Batteries--Changing from 2x12v to 2x6v

Think of your 2 6v batteries in series as one 12v battery. The only connections between the 2 batteries is the one wire between the batteries.

Or just tie the 3-4 cables together and connect it to a short heavy cable. Then you only have one cable to connect to the battery.

Some RVs have a insulated block mounted to a wall by the batteries and use that as a tie in point. You may be able to pick one up at an RV dealer.

Hi,

I guess it matters how you number the batteries. I always call the first battery the one that the negative terminal is on to ground and the second battery the one that it feeds.

So battery #1 in my drawings would be - 6 volts to ground of your RV. Then the +6 volts is connected to the - 6 of battery #2. Battery #2 + terminal would be 12 volts above ground, and where the wires now connected to your + 12 volt would terminate.

Think of a pair of golf cart batteries as a 130 pound 12 volt battery in two easy to carry halves - 'only' 67 pounds each.

So why change the battery now? With winter coming, unless you plan on camping, it would be much better to wait until about 1-2 weeks before a upcoming trip to put in the new batteries. If you plan any winter camping, then the golf cart batteries will extend the time between running the generator - especially helpful if you need to run the furnace a lot.

There should be a cable between the two + 12 batteries of your current set up. Look for it, and save it. You would be able to use it to connect the +6 of battery #1 to the -6 of battery #2.

Good luck,

Fred.

No. If you connect to the + on the "battery #2" battery, you will only get 6V.

When connected in series, the battery voltages add up. All positive connections must be made to "battery #1", and negative connections made to "battery #2" to get 12V.

Many of those cables are redundant, so you should be able to eliminate some. You can eliminate the parallel cables that connect to the other battery, for example.