House battery capacity?

[norwestie]

My Tour has four Group 29 6 volt batteries that need replacing. Costco carries a Group 27, which is nearly the same size but has a reserve capacity of 160 vs 210 for a Group 29. Since we have never dry camped nor do we plan to, would the lesser battery set work well for us?

[ArchHoagland]

Let us know how this all turns out.

[jplante4]

Jeff - you really need to read and memorize this. Hook those batteries up wrong and you'll be back here asking about circuit boards and inverters.

Make sure you take pictures of where all the wires are that go to your current batteries. Mark them with cable markers or masking tape as to which terminal(s) they were on. If you switch from 4 12s to 6 sixes, you'll need to understand where you can get 12 volts from.

[MrWizard]

12v batteries are ALL WIRED parallel
unless you are using a 24v or 48v system, which i doubt very much

so you have (4) 12v house batteries wired in parallel
12v at 4x the amphrs of one battery
if you look close you will notice all (4) positive posts are connected together
and all (4) negative posts are connected together, that is parallel wiring

let somebody else do the install and hooking up the wiring

if you do a series-parallel with 12v you will end up with to high a voltage and burn something out

[pianotuna]

If you never dry camp, get a single small AGM 12 volt battery.

[norwestie]

WOW! This is a lot of good info to digest. So I do have four 12v batteries wired in series/parallel for the house side. We've owned this rig since last June and this is the first time I've seriously looked at the batteries. It took me a while to find the User Control panel here to change my signature. My rig is now a 2010 Winnebago Tour 42AD, with six 12 volt batteries total ;< (
I think a trip to Costco is in order to pick up some GC-2s. And rewire for the correct voltage. Thank you all!

[wa8yxm]

You need help. Group 27, Group 24 Group 29 all are 12 volt batteries

GC-2 is the six volt battery we find in RVs. though different makers may call them with different model numbers like G-10 or G-20 (Deka models)

But if it is a GROUP 24,27,29 or 31 it is a 12 volt battery.

So either you have identified your batteries wrong and they are really GC-2
or you need professional help replacing them.

Four GC-2's from Sam's club or Costco (in that order price wise) is my recommendation.

[jorbill2or]

I also question what you have as group 27/29 are 12volt starting batteries not the normal deep cycle house batteries. Perhaps your looking at the starter batteries? Most modern diesels have 2 starter batteries 12 volt for the engine and 4 gc2 “golf cart” 6 volt batteries ( wired to be 12 volts ) Costco has gc2 6 volts in many locations and would be a good choice I believe
If you never dry camp anything will work as a house battery but won’t as last long.
Also you list a owning a 2000 Monaco but are asking about your Tour?

[Lwiddis]

“Since we have never dry camped nor do we plan to, would the lesser battery set work well for us?“

Yup. Too bad however that you have never dry camped. 😞

[MrWizard]

how many cells aka water holes per battery
3 per battery = 6v batteries
6 per battery = 12v batteries

GC batteries are NOT grp29

before you scramble something and cause damage , take some pictures and put the links or images here

[DrewE]

If you never dry camp, and only need the battery for the times when you're stopped for a couple of hours or setting up camp, a single 12V battery would probably suffice if you don't have a residential fridge. It wouldn't really work well for a large inverter powering a microwave or similar, but for keeping the furnace, fridge, and a few lights going for a bit it's likely to be perfectly sufficient.

Similarly, there's little need to have a three-foot-long, five burner monster barbecue grill if the most you'll be cooking at once is a couple of burgers.

[theoldwizard1]

The most common size of 6V batery is GC2 which is actually smaller than a Group 27. A pair of GC2 batteries (required to get 12V) should give you around 220AH. Four of them (2 in series and then those in parallel with 2 others) should be about 440AH.

If your batteries specify a Cold Cranking Amperage (CCA) or a Marine Cranking Amperage (MCA) they are likely not true deep discharge batteries and will have a shorter life when used as a "house" battery.