Battery Life

[Jmrtxfb]

Is there a place to set a 2nd battery? Is there wiring for a 2nd battery? Would it have to be dealer installed?

[thompsons 369rl]

Is there a place to set a 2nd battery? Is there wiring for a 2nd battery? Would it have to be dealer installed?

1. There should be plenty of room to mount a second battery/box along side the existing one.
2. I doubt there is pre existing cables for a second battery. They would have to be added. Not a big deal.
3. Your dealer should certainly be able to install and wire it. If you have the time, some knowhow on basic wiring and the proper tools, you could purchase the battery, battery box and cables then DIY to save a few bucks.

[DennisK]

My dealer installed a second battery without me asking. Yes there is room, not sure about the cabling but I gotta think that if it were cumbersome or expensive, it would not be done for free.

[dloase]

Yes I will be shopping for a deep cycle AGM battery to add to what already exists. We don't dry camp often yet, but when we do I want to be prepared. Thanks one and all for the information. This is one of the reasons why I really enjoy this forum. Questions can be asked and information shared in the friendliest manner.

[webpilot]

Yes I will be shopping for a deep cycle AGM battery to add to what already exists. We don't dry camp often yet, but when we do I want to be prepared. Thanks one and all for the information. This is one of the reasons why I really enjoy this forum. Questions can be asked and information shared in the friendliest manner.

Do your research before adding an AGM battery alongside a Flooded Lead Acid. I have always read that it is not a good idea to mix battery chemistry. They take slightly different charging parameters.

Just my $0.01 worth.

George

[notsosan]

I got a credit from my dealer for the original battery and installed two 6V golf cart batteries myself.

[dloase]

Webpilot, I have heard the same things. I will be replacing the flooded battery with another ACM at the same time. I had thought about going with 4 six volts hooked in series/parallel configuration, but I thing the two 12's will do nicely for what dry camping we will do.

[WhittleBurner]

Just installed 2 6 volts myself and it was fairly easy. The only wire I had to add was the one connecting the two batteries, cables from original battery reached. Kept the original battery in place for back-up.

[ACDW-Ottawa]

Do not install an AGM battery with a lead acid battery! It's not even recommended to add a battery to existing batteries of the same type. The batteries will "fight" each other due to the difference in characteristics and will surely lead to early failure and may even cause problems from the start.

I have a similar problem. I installed a 12V AGM battery and I want to add to it. I should have put 4 6V AGM batteries but didn't think of it. Now I can only add a 12V AGM of the same size from the same company. It's not even recommend but its fairly new so it should be ok (I hope). If I want to put 4 x 6V AGM's, I have to "scrap" the existing AGM battery (sell it or put it in my wife's car) and start over.

I suggest the same for you. Only add another battery from the same company of exactly the same size or start over.

[BBJonbo]

We just completed our maiden voyage with our new 303RLS. It just so happened that where we were in the mountains we had to dry camp. I have 2 27R deep cycle batteries. Temperatures dropped to 45F at night but back up to 65F during the day. The 2 batteries didn't last even 48 hours. Had to run our Honda E2000 generator to charge the batteries. From that point onwards, we tried to have only a single light on and tried to use one of the led options and totally minimize our battery usage. Rules of the campground limited us to 3.5 hours generator time per day. I had to set an alarm and run our generator the remaining 4 days for the full 3.5 hours just to get through the trip. The furnace was only on from about 9pm to 8am but of course there was also the fridge. As well, we had the water heater on all the time but not sure that uses much power.

I don't understand with 2 deep cycle batteries why we have to charge every day. We were actually limited to 8:00am to 9:30am and 5pm to 7pm. We shut off the furnace at 8am and the 1.5 hours of generator time would get us to about 12.4volts. With no lights, no furnace, fridge on (realize fans chew up power) and h/w tank both batteries would almost be dead by 5pm. Charging for 2 hours between 5pm-7pm, if we turned on our furnace at 7pm we couldn't make it to 8am the next morning before the furnace would no longer work and the fridge stopped working. Had to turn furnace on after 9pm to make it to 8am.

There really wasn't anything more we could think of to reduce our power usage. Did not use any outdoor lights, kept lights inside to a single unit, limited furnace usage, never used the stereo, did not use any of the 3 fantastic fans we had installed and even used the campground toilet as often as possible to reduce water pump usage. I have never had to do so much to try and get through a single day with 2 deep cycle batteries. Power drain seems just crazy and having to run the generator for 3.5 hours each day just to get through the day seems abnormal.

I will take it back to the dealer but suspect they won't find anything out of the ordinary although I believe our battery drain is not typical.

Would appreciate and comments or suggestions as we may not be able to dry camp with our new 303RLS with the battery drain we are experiencing. Trying to use one light only and preferably one of the led ones, trying not to use the toilet to reduce water pump usage, not using any fans, restricting furnace use to bare minimum is not the greatest way to enjoy our new 303.

Does anyone else think this is abnormal and that something must be wrong with something drawing far too much power?