1994 Adventure battery requiements

[Dneal012]

I have a 1994 Adventure 37 foot Ford v10 gas engine. I open the battery compartment under steps a find 2 12 volt batteries inline parallel connected. Is this correct for this motor home? Everything I have seen seems to indicate there should be a 12 volt chassis battery and two 6 volt inline house batteries. I am also looking for information about how the house batteries are charged. Such as from generator or shore hook up. With all that said I am sure you can tell I am new to this. So any help is greatly appreciated.

[Decuct CoCo]

you can use two 12v Deep cycle house marine batteries in parallel in place of two 6v deep cycle batteries connected in series.
parallel connection doubles amp hour capacity while a series connection doubles voltage.

12-volt starting batteries are a shallow discharge type that delivers a high amperage burst to start a car, not a long steady electric source that deep cycle marine batteries provide.

[Dneal012]

Thank you for your answer. Very helpful. Could this set up with the marine batteries also be used to start the engine? As at this location there are only these two batteries. Not a third chassis battery.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Dneal012

Could this set up with the marine batteries also be used to start the engine? As at this location there are only these two batteries. Not a third chassis battery.

No, not regularly. The chassis battery is much higher in CCA - cold cranking amps. The spec for your F53 chassis is 750 CCA and two deep cycle Group 31 wired in parallel provide about 200 amps.

You should have a separate chassis battery and usually it’s under the stair next to your 2-House batteries. Has it been removed or relocated?

You want an engine starting battery for the chassis and separately deep cycle house batteries.

The previous poster called the house batteries “marine” batteries, and you do see them sold as “deep cycle/marine batteries.” But that’s not the best option. A much stronger house battery is a true deep cycle battery. The deep cycle marine is a hybrid boating battery meant to be used in smaller water craft to start an outboard motor and power electric trolling motors for extended periods.

Your house batteries have one job to power all the 12v loads in your motorhome for lengthy periods. They are built with thicker lead plates to deliver more current for longer periods.

True deep cycle batteries are more specialized and generally more expensive - certainly the better more powerful ones are twice as expensive. But they perform much better than the marine deep/cycle batteries. Because of this many people buy the cheaper easier to find dual purpose batteries from Walmart, etc to use as house batteries. However, they will not provide as much power for as long of a time and as such will not last nearly as long, requiring you to buy new batteries as often as every year. So in the end they will cost you more than twice as much, while not even doing a good job for your motorhome.

I’d suggest you figure out if you have a chassis battery somewhere and if not work to get one rewired in place.

[Morich]

Your wiring for factory are here:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm
You may get the best info in picture form here:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...994/111486.pdf
Note there are two drawings, depending on Chevy or Ford, labeled at lower right corner?

Small wires labeled like this?

Use this to "decode" the labels?
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf

Battery cables were marked like this when new? Possible tape at tends are still there on some?


The charging question is almost a book of it's own!
Winn has used the same basic parts "forever"!

RV have three sections of wiring and they connect together at times and disconnect at other times. So it gets "wordie", so hang on!
Chassis wiring is the same as most truck wiring. Engine alternator charges the chassis battery for truck things. For instance, headlights, wipers, etc, look to truck drawings as Winnebago just buys stripped chassis and adds their parts.
To get deep into chassis items, we have to go to chassis builder info like Ford, etc.
Coach wiring 12VDC is for all the RV things, inside lights, fans, awning, etc.
Then they also built the 110AC stuff for Air cond. microwave and outlets.

When working on one, think first of which group to search info.

But then things get funky as the chassis and coach are tied together at times and separated at other times!
Click this snip or go direct for big picture.


This little area is critical for the RV getting things charged at the right time!
The blue wiring is the control wiring that operates a "mode solenoid". There is a dash switch that may be labeled different with each RV. Aux, boost, or others at different times??? This dash switch operates the solenoid as we push it (momentary switch!) OR the same wire (LR?) is also hot when the ignition is on! Power on LR from the front goes to solenoid coil and closes the contacts inside to connect my red to my green! Power goes through the coil and gets to ground by using the mounting screw on your year model!
Gotta keep the mounting screws good, clean and tight!

When operated this solenoid connects chassis battery with alternator to the coach and they charge at the same time as we drive!
The second function of this solenoid is when we find the chassis battery might be weak, we can push and hold the dash switch to get a "jump start" from the coach batteries!
Disconnected when we stop but connected when we drive!
This solenoid tends to get lots of use every time we start and it is a common problem as the contacts get burned/corroded over time and the coach batteries stop charging as we drive! Take a note on that for future?

Basic idea is the RV converter will charge the coach batteries when stopped, engine off and we are plugged into power
Chassis battery is charged from engine alternator. It also connects and charges coach as we drive!

So each has their own charging unless somebody has added wiring and gizmos to get power form coach to chassis! Trik-L-Start was one item some added to power from coach to chassis but those folks were out of business last time I heard!

Way bigt subject but that will get you started, maybe?

[Decuct CoCo]

Originally Posted by creativepart

True deep cycle batteries are more specialized and generally more expensive - certainly the better more powerful ones are twice as expensive. But they perform much better than the marine deep/cycle batteries.
Because of this many people buy the cheaper easier to find dual purpose batteries from Walmart, etc to use as house batteries. However, they will not provide as much power for as long of a time and as such will not last nearly as long, requiring you to buy new batteries as often as every year. So in the end they will cost you more than twice as much, while not even doing a good job for your motorhome.

While you are correct, I enjoyed 12 years of use from 3 paralleled Walmart Everstart Max marine/RV batteries 2006-2019 in my 1989 Elite coach..

I fudge the numbers there a little as one battery was marked 06 and the other two 07 as they were bought February of 2007 having different production dates.
Unfortunately wally world no longer sold that specific battery when it came time to replace them..

The only battery disappointment i've ever had was a motorcycle battery bought through Batteries Plus that lasted slightly less than 2 years.. Went back to Yuasa brand which had previously lasted 6 years to the month.. The brand hasn't disappointed since..

I load test and check/fill water regularly having equipment using up to 8D group size batteries.. It's my belief use of 50 & 100 watt PV panels w/controllers having 4 or 5 charging stages as battery maintainers has also extended the life of my batteries.

[creativepart]

Rod, the reality is that the vast majority of people don't have a clue about proper use and maintenance of flooded lead acid batteries. They under maintain them, over discharge them, leave them sitting in a low state of charge and abuse them to the point of ruining them. Yearly replacement is exceedingly common.

For an RV's house battery bank it is generally recognized that true deep cycle batteries will outperform and outlast in-expensive Marine/Deep cycle batteries.

[Morich]

Maintenance is the true key for long life.
Industry uses lots of 48Volt DC that are so vital that the batteries are looked at every month. The string is often made up of 24 cells of 2+ volts in each cell and they are able to last over twenty years!

But they are always kept on rectifiers to keep the voltage exact and when power goes out, it is a critical point to get them repowered as soon as possible so they rarely run past 25-30 percent discharge. But if that happens, you can tell they have taken a hit for several weeks after.

So there is no one single answer for what is the best/ most cost effective battery setup as we have such a wide variety of ways to use the RV.
The way we use an RV, it would never make sense to go for solar, lithium , etc as we never would reclaim the expense. We simply do not use the batteries to a level that supports the great deal of expense involved.
For others, boondocking is such a part of their use that the expense is okay. Knowing what you will do may be step one and that knowledge often only comes into focus as we use the RV!