Guidance to install coach batteries

[dokramer@live.com]

Last year we went to an RV coach repair business (with a great reputation) with electrical issues, which were fixed by installing new AGM batteries and setting a new inverter correctly. Then our 2004 Chinook Glacier sat in storage for 8 months while we worked thru a cancer diagnosis. The solar trickle charger apparently didn't work and the truck battery and 3 AGM coach batteries drained. I just unhooked them, wrapped the coach connections with electrical tape, and took them to the RV repair to be recharged. They were charged but the repairman refused to install them, citing risk of fire & severe damage. He insisted i reinstall them myself before asking him to troubleshoot other electric issues. Said i messed up by not taking a picture before I unhooked them, "DIYers are the worst." So here i am, thoroughly spooked about reinstalling them with vague memory of how i uninstalled them. The current Chinook manufacturer suggested i try this forum. I do have the Owners Manual but don't understand the electrical schematic.

I would greatly appreciate a picture of someone's connections to the coach wires.

I'm not at all a DIYer, this is only what i understand from taking them out: they were connected in parallel not series configuration. I have the battery to battery connecting wires. Hanging from the coach into the battery drawer are 2 red connectors, 2 black connectors and a small black wire with a yellow box near the end (temperature sensor?). I read the inverter manual but am having trouble reading the electrical schematic. The batteries are charged and reading 12v. Does anyone have helpful guidance and ideally a picture of similar connections?

[Manitou]

Welcome to the forum. Sit tight a little while, I'm sure one of our members will be able to help you. I did the 2 battery to 3 battery agm upgrade on my old concourse, but didn't take pictures and my memory is too fuzzy to be of real help. I bet on of our pwople will take a picture or offer up a diagram though.

[chin_k]

I don't have the Glacier, and my coach has the two-batteries system. Assume that the 3 AGMs are connect in parallel (they needs to be 12 V for that to work), then you should be connect all the negative terminals of the batteries together, and all the positive terminal together. Then the various connections from the coach is connected to the respective positive section of the positive side, and vice versa. For example, the solar controller has the + and - wires, and the + goes to the positive side, and the - goes to the negative side. I won't worry about balance the voltage drop among the batteries in your setup right now, but if you see someone that have a picture that does that, then it is better. This is a very generic description, so you will need to get someone with specifics if you don't want to go ahead with this.

Good luck.

[BobW9]

Hanging from the coach into the battery drawer are 2 red connectors, 2 black connectors and a small black wire with a yellow box near the end (temperature sensor?).

1) Are the wires for the 2 red connectors and 2 black connectors all the same size (diameter)?

2) Can you take a picture of your wires in the battery compartment and attach it here?

3) Do some of the wires go somewhere inside the compartment - like to a fuse/circuit breaker or shunt or busbar?

*** Please give us some pictures of your wiring and battery compartment before attempting my suggestions below ***

----
From what I can see in a Glacier 2004 user manual I found online (page 23 on electrical system), I would guess the 2 red connectors are: one for the Alternator and the second for everything else. The alternator is not shown in the user manual, but has to be there and is almost certainly separate from anything in the house system, so I think it has to be the second positive wire (though in my Concourse that wire is a medium thick 4 or 8 AWG, can't remember). The generator and house 12V system split off from a single 2 AWG gauge (fairly thick) wire from the batteries, each with their own 100 Amp circuit breaker (fuse?).

I'm guessing that the small black wire is the positive wire for the solar panels, a 14 AWG gauge wire that would have a 7.5 Amp in-line fuse, which is what I think the yellow box is - does it look like the image below, with a black top not shown (that would be the blade fuse that is inserted into the yellow box)?

Yellow-inline-fuse-holder_used-for-solar-panel-7-5-Amp-fuse-to-batteries.jpeg (5.74 KiB) Viewed 4347 times

Like chin_k said, regardless of what each wire goes to, you will need to do something like the steps below.

Note you don't have to have the positive wires all on the same positive terminal of one battery (or negative on one negative terminal), but it is good when possible. Then having the positives all on one side of the bank and the negatives all on the other side of the bank, evens out the distance to each battery in the bank. The reason for doing all this is to try to even out the wear on each battery, as when one of them starts to die, you must replace all of them (they need to have the same wear, kind of like tires).

*** REMOVE any rings or watch or anything from both hands and arms before doing anything with the batteries ***

1) connect each battery's negative to the next battery's negative using the short black B2B wires (putting them in parallel).
2) connect the 2 negative wires to the battery on one end of the bank of three.
3) connect each battery's postive to the next battery's positive (putting them in parallel).
4) connect the 2 red wires to the battery positive on the battery on the opposite side of the bank from the reds.

5) connect the small black wire with the yellow box, the solar panel, to the same positive as the 2 red wires. I'm assuming here that the small wire is the solar positive, but I can't really think of what else it would be, if that yellow box is the one in my image and a fuse (the positive side gets fuses normally).

Code: Select all

black neg wires
---------\
---------- - Battery-1 +
           |           |
           - Battery-2 +
           |           |
           - Battery-3 +----- red positive wire
                        \---- red positive wire
                        \---- solar panel black 14 with yellow box
                           Do NOT do this until we're sure that yellow box is fuse holder!!
 

[dokramer@live.com]

Wires hanging down into battery drawer.

[dokramer@live.com]

The yellow box on thinner wire

[dokramer@live.com]

I connected to the batteries in parallel as shown. Which side do I connect the "yellow box" to?

[dokramer@live.com]

My picture labels (pic 1 and 2) are switched but I hope you get the idea. The inside battery control panel reads batteries fully charged (the repair guy charged them) and reads 13.1 v.

The yellow box concerns me. I attached it to the "farthest negative terminal in the series" per guidance I found on YouTube (before I read about this forum and quit trying YouTube).

From your comments, this may have been a mistake, What is it for? Which terminal should it be connected to?

[dokramer@live.com]

Ok, per Xantac inverter manual

"You can mount the Battery Temperature Sensor in one of two ways:
• Mounting the sensor to the negative battery post allows the internal battery
temperature to be sensed and provides the most accurate results

I think I'm okay, i connected to a negative battery terminal. THANKYOU for your help and guidance!

[BobW9]

Sounds good. Glad to see that picture, I was not thinking of a temp sensor because I'd never seen one big and yellow like that! I did look online and agree with you that putting it on the negative seems to be what Xantrex does for their sensors.

Happy traveling,
Bob