Grounding all negative leads to battery?

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lancefb

lancefb

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2017
Posts
14
Location
Plumas County, CA
Hello friends. I'm rewiring the 12 volt side of my ancient RV. I'm thinking of putting the battery in the cabinet next to the power center (I believe it is sturdy enough for the weight). This means that the battery, converter, and fuses will all be close to each other and I can take all negative leads from the circuit loads back to the negative terminal on the battery and not have to worry about grounding to the chassis.

Is there anything wrong with this? Am I missing something?
 
You might want to address how you will seal the compartment and vent the hydrogen gas to outside.

Also on my rig the Invertor is not in the same compartment as the battery to prevent a possible spark causing problems with the battery gassing.
 
HueyPilotVN said:
You might want to address how you will seal the compartment and vent the hydrogen gas to outside.

Also on my rig the Invertor is not in the same compartment as the battery to prevent a possible spark causing problems with the battery gassing.
Click to expand...

Are there gasses in a sealed battery with a 4 stage charger?
 
Attaching a bunch of wires directly to the battery isn't really best practice. Having one cable from the battery to a ground post, where other ground wires are connected, is a better idea.
 
Grounding buss is the way to go, much like it had already, with a heavy cable to the battery. I sure wouldn't want a battery in my coach weather it is a sealed battery or not.
 
HappyWanderer said:
Attaching a bunch of wires directly to the battery isn't really best practice. Having one cable from the battery to a ground post, where other ground wires are connected, is a better idea.
Click to expand...

I have a negative bus bar so there would be just one cable coming back to the battery.
 
Charlie 5320 said:
Grounding buss is the way to go, much like it had already, with a heavy cable to the battery. I sure wouldn't want a battery in my coach weather it is a sealed battery or not.
Click to expand...

OK, maybe I'll back off on that idea and put it in the original location, although it is still inside the coach because it is accessible from inside as well as outside.
 
I had an Alfa trailer that placed the battery right behind the power center.  It was in a sealed compartment with a door identical to the one behind the refrigerator providing venting to the outside.  Worked great.

For grounding, take a single high current wire (8 gauge or better) from the negative buss to the chassis.

Any wet cell battery must be vented to the outside.  AGM and Lithium Ion batteries don't need venting and can be safely mounted inside the RV.
 
lancefb said:
Are there gasses in a sealed battery with a 4 stage charger?
Click to expand...

YES

Take all grounds back to a bus bar. Nice heavy solid brass bar.. ANd use a battery cable (Like 4GA or larger) to connect IT to the battery.
 
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