Alpena Jeff said:
Al.
We brought her home 10 days ago.
I'd like to have 2 more batteries but not sure where to put them. Can they go in the next bay over?
I've read here to size your battery bank and solar evenly. It came to us pretty close to even.
This is our first rv in over 40 years and that was a pop up. Fortunately I read this forum a lot.
A Trimetic 2030 is in my future. Are they difficult to install?
Not sure want type of travelers we will be. Too soon...guessing 2-3 days per week off grid then campgrounds. This will be our home when we start the snowbird thing.
Thanks to you Al and all others for helping!
P.s. Bill Waugh has offered his help by phone. I hope to call him tomorrow. Maybe we just need to talk this out!
Adding 2 more batteries, one bay over means you will have a long cable run, 2-4 feet, to the new batteries while the original 4 have short cables. That is not the best setup. While it could work, it is not recommended.
Before starting the process of installing 2 more batteries, you need to do an energy audit. Find out just how many AH's you are using from your batteries. An excellent way to do this is to install a battery monitor.
To install the Trimetric you mount a shunt near the battery bank, 10-12 inches from the negative post the ground cables go to. You will need to buy a short cable to go from the shunt to the negative battery post. Go to Amazon and search for "RV battery cables". You want a short 12-18 inch cable the same wire size as what is on the battery now. There should be numbers on the existing cables showing the wire size.
Then any cables going from the RV to the negative battery post gets moved to the RV side of the shunt. Next you run a small 4 wire cable (about the size of house telephone cable) from the Trimetric to the shunt. Running this cable is sometimes the hardest part of the install. You want to mount the monitor inside the RV, in a place you can easily view it. I like to install the monitor high on the wall above the entrance door or somewhere in the living area. Go here for more details about the install:
http://www.bogartengineering.com/products/trimetrics/
Actually it is better to have more solar watts than AH of batteries. I would prefer 25% to 50% more solar than AH. For 400AH of battery 500-600watts is better. You can never have too much solar.
You mention that you only plan on 2-3 days dry camping before connecting to shore power. Your setup should handle that quite well. It is important to use a battery monitor to track the AH's used. If solar isn't keeping up, run the generator for an hour or two in the morning get get a big chunk of the AH's put back in the batteries and then let the solar take over to top off the batteries.
No need to get the batteries above 90% since you will be connected to shore power every 2-3 days to get the batteries to 100%.
If, in the future, you find you want to dry camp/boondock for 5-14 days, you need to revisit your setup and increase your solar and maybe batteries.