Quote: Originally posted by bestyman on 25/8/2014
Yes you do put + to + and - to - so that the batteries are wired in parallel.
The above set up would work well, but to do it by the book, there is another step. Each of the batteries should only have a + or - wire(the supply wires to the motorhome)connected. Meaning that the live goes to one battery and the neutral to the other battery.
Thats what the point I was trying to make but obviously failing miserably
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I had twin leisure batteries on my boat, and I fail to see the significance of taking one lead from each battery. If the batteries are wired in parallel, surely they effectively become one large battery. What difference does it make which battery the leads come from if they are wired in parallel?
From the article I read it said that the advantage of wiring them with + supply on one battery and - supply on the other is that they will feed power and charge more evenly.Just found the article a lot of useful info http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
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Yes I can now see how that is technically correct fjmike, but I doubt most caravanners or boaters would notice any difference, unless they have a large bank of batteries. On my boat I had very heavy links between the batteries, I can't remember the actual size, but it was starter-motor cable. The feed and charging cables were much smaller, capable of carrying something like 100 amps maybe.
The internal resistance of the short lengths of starter cable plus the resistance of the connections would be negligible to all intents and purposes, and the set-up worked perfectly for many years.
Whilst I cannot fault the technical correctness of the article. I would think that slight differences between the batteries themselves would have just as much effect in most cases, so most people won't notice where the supply and charging cables are connected.
However, having said that, my batteries were physically right next to each other, but if someone connected two batteries in parallel, but some distance apart, the effect may be more noticeable.
Thanks folks for your input. I have now just fitted second leisure battery on our new Autotrail. Bought new harness from Sargent electrical plug already on motorhome it's just a matter of plugging in a re-calibrating control panel jobs a good un. Took all of 30min.
Quote: Originally posted by fjmike on 27/8/2014
From the article I read it said that the advantage of wiring them with + supply on one battery and - supply on the other is that they will feed power and charge more evenly.Just found the article a lot of useful info http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
Sorry Mike, you did say the same as me before, I must have misread it.
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Topic: second leisure battery
