Ideas for a adding main battery shutoff

I purchased a cut-off switch at an auto supply store and mounted it in a shallow electrical box in the wall above our converter... Previous post with photo.

It works well for us and keeps everything inside.

Happy Camping!
John.

Since I work in the marine industry, I tend to mount battery switches in dry places to advoid corrosion. I can think of no place worse that on the front of a TT, getting pounded by rain as you travel down the road. Eventually it will fail, and there are really no completly "waterpoof" switches. I like the Blue Seas brand. I mounted a dual battery switch next to my converter. Easy to wire, just have to remove the positive wire from the converter (black 12V wire) and attach to the switch, and then add a wire from the switch to converter. I have two battery banks, so I installed a dual battery switch. Blue Seas has a nice single bank switch with a removable key, that is the one I would buy. See pic. The switch mounts "though" the wall and sticks out no further than the converter.

I mounted this 150 amp switchable overload in the battery compartment of our 5vr. The nice thing about this device is that if there is ever a short in the load of the battery, the overload will trip and save the battery. I bought it new at a surplus store for $10.

The knife switch is good choice because of it's simplicity. If you keep some contact treatment on it, it should weather well.
If you want a really good switch, rated 310 amps, and has the contactors sealed, these Cole-Hersee Master Disconnect switches are some of the best. The contacts are sealed in the switch with an O-ring and are servicable.

I use a knifeblade for my chassis battery. But for my house battery banks I have 50-amp resettable breakers that I also use as battery shut-offs. This might be an idea for you if you have no main 12-volt breaker. You can get them at car stereo-type places. That way you can have the protection of a breaker and a battery shut-off with one purchase.

Miles

Hi,

Mine are inside--so no problem with corrosion.

Lynnmor wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

My RV came OEM with the perko keyed switch that Roy shows.



I believe they are $5.95 at Napa. Continuous duty 100 amps, contacting 1000 amps.

OK I put one of those on. It does NOT work. Actually it worked for avery short time, and then, I thought my battery was dead, as when I turned on the key, and looked at the battery monitor. IT just kind of flashed and went dark. I removed it from the loop, and the battery was actually fully charged. Can't figure out what went wrong, but it was like the battery had to warm up to work with the switch in the loop.

I went thru two of these in one summer. Rain water corrodes the inside. Get a Blue Sea or other that is made for marine use.

I'll give it a try. Thanks

Terryallan wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

My RV came OEM with the perko keyed switch that Roy shows.



I believe they are $5.95 at Napa. Continuous duty 100 amps, contacting 1000 amps.

OK I put one of those on. It does NOT work. Actually it worked for avery short time, and then, I thought my battery was dead, as when I turned on the key, and looked at the battery monitor. IT just kind of flashed and went dark. I removed it from the loop, and the battery was actually fully charged. Can't figure out what went wrong, but it was like the battery had to warm up to work with the switch in the loop.

I went thru two of these in one summer. Rain water corrodes the inside. Get a Blue Sea or other that is made for marine use.

I would think one of these would be just fine.

The Perko switch that sch911 shows is quite stiff and a small child could not operate it. I installed one on my last RV and my current RV had one already installed. The one I put in was outside the RV and exposed to the weather and it worked w/o a problem (that RV had no basement storage). The one on my current RV is inside the basement storage on the back vertical wall.