house battery slide out tray

bsellers · 02-07-2008, 07:52 PM

I recently performed maintanence on our house batteries and as I slid the tray out I notied it doesn't slide out far enough for me to check the last battery in the tray. I thought it was because a positive cable had been ran around the inside of a support inside the compartment so I took it back to the dealer and had them move the cable. After all of that it still doesn't slide out far enough for me to conveniently service the last battery. Does anyone else have this problem? How far should this tray slide out? Any suggestions?

bsellers · 02-07-2008, 07:52 PM

I recently performed maintanence on our house batteries and as I slid the tray out I notied it doesn't slide out far enough for me to check the last battery in the tray. I thought it was because a positive cable had been ran around the inside of a support inside the compartment so I took it back to the dealer and had them move the cable. After all of that it still doesn't slide out far enough for me to conveniently service the last battery. Does anyone else have this problem? How far should this tray slide out? Any suggestions?

LK23 · 02-07-2008, 08:03 PM

My Horizon battery tray is the same. I use a mirror to check the level in the last battery.

Harry B · 02-07-2008, 08:22 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Does anyone else have this problem? How far should this tray slide out? Any suggestions? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

A lot of coaches have this problem. All of the once I have owned have had this problem.

I think it is probably due to the difficulty of supporting the weight of the batteries when the tray extends all the way out on its rails

SCVJeff · 02-07-2008, 10:01 PM

After many weeks and calls back and forth I found that the top tray on our Meridian is rated at 250lb (I have it loaded @ 252 so it's technically maxed), which is why it comes about 4" shy of "all the way" to keep the leveraged loads somewhat manageable. Even so, I am extremely nervous having that kind of weight hanging out over my feet, and usually prop the slid when out.

And because of that I bought a remote watering system for the 4ea. 6V batteries today. The plan is to pull them out for a yearly PM and trust my new ridiculously expensive auto-fill caps in-between.

Dick A · 02-08-2008, 12:10 AM

I purchased the Flow-Rite watering system at Bass Pro several years ago and have been very happy with the system. I do pull the tray once per year to clean any corrosion on the terminals.

ichn2go · 02-08-2008, 02:15 AM

This is SOP for the trays. I finally woke up after using a baster for many years to fill the batteries and found a small piece of plastic tubing. I elavate the jug of water and siphon the water into the batteries works like a charm.
Good Luck

John_Canfield · 02-08-2008, 03:23 AM

And here is the advantage of changing my house batteries to AGMs - I don't have pull out the tray for maintenance

smlranger · 02-08-2008, 04:12 AM

John has the best (and most expensive) fix for the problem....get AGM's which are truly maintenance free. My next rig will have AGM's for sure.

For now, I also use the Flow-rite system for the rear two batteries in my three battery tray. Works fine.

SteveG · 02-08-2008, 05:09 AM

We all have the same problem. I also used the Flow-rite fill system. Cleans everything up very nicely and makes battery maintenace easy with no mess and no spill. In the photo below you'll notice that the #1 battery is not included. I think it was smlranger's idea but that allows you to look at the cells to determine fill level and it is easy to access. It also saved some bucks!

Randy Chesnutt · 02-08-2008, 07:15 AM

They don't make things easy for us.You would think that as importain as it is that you allways check the water level in the house battery they would do something. We all end up coming up with ways to maintain that rear battery.I came up with a way to keep that rear wheel grime off my batteries. I got a peace of 3/8" plexi - glass and layed under the battery frame and measured the hole bottom of the battery boxs and cut the plexi glass to fit and screwed onto the frame.This sealed off the bottom and I left the back open. It made a lot of difference. My battery stays pretty clean

C Zimm · 02-08-2008, 07:18 AM

Same problem with mine as well. I went with the Flow-rite fill system. Talked my good friend into it and it cost him new batteries. My system then failed and it cost me a new set of batteries. Some how one or more of the check valves froze up. The manufacturer was made aware of it and they supplied me with another set. After some time they also mal-functioned. It's a great idea but I won't try them again. If I need to remove them each time to see if they're working it's easier not to have them.
I wish all users good luck with them as it can make life easier.

Oh-one · 02-08-2008, 01:27 PM

I had the same problem with our 03 Horizon. The tray would not pull out far enough.. so I pulled a lot harder and it came out all the way. Actually,,, The problem was the cables, mine was arranged so that they held the tray back from extending. When I saw the cable was the problem I moved it slightly to the center of the batteries and then pulled the tray hard and it worked. The tray now fully extends, but I hate the dirt that gets on the tray slides and batteries from the road.

wagonmaster2 · 02-08-2008, 05:19 PM

Steve - your Flow-rite arrangement looks very neat, how did you arrange your cables to make room for the tubing hook-ups? My cables take up so much room I barely have room to get the caps off to check the water level, let alone install the manifold for the tubing.
Wagonmaster2
2004 Meridian 36G

SCVJeff · 02-08-2008, 05:34 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by C Zimm:
Same problem with mine as well. I went with the Flow-rite fill system. Talked my good friend into it and it cost him new batteries. My system then failed and it cost me a new set of batteries. Some how one or more of the check valves froze up. The manufacturer was made aware of it and they supplied me with another set. After some time they also mal-functioned. It's a great idea but I won't try them again. If I need to remove them each time to see if they're working it's easier not to have them.
I wish all users good luck with them as it can make life easier. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Froze as in cold or mechanical froze? I have the Pro-Fill, which is the 6V version of the same. In their white sheet they talk about all this fancy channeling to "wash" various valves from collecting debris. I wonder if this is the new "improved" version, or same-same.

C Zimm · 02-08-2008, 07:27 PM

Not to hijack the main topic, but to answer Jeff: A couple of the valves stuck closed (not cold) as some of the cells were dry. The manufacturer replaced the old set at no charge, (really nice folks) but I didn't wish to use them again. It's more work to monitor the automatic system than refill manually.
Wish I had more confidence but those batteries get too expensive.
Sorry, I don't know anything about a fancy channeling to wash.

SteveG · 02-09-2008, 09:22 AM

Wagonmaster2, actually my house battery setup was pretty clean. It was the chassis batteries that were the problem. Below is the photo of the rearranged connections after installing bus bars. The photo was taken before I put on the bus bar covers. Since I also have added the Flow-Rite system to these two Interstate workalholic chassis batteries. The link to the project is here atbus bar installation

SCVJeff · 02-09-2008, 06:38 PM

Sometimes when you stand in the garage and wonder how all that junk got there, a light bulb comes on and answers yet another problem..

Steve: Nice job! I have a selection of bussbars and 3/8" studs I found in Q and plan to do the same, starting with the chassis batteries. It hadn't occurred to me how cluttered the lower two were.