Adding additional battery

[Grey Ghost]

I have a 2011 29mk GreyStone 5ver that has only one battery in the front storage compartment. I'm wanting to add an additional battery, however there is only one battery cut out in the compartment. My question is do I have to cut out an additional drop down storage hole or can I just add the new battery and secure it to the compartment floor and then connect them together. I wish it had two holes for two batteries, but that was not the design. I know I have to secure the second batter in a case and then secure that to the floor if that would work. Just wondering if anyone has done this before?

 

[jnbhobe]

I have one in the battery compartment and one in the front compartment.

 

[brianharrison]

I added a second battery in my previous trailer and used a new dual battery box and the existing, one vent hole through the compartment - the important part is to ensure the battery off gasses (through charging) are collected in a sealed box (home made or purchased) and vented outside the compartment.

Through a quick search here is a link to a dual battery box - I would investigate how to modify the box to connect the existing vent hose to something like this.....

Brian

 

[szewczyk_john]

Keep in mind that you should be using the same length of cable for your connections. Positive & Negative leads should be the same length and the parellel and/or series cables should all be the same length as well. And all cables should be the same size wire. No sure how much this plays into the equal charging and discharging of the batteries but it will effect it.

 

[danemayer]

I've read a couple of places that you don't want to mix batteries of different ages. Get two new batteries.

 

[mlburst1]

Hi Grey Ghost,

We have the same model in the Sundance line.

We spent four months in Alaska and Canada last year - almost 45 days boondocking.

In preparation, I replaced the 12 volt battery with two Trojan T-105 6 volt batteries.

I bought a Wal-Mart battery box, bolted it to the compartment floor with the tie down strap in place, bought a 14" four gauge battery cable with loop connectors at Tractor Supply to connect the positive and negative terminals between the two batteries, spliced in vent hose, connected the existing positive cable to one battery and the existing negative cable to the second battery and we had no charging issues for the entire trip.

Pictures are attached.

We used a Honda 2000 generator to recharge the batteries when necessary while boondocking, otherwise they recharged whenever we were in a campground with electric.

 

[Bogie]

I had the same setup and decided to change to two 6 volt batteries. I liked the way the original battery was mounted and wanted to keep the low profile in the compartment. I bought a new battery box at this site.

http://www.allbatterysalesandservice.com/browse.cfm/4,573.html

I removed the old battery box, enlarged the existing hole slightly, bolted in some aluminum brackets I made and installed the new box. The only part of the old battery box I used was the fitting that the vent hose was attached to. Here are some pictures of the install.