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RV – How to install/Repair an extra 12 volt battery in parallel to your RV or Motorhomes solar system:

Materials and tools needed for this section:

- Solder
- Conduit
- Socket set
- Cable Ties
- Multimeter
- Heat Shrink
- Wire strippers
- Soldering Iron
- Ring eye terminals
- Red and black wire, 40 amps (battery cable)
- 35 amp inline auto reset-able fuse 12volt.

- *Note: Battery of suitable size and type – should be the same AMP hrs as the original

Choosing the battery type:

Hi again, and welcome to the next level of installs for your RV or Motorhome. Here we need to understand three things before we start.

1. The battery must be the same type i.e. lead acid (wet type) or the more common AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt Battery type) these are true deep cycle batteries. Some examples of these are Concord and Full River. There is also a GEL battery type on the market.
2. The batteries must be the same AMP hours i.e. 80 amp/hrs or 120 amp/hrs and the same type.
3. Always measure the area that you have so that the batteries will fit without rubbing or pulling on the wiring and the battery cases.

Locating the Battery:

Please make sure that if you are using the (wet type) battery as in sulfuric acid type, you have these mounted outside the cabin or living space as these batteries give off hazardous fumes that can cause harm to humans and can explode if exposed to naked flames.

The other types AGM, GEL batteries can be mounted in the cabin or living space, and these are the type of batteries that I would recommend to use in this application as they are true deepcycle. The main reason for this is that deepcycle batteries can last longer then normal batteries and are designed to be maintained (charged) by solar systems.

Also you are able to mount them anywhere and you won’t have worry to about fumes. Once you have found an appropriate spot for the batteries, it is time to add them to your system.

How to add the battery in parallel to your system:

Please see the diagram below on how to install/add your new battery to your solar system.

It is very simple to do this, and all we need is two cables. The cables will be made up from your RED and BLACK battery cable and ring eye terminals as listed above. All we do is trim off enough cable of each colour so that it reaches from the positive on the first battery to the positive on the second battery.

Then we strip the wires, grab our heat shrink and slip that onto the cable at both ends then fix our terminals with our terminal pliers. Then just slide the heat shrink up the terminal and use our heat gun to melt it to the wire and the terminal. Then fit conduit to the cable to cover the wire and the base of the terminal (this will be yellow in colour). Please repeat this process for the negative cable.

Connecting the batteries to your charger controller:

*Note: Leave the Positive from the charger controller detached from the positive battery terminal at this stage.

From your charger controller there will be two wires, one being positive and one negative. Attach the Negative to the Negative terminal on the second battery (as stated in the diagram above). Please note that all your accessories will have to be hooked up in this manner also i.e. (TV, radio, fridge, and inverter). Now before you connect the positive to the first battery please make sure that you have at least a 30amp auto reset-able fuse at 12volt, inline on the positive side between the charger controller and the batteries.

Once you have done this, you can now fit the positive cables.

Testing the Solar System:

Once all your leads are connected we take our Multimeter select DC voltage from the settings and put the red lead on the positive of the first battery and the Black lead on the negative of the second battery. What you should be seeing is 12.5volts on your meter.

If the charger controller is operating i.e. showing 4 to 25 amps you should then see what is showing on the charger controller LED display (if you have one, and most do) lets say 14.4volts for example. This shows that both batteries are being charged and you have hooked things up correctly.

Then all you do is check your accessories and your done, very simple.

Check back later for more Install/repairs.