex battery monitor?

I hope this finds you well and pleasantly occupied during this unique time.

Chuck

[folivier]

In your first picture in the middle towards the bottom there is a fuse but looks like it's only connected to 1 black wire, the other side is bolted to the wall, that should be your chassis ground. Look around for another one like this but connected to a red wire.
BTW you're gonna love the BBs.

[cknuth]

Hi Forest,
I've been impressed with the consistently knowledgable folks at BB. And eager to put these batteries to work.
Thanks for pointing out the slo-blo fuse on the negative. It makes sense to me that the cut-off switch would lift the battery ground. But since the negative battery cable still goes to the inverter and loads (even with the switch off,) there doesn't seem to be a real emergency disconnect; there are lots of other ground connections in the system. I hope to understand Newell's design wisdom as I learn more.
The owner's manual points out the fuse on the negative ground connection but makes no mention of a positive fuse, and I have not found one.
Any idea why there are two positive cables from the battery bank - maybe just a cable sizing issue that wouldn't work through the single terminal block?

Thanks again!

[encantotom]

chuck,

here is a picture of the new inverter setup i did on my 99 recently.  directly above the inverter at the far side you can kinda see a fuseblock.  it is on the incoming positive from the battery.  then i ran a new cable over to the battery cutoff switch that i installed before it gets to the inverter.  the fuse is big, like the ones on the battery terminals.  

i wanted to be able to shut off power to the inverter.  i didnt like that it had power all the time.  i need to do the same thing for my 02.  

tom

[encantotom]

chuck, i have hydraulic battery cable crimpers and quite an an assortment of lugs if you need to make any new cables. i can go up past 4/0 cable. and the right adhesive heat shrink. i make all my own battery cables.

tom