New House Batteries, Converter Beeping?

[Munk888]

Hi. Lot's of learning going on! We have a 2003 Fleetwood Tioga and we killed the batteries during storage. Didn't disconnect them and that damned LP detector wiped the batteries out: chassis and house, so we think... So we got a new chassis battery first. Replaced that ez pz. Went to replace the house batteries and that is when the proverbial poo hit the fan. We had 2 Napa deep cycle batteries at 75amps each. I hit autozone and got 2 Duralast 65amps batteries. Swapped em out. So far so good. Kept the wiring the same. Now, when we turn the rig on, there is a shril continuous tone coming from the converter (the plug with all the wires and fuses?) area of the battery compartment. Lights don't turn on. Generator won't kick up. Are converters amp specific? IE, should I swap out the 65amp batteries with 75amp batteries and keep all the things like for like? Any helps appreciated!

imgur pictures

[opnspaces]

You're welcome. Hopefully they are enough. The biggest drain is usually the blower on the furnace. You might be fine. But if they aren't holding enough power you can always turn the thermostat down and add another blanket.

Also please go back and read my all replies again, I made a few small edits to clarify things so wanted you to be aware.

[Munk888]

You are a life saver! We do dry camp more often than not. The 2 6V are something that I shall have to go back to here in a few years. Faster if I keep storing the RV with everything all plugged in and the LP detector draining the batteries to kingdom come! To think that vampire electronics cost me $xxx.xx is, it hurts my tummy. hahah

[opnspaces]

You can pick up another cable online. Or at Walmart, Autozone, O'Reilly's etc. Just find the cable with two eye terminals. They will have it.

[opnspaces]

LOL the benefits of two 6 volts compared to two 12 volts is a huge debate on here. 🙂 There are pros and cons to each method. But really what it boils down to is how you will use the batteries. If you are always dry camping the two 6 volts have more stored power. But two 12 volts also provide power just not as much.

You could think of it a bit like the fuel tank on your car. Say the 6 volts hold 12 gallons and the 12 volts hold 10 gallons. It's still the same fuel, there's just less of it available in the 12 volt batteries. So you'll have to fill up (recharge) more often.

If you always have hookups and shore power then this is all a moot point. Your new 12 volt batteries are more than enough for what you need.

[Munk888]

Got it! You are amazing! So it is OK to live with 2 12V batteries in parallel like that? Are there benefits running 2 6V compared to 2 12V? Whew. I may have to find another car terminal wire here...

[opnspaces]

Refresh for the picture. Just as an aside, Automotive or RV batteries are about 2.1 volts per cell. So in your original picture there are only three cell caps per battery making 6 volts per battery. When wired like in the picture on the right they are in series and the voltage adds up to 12. In your after picture there are two large caps which are indicative of three cells under each cap for a 12 volt battery. So when you wired them is series you created 24 volts. Once you re-wire them like the left side picture you will only have 12 volts in the system.

Unfortunately I don't know if this would cause any damage. But my guess is there will possibly be a few blown fuses.

Oh, also you can still connect the two small wires to the negative side of the batteries after you re-wire them. They are still negative wires so they still go to the negative terminal (either negative terminal).

[Munk888]

Disconnected! Thank you very much! Waiting for picture 🙂 Hopefully I didn't cook something...

[opnspaces]

STOP, you are wired incorrectly disconnect all the negative wires now. You have the 12 volt batteries wired in series making 24 volts.

Per your pictures you removed two 6 volt batteries correctly wired in series and replaced with two 12 volt batteries. The 12 volt batteries need to be wired in parallel. let me find a picture.


Here, you need to be wired like the batteries in the LEFT picture. Your old wiring is in the right picture.


Hopefully you did not blow any fuses. But you'll find out after you correct the battery wiring.

[Munk888]

Thank you very much for your reply! Good to know that the slightly less amperage set of batteries is not a culprit. Wiring. I duplicated the original exactly to the original as far as I can tell. In the pictures I shared there on Imgur, on the right battery, the negative terminal has a small white and small black wire co-mingling with the big power cable. Do those need to stack in a specific way? I'm also fairly certain that at no time I did a neg/pos tap tap. But, who knows? Maybe I did booger something up unknowingly...thanks again!

[DrewE]

The converters are not battery size specific, at least not in terms of everything working or not working. (If you were to change to a much larger battery bank, a larger converter would be sensible so it doesn't take forever to recharge.) Most likely something is not wired correctly, or a connection isn't sound, or possibly the battery disconnect switch is set to storage mode, or something of that ilk. If things were connected improperly, there is the chance that you may have damaged something in so doing.