Battery mounting

[deerhunt799]

Just purchased a 2004 Four Winds Chateau and looking to replace the current single 12v with 2 6 volts. The battery tray seems to only support a single 12. What do others do to accommodate two sixes?

[ericsmith32]

j-d wrote:

Looks like a similar compartment. The panel on the right supports only the phone and TV jacks, easy to re-locate those. I didn't think that side would be big enough for battery/batteries, but maybe it is, especially golf cart batts.

Technically on mine would of fit 3 in that space.. of course the fourth would have to be on the other side. Or the tray could be reworked where the single battery was and 2 GC2's would easily fit over there. Can't recall all the numbers but I know 27 or 29 I couldn't fit more than one, 24's would of been tight.

Need to change the cord eventually. Don't see the need for additional batteries in our case though, money would be better spent on solar.

[j-d]

Looks like a similar compartment. The panel on the right supports only the phone and TV jacks, easy to re-locate those. I didn't think that side would be big enough for battery/batteries, but maybe it is, especially golf cart batts.

I got slides with a much higher rating than a battery weighs, concerned about bouncing on the road, let alone rust and dust. After all, it's open and separated from the rear wheels by only the mud flap.

[BruceMc]

j-d wrote:
Seeing Bruce's pix, not sure I want to post a pic of my cobbed-up fix. Beautiful Job, Bruce!

Thanks! Now that we have a new rig, and the battery box takes 2 batteries, one wouldn't think it would be a stretch to put golf cart batteries in, right? Well, the depth is about a 1/16th inch higher than our old GC batteries. So... a project in the future may be to cut the bottom out of the box and add 1/2 to 1 inch.

The batteries are in the step well of our 2016 2250 Sunseeker.

[ericsmith32]

Got mine done today, nothing fancy. Left the 29HM with the GC2's.. figured 394 amp hours? Used 3/8's all around, put in togglers through the plywood above. Overall think it's fairly sturdy probably take off the back of the rv first. Probably could do a similar setup with a 6v box.

[j-d]

Seeing Bruce's pix, not sure I want to post a pic of my cobbed-up fix. Beautiful Job, Bruce!

[BruceMc]

I rebuilt the battery box in our Four Winds as well:
Rebuild of battery box on 00 Four Winds 26Q

--Bruce.

[j-d]

I might have room for two batteries behind that original door if I re-located the shore tie cable storage. And that wouldn't be all that hard. It passes through the back of that compartment then across the bottom of the house till it gets to the passenger side of the bed frame. The Converter/Power Center is located there.
All I wanted that my setup lacked was a sliding battery tray. I have a pic somewhere of the mod I made using two Heavy Duty full extension slides from Home Depot. I had to shim the space from tray to frame down a little and found plywood scraps that'd do it. Now I can check and water the battery without having to disconnect AND pull up/out from that deep tray. Worse part of the job was getting the self-tapping screws out of the four corners of the tray. Best part was it justified buying a rigth-angle cordless drill to get the slide mounting holes through the sides of the support rack. I'll look for the pic or take another one.

[Snowman9000]

On my Trail Lite B+, I had a welder weld a box for one battery onto the frame underneath the rig. The existing coach battery was already in a box under there. It was not handy, and AGM batteries would have been ideal. There is probably a lot of room under there; take a peek.

I have owned both the 2x 6v and 2x 12v Group 27 setups. IMO, don't overthink that aspect of it. The big thing is getting two batteries. That makes the big difference.

[ericsmith32]

JD you got it. Ours looks similar but I can't post the pic due to this website crashing. I got most of the material tonight for under $20. And went to Sam's and measured the GC2's and they should fit perfect in that location.

[j-d]

It sounds like Eric is considering a project similar to what Westronics (Bill, a former Moderator on this Forum) did on a Jayco Granite Ridge 24SS. Bill found unused space next to his battery tray and installed a wider, slide-out tray from Kwikee. Bill is one of those meticulous guys, and he posted a thread about the project. I've searched a several times. Should be Author Westronics, Forum Class C, Archive, then Battery, or Tray... but I could only find where Bill mentioned the project. Not where he documented it. When he was done, it looked like it came from the factory. No, actually BETTER than what most "factories" do. It involved enlarging the cutout in the side wall of the coach and fitting a larger compartment door and frame.
I worked in there on our Jayco Escapade but all I did was add slides to the existing tray for a single Group 27 deep cycle battery. I bookmarked that thread and can link a picture of the area. You can see wasted space behind the wheel well, and how the size of the power cord compartment could be reduced. The smaller compartment would add a little battery room and still work. Then the rest of the space could be picked up on the wheel well side of the battery.
Wheel well is to the LEFT of the battery. Notice the Battery Compartment is not a compartment. It's only a bracket hanging from the coach floor. You can see the ground under the battery side of that "compartment." Door covers Battery and Cord Storage.

[ericsmith32]

Our Jayco has the same issue. What I'm going to do is using unistrut, threaded stock and zip-it's is reinforce the compartment next to it. That compartment housed the power cord and few other things which I've removed. Should easily handle 2 GC2's. I'll post pics whenever I get around to getting this done.

[cgmartine]

I once had a 1994 Class C Cobra Passport which had the engine and house batteries in the engine compartment. I wanted two 6 volt batteries for the house and used a small compartment next to to the generator to place the two six volt batteries. The negative and positive cables were relatively short. I just made sure the compartment was vented and could hold the weight of the batteries.

[deerhunt799]

It's mounted in the compartment behind the generator. I'll post a picture when I get home.

[Hemi_RT]

Depends on where the battery is mounted. Are there any empty compartments? If so you may have to move them to a compartment, especially if the 12v is under the hood.