Thor House Batteries

[Pops R]

We have two generic no label batteries for the house on a 2015 Thor Challenger. are they 6 volt or 12 volt? What is the best replacement choice

[16ACE27]

Notice the number of cell watering holes per battery:

[DavidEM]

They are almost certainly 12V which are wired + to + and - to -, ie parallel. If they are 6V they would be wired +, -, +, -, ie in series but 6V are unlikely, particularly for OEM/dealer installed batteries.

I see that the post above made it crystal clear. BTW some batteries, SLA (AKA starting batteries) and AGMs have no watering holes. But they are still wired the same way.

David

[Bob Denman]

Whatever they are: any other brand will be an improvement...

[Pops R]

OK thanks for the responses. Here is a look at our double house battery set up.

[Bob Denman]

That's a pair of 6 volt FLA juice boxes.
Get yourself a pair of Trojans.

[Judge]

Batteries Plus offers Duracell, which is manufactured in PA. I purchased two 6V Duracell Deep Cycle Golf Cart batteries to add to the two in my 2020 Magnitude SV34. I have had them for about a year and no issues so far.

The prices are reasonable and you get 10% off if you order online and then pick up at a local Batteries Plus store.

Prices have gone up in the past 12 months but that is to be expected now and going forward when you factor in all of the "events" over the past 12 months.

https://www.batteriesplus.com/search...Cart%20Battery

[Bob Denman]

I have Duracells in my S.O.B., and they've worked great!

[BattleBorn1]

Our house batteries have been used and abused from the original owner and during my learning phase. Had 2 lead 12v batteries and after seeing all the different options I decided to be the one to try out the Optima Blues and report back once I put them through some solid use.
I have an unusual question; due to the Optima size being smaller, I have the room to add a 3rd Optima house battery. I don’t believe I’ve seen a wiring sequence for 3 12v before. Can anyone share their knowledge on this? Being 12v it may not be a viable option.

[Bob Denman]

Just hook positive to positive, and ground to ground...

[16ACE27]

What Bob said. It's just 3 batteries in parallel just like two batteries in parallel. All the positives are connected together and all the negatives are connected together.

[jjoster56]

Been following these battery treads. They are extremely helpful. I just killed my 8 month old batteries while in storage. Must have left something on, but I am not sure how. Been checking on the RV every 2 weeks for 3 months. I have tried to bring them back to charge with no luck. They are currently in my basement attached to a charger.
Now for new batteries - had 2 liquid 27DC's. Thinking of going to 31AGM's (there is room). Is there anything that needs to be done differently with these batteries? Or do they function the same as liquid cells as fair as charging, inverter, etc.? (2019 Windsport)
Thanks for any advice!

[Bob Denman]

I'm planning for the same upgrade to mine. (When the OEM batteries go "toes-up"...)
I have yet to see any need for charging system modifications; but will be watching for this discussion.

[howzball]

Our 2015 Palazzo had settings in the Magnum charge controller for lead acid and for AGM and then we were also able to go into a manual setup since we decided to go with lithium house batteries.
Our controllers manual profile isn’t perfect for lithium, it stops a little short of full charge but I figured since we have solar too that makes up the difference.

[Bob Denman]

Thanks!
I wonder what the charging differences are, between FLA & AGM?

[jjoster56]

The treaded post are also in a slightly different location. But I am assume that the symmetry will be the same and the connections should all line up. Yes Bob, I too am hoping to get some input on any charging differences, if any?

[Aussie]

Our 2015 Challenger coach came with 2 no-name (read cheap) 6V Flooded Lead Acid batteries. We replaced them with 4 Lifeline GPL-6CT AGM.

This significantly increased our ability to run off the batteries. Before we had around 5 hours just running the residential fridge and other minor draws. Now we can go for 24 hours with a full house load (fridge, lights, TV, Computers, phone recharging, etc.), basically everything except A/C and Microwave. Currently we recharge these AGM batteries from shore power, the generator or the engine alternator. In the future we plan to put in some solar panels.

As a word of caution, before you purchase new batteries, especially lead batteries that have to be positioned right side up, check your battery storage compartment to make sure that they will fit. We totally lucked out here and our new batteries just squeezed into the available vertical space.

Link is: GPL-6CT - Lifeline Batteries

Before we installed the shut-off (below) we once drained these batteries completely and thought we totally ruined them. But after 48 hours on the charger there came back to life. Pretty impressive.

Battery Monitor

We installed a Victron BMV-702 with a Blue Tooth dongle.

We love this thing. It monitors draw and recharge, has high/low voltage alarms, 30 day history of batteries and more. What’s great is that with the Blue Tooth Adaptor we can read all this data from our cell phones.

Link is: https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/bmv-700

We are planning on doing a complete 1,000W solar install using Victron gear. Victron exudes typical Dutch pragmatism. World leading innovation and quality that is proven to work at a reasonable price.

Battery Auto Shutoff

We also installed a Victron Energy Smart Battery Protect 12/24-Volt 220 amp (Bluetooth). This device will disconnect the batteries if the voltage goes below a set value. Because it is Bluetooth enabled we can also manually shut-off the batteries.

Battery Charger

The 2015 Challenger comes with a WFCO Convertor/Charger. If you are going to make the investment to buy top-notch batteries, then I highly recommend getting a top-of-the-line charger. Victron, again, preferred but if that is out of the budget go with a Progressive Dynamics PD9260CV Inteli-Power 9200 Series Converter/Charger with Charge Wizard - 60 Amp. This unit has all the bells and whistles to keep your expensive batteries in good condition.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by Aussie

Our 2015 Challenger coach came with 2 no-name (read cheap) 6V Flooded Lead Acid batteries. We replaced them with 4 Lifeline GPL-6CT AGM.

The 2015 Challengers came with 2 Harris 6 Volt batteries that were not cheap and if maintained properly lasted for years. We still had the factory batteries in our 2015 37ND when we traded it in last year.

[lwmcguire]

I have used a number AGM batteries over the years and never changed a thing and no issues

Technical information recommendations includ temperature compensation and slightly higher voltage

I have attached the T105 data sheet and I do use the settings recommend in the Tuscany for the battery bank

T105-AGM_Reliant_DS_Final.pdf

[lwmcguire]

T105 AGM 6vT105-AGM_Reliant_DS_Final.pdf