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Battery box observations


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todays task...the battery box...first .its sagging and deformed under the weight of the battery...ok ,there is 4 anchorage points above,some 5/16 threaded rod couplings,threaded rod lenghts and some pieces of that 3/4 strut i found in the dumpster behind the market will fix the support issue.Lets take a look at the wiring,should be basic...4 wires,two large,two smaller ones,one set is longer to allow slack to slide the battery free.....hmmmmmm.one red goes to positive,another red goes to negative...that wont do! i have wire tags handy,identify wires as to their terminations and remove battery...further checking of the wires shows that someone,didnt have a piece of black wire handy and simply used red instead,someone could have reconnected the battery in a dead short......moral of story ...identify and tag wires before disconnecting,string tags work for temporary work

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Welcome to the wonderful world of old rv's they were put on this earth to keep your mind sharp and the previous owners were part of the plot! If some one twisted two wires together some time in their life and it worked producing no smoke they became instant experts and old MH became the test beds. I grew up on the Chesapeake bay and the worst wiring I have ever seen was in boats, duck tape comes to mind this is on some thing that has a tendency to explode! I guess they stopped at low voltage because they are still out there practicing their trade the handy work shows up every day.

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On the positive side:

you have one hot wire leading up to the engine compartment - should be go thru a solenoid (looks like a ford starter solenoid but it is different - designed for low draw & long activation periods) that circuit should end at the engine starting battery circuit - probably at the positive terminal.

another wire goes to the power converter onboard (under sofa). On mine another lead (added by me) goes to an 400 watt inverter.

since you still have a kohler there should be a heavy cable that goes to the genset.

Negative side is heavy cable to a ground.

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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but it is something I have been thinking about for awhile. I would like to expand batt capacity--only one fits in the cute little battery box. For starter I would like to add one more deep cycle 12V batt...is this a common modification to Toyhomes? Where would that new batt go? thanks!

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I dont know how common it is but....the loacation should be as close as poossible, (voltage drop) as protected as possible ( heat,road debris) yet as accessible as possible ,lots of compromises

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Yeah a lot of people upgrade I had a small storage compartment big enough for a pretty hefty battery I had no issues keeping it charged with the stock system. Where ever you might put it if is in a living area it needs to be well vented batteries produce hydrogen gas when they charge it can go boom so you need to get it vented. Just about all Toy homes were factory wired with a #8 wire it is sufficient for charging will carry 30-40 amps but if you are going to install more batteries and more loads you may want to upgrade the entire system wiring a lot depends on the depth of your pockets.

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I have thought of adding "more" battery storage but decided against it - weight, space, wiring - just decided to have a reliable economical generator instead. I use a honda 2000. It will pull the microwave & will even run the 13500 btu roof ac (grunts hard & the overload light flashes) at sea level. After starting it runs ok - I do not run it more than 30 minutes,

Did you ever get that old kohler to behave?

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I read thru all that Kohler info you sent ...thanks again....the kohler will now handle the A/C and the micro..before it wouldnt....I rebuilt the carb,new plug ,changed to synthetic oil( gained one or two volts)set the governor and checked frequency...I also retorqued all the load side connections which probably helped more than all the other ....my A/C is only 7200 btus and the 2.5 KW can barely ...handle it...on the micowave ..the no load generator voltage is 125VAC,,which drops to 102VAC when the micro is on ....really poor regulation...with voltage drops this low ...things can start to burn out.........the inductive loads...motors and transformers in power supplies.With out taking the unit apart I"ll just live with it .I have an Onan 3.8 that will just fit in the compartment,but thats an awful lot of work.This generator could have been overrated in the power specs.Theres a lot of overating on generators today,lots of hype.But I do believe the Japanese generators are honestly rated.I dont give advise anymore on sizing a genset(small portables) because you cant trust the specs ,which the manufacturer provides.Your Honda will give you good service

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  • 8 months later...

Before you start this project, consider whether you need a larger battery, which then allows you to consider increasing the battery box size (to a certain point) and then you go from there and decide how you will build it.

Next is the suspension system, if you are handy, you could weld a sturdy frame which is large enough to hold the box.

Word of Wisdom. Last September, I learned this lesson the hard way. I managed to squeeze a 78 lb battery into the existing coach battery box. Next step get into an accident. Next pick up battery box, and battery 200, yes, you heard me, 200 ft down the road. Last step, buy new 275.00 battery and new 300 dollar battery box. Lesson learned.

Boots

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