Wiring additional batteries

[kuziwk]

Hey guys I have come across 4 gel batteries for free that I would like to use. I have a compartment which also holds my pd9260 charger converter connected to a single lead acid house battery in the engine bay. I have crimped terminals with 4 ft of 10 awg wire to the positive post of two of the gel batteries with a 30 amp in line fuse and a 30 amp toggle switch straight to the dc fuse board through a 80 amp main fuse. I am grounding the batteries at the frame with 8 awg. Additionally I will be hooking up the two other gel batteries in a rear hitch mounted toolbox due to the weight concerns in the compartment holding the other two with the converter (under the bed). I'm using 6 awg for the power straight to the positive post of the two batteries under the bed to connect to the batteries in the toolbox, length is around 7ft. I will be grounding these to the frame utilizing the same ground point as the two batteries under the bed...so running a 6 awg from the negative posts to the frame. My interconnects between the two batteries placed next to each other under the bed will be 10 awg and the two batteries in the toolbox will be interconnected with 10 awg aswell. Is there an issue using 10awg? I plan to disconnect the batteries via the switch when driving or plugged into 120 and charging the gels separately with my solar panel and a dedicated 12 amp gel charger. I figure 10 awg is fine since I don't intend to either charge or draw more than 30 amps. On a side note how fast can gel batteries be discharged? Faster than they can be charged? Each battery can not be charged faster than 5 amps each.

Just for the record my draw is as follows
-250 watt infinity basslink subwoofer (will draw from lead acid house battery under the hood but likely will only draw 100 watts unless it's really.turmed up)
-fridge (propane)
-lights
-heater fan, bathroom fan, range fan
-potentially small portable 150 watt inverter for a small tv or phone and laptop charging.


The reason why I have different guage is what I have lying around

One more question, my dc fuse board is directly connected to a 80 amp fuse and holder with a 2" peice of 4 awg, while I have all my connections with lugs that are a bit crowded on the other end of the 80 amp fuse. Can I install a 150amp terminal strip and connect this to then 80 amp fuse with 4 awg?, or will this increase resitance. Again the only reason is because then fuse holder and 80 amp fuse are getting. Crowded with lugs.

Thanks guys

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I had 7 group 29 jars on the driver's side. It did not appear to cause any problems.

[kuziwk]

Yeah these are Deka batteries they are 98 amp hours each and they weigh 67 lbs aswell. Which is why im concerned about stuffing them all in the compartment under the bed which could throw the balance of the motorohme off on the one side.im basing the 5 amp charging on the c20 I was told most batteries are. The batteries I have are actually 550 CCA so is that safe discharge they are capable of? It won't matter though since my 10 awg is not very long and for the two batteries in the back toolbox I ran 6 awg, they would still be utilizing the 10 awg though to get to the dc fuse panel. Realistically though i cant imagine there would be more than 30 amp draw...if there was the fuse woupd blow in which case i guess i put a 40 amp in since the 10awg should still be fine for this. The only reason I'm saying 5 amps charge each is because I have borrowed a very expensive gel charger and the max it will charge the batteries in auto is 6 amps which tapers to about 3 or 4 once it reaches full charge per battery.

[Golden_HVAC]

kuziwk wrote:
Hey guys I have come across 4 gel batteries for free that I would like to use. I have a compartment which also holds my pd9260 charger converter connected to a single lead acid house battery in the engine bay.

I have crimped terminals with 4 ft of 10 awg wire to the positive post of two of the gel batteries with a 30 amp in line fuse and a 30 amp toggle switch straight to the dc fuse board through a 80 amp main fuse. I am grounding the batteries at the frame with 8 awg.

Additionally I will be hooking up the two other gel batteries in a rear hitch mounted toolbox due to the weight concerns in the compartment holding the other two with the converter (under the bed). I'm using 6 awg for the power straight to the positive post of the two batteries under the bed to connect to the batteries in the toolbox, length is around 7ft. I will be grounding these to the frame utilizing the same ground point as the two batteries under the bed...so running a 6 awg from the negative posts to the frame.

My interconnects between the two batteries placed next to each other under the bed will be 10 awg and the two batteries in the toolbox will be interconnected with 10 awg aswell. Is there an issue using 10awg? I plan to disconnect the batteries via the switch when driving or plugged into 120 and charging the gels separately with my solar panel and a dedicated 12 amp gel charger.

I figure 10 awg is fine since I don't intend to either charge or draw more than 30 amps. On a side note how fast can gel batteries be discharged? Faster than they can be charged? Each battery can not be charged faster than 5 amps each.

Just for the record my draw is as follows
-250 watt infinity basslink subwoofer (will draw from lead acid house battery under the hood but likely will only draw 100 watts unless it's really.turmed up)
-fridge (propane)
-lights
-heater fan, bathroom fan, range fan
-potentially small portable 150 watt inverter for a small tv or phone and laptop charging.


The reason why I have different guage is what I have lying around

One more question, my dc fuse board is directly connected to a 80 amp fuse and holder with a 2" peice of 4 awg, while I have all my connections with lugs that are a bit crowded on the other end of the 80 amp fuse. Can I install a 150amp terminal strip and connect this to then 80 amp fuse with 4 awg?, or will this increase resitance. Again the only reason is because then fuse holder and 80 amp fuse are getting. Crowded with lugs.

Thanks guys

You mentioned that the battery has a 5 amp limit. How many amp hours is each battery? Or at least how much does each weigh? If the battery is less than 20 pounds, it is more a small paperweight than a good deep cycle battery. The 220 AH batteries that I have in my motorhome are 67 pounds each, and it takes a pair of them to make 12 volts, so 134 pounds for 220 AH at 12 volts, or about 2 KW of power.

Because of the 5 amp limit, I would not recommend wire larger than 10 gauge, as you don't want to exceed the amperage ability of the batteries. For example, #4 wire will allow for 100 amps at a minimal voltage loss, while #10 is limited to about 40 - 50 amps before voltage drop becomes excessive, and 10 - 15 amps will work great at very low voltage drop.

I would guess that the 5 amp limit might indicate it is some sort of wheelchair battery or exit light battery? Anyway it sounds like you have it all wired up OK.

What will really help is installing a solar panel. I would recommend a 140 watt panel to start, and perhaps another one once you discover how well they work, and save you from running the engine to recharge the batteries.

SunElec.com

Good Luck,

Fred.