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House battery??


MHRookie

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All,

     My manual calls for 4 6v 450 AH U2200 batteries.  Here’s  the question… would buying higher capacity batteries benefit or cause problems?  Looking to upgrade to AGM batteries and noticed 3 sizes in the lifeline series.  Coach is all stock, no adds of solar panels.  Will the larger size batteries stress the charger and cause me problems?

I still have to origininal mod sine inverter/charger 2012 unit.

this is in my 2003 Dynasty 42’ coach.

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the only issue that can be causes if the batteries are being drained so low that the charger will be maxed out. Any time you max any device you add undue stress. Find out what capability of your charger and compare it to what your batteries will need at different percentages of charge needed to bring to being full charge. If you plan to change the inverter charger out to meet the demand of the new battery configuration you may what to look at what is available in the market place. 

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Won’t hurt anything to go with more amp hours but the 2012 inverter/charger is a POS as it will not charge 100 A. That rating is that 130 votes so the best I ever saw out of one is 70 A because on the generator it charges even fewer amps than shore power. I added an additional 100 amp charger to reduce my generator run time when Boondocking.

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Kurt, something is wrong with your 6v U2200 battery capacity spec.  Most of these are 225 AH each, not 450.  When you connect two 225ah 6V batteries to make a 12v battery your capacity remains 225ah, but the voltage is doubled from 6 to 12. 

Your limitation is space for extra batteries.  Using the existing upper battery tray for house batteries all you can fit are four 225AH 6V batteries connected in series-parallel.  The total capacity for four 6v batteries connected in this manor is 450ah.  

Trojan and Lifeline make taller batteries that will slightly increase capacity but you will need to take some careful measurements.  

You should have a storage space behind the battery bay that can be used.  The coaches that came with a residential refrigerator add extra house batteries to this area. 

You can also switch to LiFePO2 batteries for extra capacity.   Theoretically you should not discharge your lead acid batteries below 50% as it shortens their life.  You can discharge lithium batteries to 10% without negative effects.   By switching to lithium you can effectively double your capacity.  The downside is lithium is expensive and has temperature limitations.

Personally, I decided not to jump into the lithium battery foray (yet).  I purchased four Trojan T-105 GC2 golf cart batteries.  I found them at a golf cart store for $120 each.  Four of these they fit well into the upper battery tray.  So far, they will run my residential refrigerator twice as long as my old NAPA GC2 batteries.  

Hope this helps.  

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8 minutes ago, vito.a said:

Kurt, something is wrong with your 6v U2200 battery capacity spec.  Most of these are 225 AH each, not 450.  When you connect two 225ah 6V batteries to make a 12v battery your capacity remains 225ah, but the voltage is doubled from 6 to 12. 

Your limitation is space for extra batteries.  Using the existing upper battery tray for house batteries all you can fit are four 225AH 6V batteries connected in series-parallel.  The total capacity for four 6v batteries connected in this manor is 450ah.  

Trojan and Lifeline make taller batteries that will slightly increase capacity but you will need to take some careful measurements.  

You should have a storage space behind the battery bay that can be used.  The coaches that came with a residential refrigerator add extra house batteries to this area. 

You can also switch to LiFePO2 batteries for extra capacity.   Theoretically you should not discharge your lead acid batteries below 50% as it shortens their life.  You can discharge lithium batteries to 10% without negative effects.   By switching to lithium you can effectively double your capacity.  The downside is lithium is expensive and has temperature limitations.

Personally, I decided not to jump into the lithium battery foray (yet).  I purchased four Trojan T-105 GC2 golf cart batteries.  I found them at a golf cart store for $120 each.  Four of these they fit well into the upper battery tray.  So far, they will run my residential refrigerator twice as long as my old NAPA GC2 batteries.  

Hope this helps.  

I don’t boondock enough to justify lithium.  Looking for AGM so compartment stays cleaner vs the lead acid maintenance.  I’d have to modify my compartment to add any batteries.  Then a larger inverter/charger is required.  I don’t boondock enough to need the inverter update either…. I just want to make sure I don’t install something that will overload and cause a fire or meltdown).  Sticking with stock sometimes is simpler I guess.

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Guest Ray Davis

We had a member,  Bill G ( RIP ) that bought AGM batteries at either Sam's club or Costco, I can't remember which one.   However at that time they were only available    east of the Miss River and only sporadically at some stores.   Maybe someone else bought them too and will chime in with more info.

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The AGM 6v house battery that Bill G recommended was the Duracell AGM Golf Cart Battery- group size GC2.  It is sold at SamsClub stores and made by East Penn, which makes many of the better batteries today.  SamsClub has a great price.

Edited by David White
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I lowered the battery track in my 04 Dynasty so I could add a second rack doubling my AGN AHs that lasted 10 years. To begin with (4 years) I only had the sorry 2012 before adding additional charging. More AH isn’t going to hurt anything other than taking longer to recharge.

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