AnimalHungry
Advanced Member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2016
- Messages
- 80
Now that we're in the depths of winter and we won't be using our FF for a while I'm taking the opportunity to get some warranty work done (I'll post a separate thread about that) and start my solar/battery upgrade. Costco were doing a bit of an offer on 6v golf cart batteries ($75 each) so I bought two Interstate T105s. Interestingly, I called Interstate before I bought them as Costco also had a few T107s and I couldn't work out the difference. Interstate told me that the T107s were made by Johnson Controls but Interstate had recently moved their manufacturing over to Trojan who now make the T105s for them. I have heard good things about Trojan batteries so thought this was a pretty good deal.
So, I get my batteries home and take a look at the front of the TT to work out how I can move the existing single battery box and install a bigger box that will accommodate my 2x golf cart batteries and my existing 12 volter. Unfortunately, my 2016 233RBS has a rather pronounced front cap that curves forwards from the floor pan over the top of where I want to put the batteries leaving very little room (see photo - the FF has its winter coat on, but you get the idea). The other newer FFs seems to share a similar front cap, so I wondered if anyone has managed to install extra batteries there? I’ve scoured the net and can’t find anyone with this issue, so any ideas how I might do it would be great.
The alternative, I think, would be to leave my single 12 volt battery where it is and install a new battery box inside the pass through storage compartment which is directly behind my existing battery. I can make new holes in the floor of the storage compartment to pass the cables but I would also need to vent the area to allow charging gases to escape. There seems to be conflicting information out there on how much ventilation batteries need, but I plan to err on the side of caution and vent a sealed battery box with a tube directly out one side of the storage compartment. I think charging gases are lighter than air so if I mount the vent higher than the batteries the bad gases should escape on their own without need for fans and the like. Does this sound like a good plan? Of course, I’d much rather install all the batteries on the tongue.
Any ideas greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Simon
Dropbox
So, I get my batteries home and take a look at the front of the TT to work out how I can move the existing single battery box and install a bigger box that will accommodate my 2x golf cart batteries and my existing 12 volter. Unfortunately, my 2016 233RBS has a rather pronounced front cap that curves forwards from the floor pan over the top of where I want to put the batteries leaving very little room (see photo - the FF has its winter coat on, but you get the idea). The other newer FFs seems to share a similar front cap, so I wondered if anyone has managed to install extra batteries there? I’ve scoured the net and can’t find anyone with this issue, so any ideas how I might do it would be great.
The alternative, I think, would be to leave my single 12 volt battery where it is and install a new battery box inside the pass through storage compartment which is directly behind my existing battery. I can make new holes in the floor of the storage compartment to pass the cables but I would also need to vent the area to allow charging gases to escape. There seems to be conflicting information out there on how much ventilation batteries need, but I plan to err on the side of caution and vent a sealed battery box with a tube directly out one side of the storage compartment. I think charging gases are lighter than air so if I mount the vent higher than the batteries the bad gases should escape on their own without need for fans and the like. Does this sound like a good plan? Of course, I’d much rather install all the batteries on the tongue.
Any ideas greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Simon
Dropbox
I tend to leave the inverter on all the time unless we’re out and with the furnace running all night (thermostat set to 68F) we’ve done three nights boondocking running pretty much everything normally and the batteries haven’t needed charging which is great cos I don’t really like running the generator when there are tenters around (I think we’ve all been there and it’s annoying). It was cool being able to pick up an LTE phone signal, tether my smart TV to it then watch Netflix in HD powered off the inverter. The wife wasn’t that impressed, but I don’t blame her, it’s pretty geeky lol!
