Ford PSD, F350 Manual 4x4 CC SB, Firestone Ride-Rite, Rancho 9000, AIS air filter, ARE shell, Hensley hitch, Prodigy BC.
Old rig- 1999 SunnyBrook 30FK TT.
New rig- 2007 New Horizon 33f TT.
igutman1 wrote: Hello all,
I have in my rig two 6v (Trojan T105)in series, charged by a Xantrex Freedom 2500 inverter (and a solar panel of 100w).
I would like to add more batteries but there is no room for two more 6v in the battery compartment.
Will it be possible to add a 12v battery in parellel (Trojan or a another brand)?
Will this system function efficiently without one battery 'stealing' juice from the other(s)?
Will the inverter know how to deal with the different kinds/voltage ?
TIA, Isaac
Well I am no expert and I have been told it will not work, BUT for 3 years now I have had 2 6 volt sams batteries in series, connected to 2 Lifeline series 31 12 volt AGM batteries hooked in paralell and have had ZERO problems and great results. Still I am sure not an expert!!!
All I know is it's working for me...
OH and no switches, cutoffs or whatever. Just a converter and ocassional charger from the Hondas....
Scott
2005 Dodge 3500 4X2 HO CTD Dually 6 Speed
2005 Springdale 266RELL GL
Reese HP Dual Cam
Prodigy BC
2 Honda EU2000i's
2 Lifeline 31 Series AGM 12V RV Batts
2006 Harley XL1200R
SP 2610 GPS
26" Samsung LCD HD TV
Economic necessities forced me to run a pair of six-volters in parallel with a 12-volter.
It was not ideal, but no problems. I liked to use and charge them separately, but sometimes it was simpler to use them in parallel and quicker to charge them in parallel. Again, not ideal, but no problems. Did it for a few years until I had to buy a complete new matching set.
Bill and Susan
84 Barth 30 tag powered by ht502/Thorley, Gear Vendors OD
Siamese Calvin and Airedale Hobbes
4WD Toyota toad
lots of urgban legend here. I thought a wet lead acid cell was supposed to be a wet cell, you just hooked them together properly to get the voltage you needed.
Oh yeah don't do it you will turn into a pillar of salt
As to where to put the fuse.. Same place you always put master fuses. in the battery positive lead of course.. Size, of fuse depends on several things. but unless you are running a high power inverter I'd go with either the amp hour rating (20hour rate) or 2x that IE for U-220's around 400 amps, for a Group 29, around 200 amps, max with an inverter, half that without.
Actually.. I'd not worry about it. The danger is not that great and the damage should it go into "Disaster" mode is not that great either in most cases
And for Dave H M
Well.. a Lead Acid battery can be a Flooded Wet Cell, Maintenance Free, AGM or Gel Cell (and very likely other things as well)
in each case the "Acid" is a bit different, and in some cases the lead is a bit different. The result is that you get slightly different voltages. perhaps as much as 0.05 volts per cell difference.. Normally you can more or less ignore this but when you are setting up a proper 3-stage charger it becomes important, Even the differences in temperature matter for proper full charging.
So when you parallel batteries you need to make sure they are the same type. Don't put a maintenance free along side flooded wet cells for example.
For more information on the slight differences in these batteries visit www.Xantrex.com go to support and download the manual for the Prosine 2.0 Look up the battery charging appendex.. IT gives the different settings for many battery types and brands
The differences are usually minor.. but ... They are different!
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
Wow, are you really about 85 ? !
Some of us speak from many years experience, others can only quote websites written by selfmade experts, or better yet, battery sales persons.
I quoted myself as a battery expert,...and I guess you really believed that. Sorry, not really, but I DO know what works !
Listen to wa8xm,....except for his "no 6ers" he is probably much more knowledgeable on batteries than I ever will be. In the meantime, at age 85, don't be wasting all your money on new batteries because a website tells you to
Mont G&J wrote: It has been my experience of 70 plus years, that when someone proclaims himself to be an expert on a subject you can disregard everything else he says.
For those of you that think you already know everything about batteries and don't want to bother clicking on the link, I've added some quotes from the information below.
"If more ampere-hours are required, you can connect two (or more) new and identical 12-volt batteries in parallel. You can also connect two larger new and identical six-volt batteries in series by attaching the negative terminal of the first battery to the positive terminal of the second battery. If you connect two 12-volt batteries in parallel that are identical in type, age and capacity, you can potentially double the total capacity. If you connect two that are not the same type, you will either overcharge the smaller of the two, or you will undercharge the larger of the two.
The recommended parallel and series connections are as follows:
When connected this way, the batteries will discharge and recharge equally. When connecting in series or parallel and to prevent recharging problems, do not mix old and new batteries or ones of different types. Cable lengths should be kept short and cable must be sized large enough to prevent significant voltage drop; there should be a maximum of 0.2 volts (200 millivolts) or less drop between batteries."
Rich
'98 Flair, 454, Onan Microlite 4k, Intel PD 9155 w/ wizard, Sta-power 1500 watt Inv, 2 6v batts, ammeters, KingDome/sat, Oly Catalytic Heat, hauling 2 Bent Bikes and sometimes towing a Tracker F&S boat.
Both the Cole and Giess papers show that batteries of widely dissimilar capacities can coexist peacefully on the same DC bus. If, say a 25Ah string can be operated in parallel with a 100Ah string, there is no logical reason why strings of the same battery type, but different ages, can not also. Again, this is supported by the experience of telecom operators, who routinely replace individual strings as necessary in multiple-string configureations with no apparent problems
* This post was
edited 07/05/08 11:15am by Matthew_B *
Dixonmatco wrote: Myself, I would still install the A /B / Both switch. Not because it is necessary, but because I would prefer doing it that way. For me it is like having 2 LP tanks, with a switchover device. As a bonus, it makes it easy to isolate either component if there is a problem.
Since there is a "both" position, it is possible to use it that way if desired.
There is a difference between propane tanks and batteries: Propane tanks don't have the Peukert Effect, but batteries do.
The slower you discharge a lead acid battery, the greater it's capacity.
If you break the bank up and discharge one battery at a time, the overall capacity of the bank is less. This is because you are discharging each battery at a higher rate when it's supporting the load by itself. If all batteries were paralleled, then the batteries share the load and the individual currents are higher.
You also add complication when charging:
If you charge the batteries one at a time, it's going to take a really long time. Even with a good charger, it takes a couple of hours to finish charge. Do you want to double that time, plus have to babysit the switch to change it over when one battery is done? How about going down the highway, do you want to have to remember to change at the 1/2 way point?
If you put it in both, then why have the switch at all? After all, once you put it in both, you're admitting that it's OK to parallel the batteries, right?
Just forget the idea of a switch and parallel the batteries.
Matthew B; Some interesting information from you. Given that it is true, I would forget the switch as being unnecessary.
One of the most interesting things about this string is the totally conflicting published information regarding this subject.. It's no wonder that confusion reigns..
The only reason I see to have a switch is to separate them from each other and any loads while stored with no float charge. Otherwise for use and charging use the "1&2" position.
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