Battery Boxes

[Jmooney]

New 5th wheel came with pair of 12v batteries, each in their own battery box, with the lids then vented ( hose) through two nice ports of the front of the 5th wheel body


Just purchased the Inverter I talked about, and considering install for that in the same bay. I would like to drop in a third 12v battery.

Separate box? Or has anyone created a new single box ( vented ) for the power array?

What did you use?

Again, appreciate the the advice of the experienced members!

[RVhiker]

I installed a third group 27 battery in my 28.5RLS fifth wheel and it worked out well. I installed the battery in this battery box in the front basement. My front basement has a hinged floor which opens to a small area at the very front of the basement. The battery box is vented (which is important) and requires an upper vent and a lower vent for fresh air. I drilled a hole with a hole saw (2 inch?) in the metal at the bottom of the aforementioned compartment for the bottom vent and then rigged a hose from the upper battery box vent to the outside. The short length of hose that comes with the box was not really long enough so I rigged a hose with some swimming pool hose and plastic drain fittings and rubber connectors. Then you have to run large wiring to your existing battery box to tie your 12 volt system together. Hardest thing was figuring out a route for the wires. Both ends of the new cable should be fused.

[Bird Dawg]

If I thought I had enough room for 3 12 volt batteries I would think about installing 6volt golf cart batteries instead. They have a much higher capacity and last longer. You would have to hook up 2 in series and than each group of two in parallel. We had six of them on our old motorhome and a 2000 watt inverter. Seemed liked the charge in the batteries lasted forever.

Fred

[Jmooney]

Yea, I get the sense that the 6 v configuration is preferred, but the 12 volts are brand new. Came with the 5th wheel, and I didn't know enough to ask for a different product. Combined they produce 160 amps @ 20 hours, so I can push that to 240 amps or 320 amps for ~$160. Even then, the 4 batteries will only take up have the bay lenght.