new 24c Chateau battery ??

[wogden]

We are picking up our new 24c next week and have a concern about the single 24 group battery as we do a lot of boodocking. The dealer says it will hold the unit for around three to five hours! Our older coach had a larger battery box and had two deep cycle batteries that we never ran below a 1/3 of ther capacity on any stay.
Dealer says the current location restricts the size of the battery and there is no room for two batteries.

Can anyone give some input on this situation and/or your experiences with a single battery.

[Lloyd]

In my experience, I would say you will not be satisfied at all with one battery.
Even tho the battery box is not big enough for two, with a little ingenuity, you might be able to find a spot for two. Either in a storage compartment or under a seat in the coach. People are going to the gel cells for that reason. They don't omit any gases when charging which makes them a good choice for being in the coach.

[9uc]

Originally Posted by Lloyd

In my experience, I would say you will not be satisfied at all with one battery.

Agreed! Even as I learned to be very conservative on electrical use, with a one battery coach, I had to run the generator or the coach engine nearly every day to keep vent fans and/or heater going depending on the season.

[wogden]

Last I heard from the dealer he is planning on stuffing two 24 group batteries in the box. I am disadvantaged by distance as we are in VT and the dealer is quite distant so I can not go and see this battery box until I get there next week.
I will defintely make a change in the design when I get home and most likely use deep cycle gel cells located in another area. I have the facilites in the shop to fabricate anything that would be required.
If others have gone thru this I would be curious to see how they resolved this issue.

[Lloyd]

Another battery that need consideration would be the AGM. Compare that along side the gel .
When I installed my solar system, I did quite a bit of reading, and that is where I came up with telling you about using the gel inside the coach. I seen pictures of installations of a battery bank under the seat of the dinette. They claim they don't gas like a flooded cell and that is how they can do it.

Try doing a Google search, or go to some of these web sites for solar power.