Batteries - 6v or 12v?

[djp04035]

I have six house batteries in our Journey 38P. Are they 6V or 12V?

[SgtB]

Originally Posted by djp04035

I have six house batteries in our Journey 38P. Are they 6V or 12V?

They have to be 6 volt if you have 6 of them.

[djp04035]

Thank you for the information

[Eagle5]

Also, each lead acid cell makes 2 VDC nominal. Three fill caps would be a 6 VDC, and six caps would be a 12 VDC.

[creativepart]

Actually, I disagree that 6 means they have to be 6v. They could be either 6v or 12v. If 6v you have 3-sets of two batteries wired in series with each set of two wired in parallel with each other set. If 12v then you have all six wired in Parallel.

And if your RV is new to you it is certainly possible that a previous owner has changed them out over the years which further means they could be either type.

You must go out to your RV and look at the battery bank wiring, or any labeling on the batteries or better yet use a multimeter on a battery to determine what you have.

And yes looking at the number of fill caps on each battery, as Eagle5 pointed out is a good way to tell, as well.

[Oldchinahand]

Agree with creative part. Two 6v can be wired in series making it essentially a 12v. If you take two or more series wired pairs and connect them in parallel, you still have 12v, but the amp hours are additive. You can keep doing that until you run out of space.

We bought our old girl new-to-us with six, 6v wired as above. Only four would fit in the OEM battery tray, the other two were in the after cargo bay, passenger side, just under the water pump. You can imagine the wiring. Even though we boondock a lot we placed a higher premium on the storage space than on the extra amps. We tried the factory three 12v for a while. We're running four 6v deep cycle AGMs now. Amps available seems to fit our style best.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

[SgtB]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Actually, I disagree that 6 means they have to be 6v. They could be either 6v or 12v. If 6v you have 3-sets of two batteries wired in series with each set of two wired in parallel with each other set. If 12v then you have all six wired in Parallel.

And if your RV is new to you it is certainly possible that a previous owner has changed them out over the years which further means they could be either type.

You must go out to your RV and look at the battery bank wiring, or any labeling on the batteries or better yet use a multimeter on a battery to determine what you have.

And yes looking at the number of fill caps on each battery, as Eagle5 pointed out is a good way to tell, as well.

Tend to disagree sir, as I have never seen a rig, not even a Prevost, that has six 12v house batteries. I have seen six 6V house batteries, but never six 12V. You comments about connections to achieve a certain voltage are correct.

[creativepart]

Your talking about what you’ve seen in the past. Not about what newer RVs have or what a previous owner may have installed. “Assuming” isn’t always accurate and checking to be sue is always prudent.

[MadMaxWinny]

I've got six 12v batteries...lol

[SC Journey]

I have a 2014 Journey 40U and it has six 12 volt AGM house batteries. I believe the base model 40U was shipped with four 12 volt AGM’s and six when you purchased the residential refrigerator along with the larger inverter.

[gerhague]

If it has a residential Fridge it probably has six 12Volt batteries like we have in 2012 36M