171 - Mod - Dual Battery

We do alot of Dry Camping and seem to run low on power, so we pulled the single battery out and bought 2 12 Volt Batteries.  They are the Deka DC24 Battery.   We also picked up some 4 gauge battery wires already made ane another battery box.

Our Parts:

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The batteries:

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I Made sure to drill holes in the bottom of the box to allow water to drain

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Placed the two boxes and batteries on the frame:

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Wired the batteries in Parallel and hooked up a switch to shut off the pack:

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Dressed up all the wires and closed them up :

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Connecting in Parallel
When connecting in Parallel you are doubling the capacity (amp hours) of the battery while maintaining the voltage of one of the individual batteries. Use a jumper wire between the positives of both batteries and another jumper wire between the negatives of both batteries. Connect your positive and negative wires to the same battery to run to your application.


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Important notes: When connecting batteries in a pack there are some important things to keep in mind - - Find out the requirements of your application. For example: Don't double the capacity on your Power Wheels vehicle if you're not supposed to...you could burn up the engine. Follow the recommended guidelines for your application. - Don't use two different chemistries when connecting a pack. Usually the voltages will be different, but more importantly the charge rates will be different and the capacities may be different, thus resulting in a shortened life span. - Try to match capacities as much as possible. When connecting batteries in a pack you should try to match the capacities as much as possible to avoid discharging one battery quicker than another. A pack operates at a combined voltage so your one cell that discharges quicker will likely discharge deeper than it may be able to recover from.

 I had 4 Deka DC31s in 2 banks of 2 on my boat. The older bank was 8 years old when I sold the boat and just starting to show some signs of aging. Great batteries. Not cheap though.

Does the on board charger handle both batteries?

Terry

Getting ready for this weekend I went over to the camper and went to turn on the lights and there was nothing.  Thinking I forgot to turn off the battery switch I went and grabbed the battery charger to find out both batteries were fully charged.  Turned out to be a cheap switch I used went bad.  Hoping to have that switched by the weekend.  Moral of the story - you get what you pay for. 

ok had to think and reread several times what you were saying.  What you did mean is on the 2 batteries from the camper hook the positive to one battery and the negative from the other battery.  then run two jumper cables between each battery from positive to positive and negative to negative.  Correct?