Looking at 2004 Winnebago and have 1 Question (so far)

[LeeB]

It is a 2004 Winnebago Journey 36' Double Slide-Out Diesel Pusher and I am wondering how hard it would be to add a 3rd and 4th battery? Assuming it only has 2. I have only seen it on line...

[SVTotem]

Hi Lee,
Not certain about the 36', but my 39K has five batteries. Two for the chassis and three for the house.

I am sure a 36 owner will give you a more definitive answer, but I suspect you have more than two batteries. Some have converted to six volt golf cart batteries to get more capacity, so there must be some room to change configurations

[LeeB]

Thanks SV.....

[Gary D]

There should be no problem. There are two pull out trays, one for the house batteries and one for the chassis batteries.

I have 4 - 6 volt house and 2 - 12 volt chassis batteries.

Unit is 2005 Itasca Meridian 36G.

Good luck in your search.

Gary

[skigramp]

We have a 2004 39W Journey ... it has 2 chassis batteries and 3 12 volt house batteries. I believe my battery compartment is the same as the 36' Journey

The batteries are installed in two trays that pulls out ... house in top tray and chassis in the lower tray.

I have seen a photo of the house batteries replaced by 4 6 volt batteries ... it takes some careful measurements during battery brand selection to accomplish this because the footprint of the four batteries has to fit inside the tray and not be so tall that the batteries have vertical clearance for the opening

[LeeB]

Thanks... I found one now I have to convince the "Little Woman" we have to have it... LoL

[Mickey Mouse]

We have 2 for the chassis and seems like 4 on the house side (might only be 3) on our 04 36G

[FIRE UP]

LeeB,
Well Sir, this truly depends. Sometimes there are slight differences in the two sister (Winne and Itasca) manufacturers. One can ASSUME that the house battery tray MAY accommodate more house batteries than originally equipped with. But, I've had two Journey owners that have had to modify their battery house battery tray to accept the change over from the traditional (2) 12V or (3) 12V deep cycle Marine/RV batteries to, (4) 6V Golf Cart deep cycle ones.

First, either get on line or, contact the seller and determine just what is in the house battery tray at present. After all, like you, it is possible that the present or, even a previous owner may have altered the tray and or battery arrangement already.

When we purchased our '04 Itasca Horizon, two slide 36GD with the 330 CAT, about 11.5 months ago, it came with (3) 12V Interstated SRM 429 12V so called "Deep cycle" marine/rv batteries. Long story short, I had two go bad, and all three were only 1 year old at the time we purchased the rig. So, I contacted a friend who's got one of the Journeys and who's already done the conversion to (4) 6V G/C batteries and asked about his change over. He stated he had to remove the tray, cut it and weld in sections to make the tray large enough to accommodate the new group of batteries.

Well, I was prepared to do that when I went out with my trusty tape measure and checks ALL the dimensions,,,, twice....three times. Then, off to Costco I went and checked there G/C batteries because they had the best price on the planet at the time. Well, as it turned out, I did not have to modify my tray, as all four of the batteries would fit with room (not much) to spare.

So, after talking to a few other folks with Journeys and Itascas of the same year vintage, it appears there are differences in the trays. Why, who the heck knows.

I can tell you, changing from the (3) 12V units to the (4) 6V units is the best move I (and others here) could make. Take a look and see what you think. If you'd like more info on how I did it and what was involved, PM me and I'd be glad to help.

Scott

P.S. The first pic is the original arrangement with (3) 12 V, the rest of the pics are of the newer setup with (4) new Costco 6V units

[bachler]

Nice clean setup;; Thanks for the pictures. They are worth a big bunch of words.

[FIRE UP]

bachler,
Thanks for the kind words. It was fun setting it up and making the new cables etc. What You can't see is, three pieces of 1/2" thick plastic that are between the ends of the batteries and between them. They are there to keep the batteries from moving around.

Also, what you don't see are Battery Hold downs. I elected to remove them because at the time I was setting this system up, I would have had to drill the tray and get a lot more rods, corner pieces etc. to make up the coorect battery tie downs.

Well, I figure them batteries are plenty heavy so, they aint bouncing out of there anytime soon. They are, 67 lbs a piece.
Scott

[SCVJeff]

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