Big Battery Storage on a 17' Bigfoot TT. 2 x 6v. Where to put them?

[Franswa]

FWIW....I made the box out of pine shelving material...the glued strips stuff...stable and easy to work with...glued and screwed. The lid is 1/4" ply. Two coats of paint. Heavy bungee to keep it shut.

Not worried about gas escaping...every time I check water levels I have a struggle separating the lid from the box....paint always stayed sticky....LOL ...and yeah the vent is slightly higher than the box...

Hydrogen is FOURTEEN times lighter than air.

If I was REALLY worried about gas I could pull the fuse before opening lid (zero chance of spark)...but I'm not.

[MAP 56]

nice job on the box .

[John in Santa Cruz]

to answerr the tongue weight thing.... you want that between 10 and 15% of the trailer weight. if its over 15%, then yes, you want to unload the tongue. if its down around 10%, then unloading the tongue would destabilize the whole thing.

my casita 16 is nose-light, and would benefit from putting more heavy stuff forward, so if I did dual battery, I'd probably do it on the tongue. that said, with my internal LEDs, and using the fridge on propane, about the only heavy use of DC is the furnace fan, and even with that I can go a week or more dry camping without solar. with my 100W Renogy, I can go forever given a few hours of light per day.

[EricAllyn]

Francois,
Nice job on the battery box. I was trying to figure out how best to mount my 2 golf cart batteries, and I think your box is the right way to go, no sliding around, and held well, easy to build, and I can paint them well enough and have a little shelf over them. Thanks!
Eric

[thrifty bill]

Expensive option for sure, but the new lithium iron batteries are intriguing. No venting, much smaller, very light, can be mounted in any orientation, much longer life, you can use ~100% of the battery's capacity vs 50% for traditional batteries, expensive. I'm going to consider it when my current batteries die.

I would expect cost and selection to improve dramatically in the years ahead. Kind of early right now.


https://battlebornbatteries.com

[MAP 56]

I used diy salt water batterys .Converted led acid to salt water /alum pickling salt. they have run my camper for 4 years temp range 100f to - 40 f the chalange wes to build a camper out of as much re cycle as i could.the only new pice was the counter top.

[Franswa]

wow...I really like the look/feel of the inside.....outside looks a little "stealthy" too. great combination!!!.....you must be very proud of the finished product

[MAP 56]

I made it fron an old oil field building the cabnets were oilfeld rad crates windiws from a boler.the best part is it good four -40 wet about 1400 lbs