Battery upgrades

[teamjendy]

Has anyone upgraded the battery system in their FR3? If so, what did you do?

[timfromma]

I don't have an FR3 but I did upgrade my batteries to a pair of 90ah deep cycles.

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[Kenny kustom]

The biggest that will fit, and the best you can afford/need.


2016 Sabre 36QBOK
2015 Ram 3500 CUMMINS

[teamjendy]

lol .. which brings me back to my question.

what is the biggest/best i can put in a 25DS

[Kenny kustom]

You asked.

http://www.amsolarrv.com/lbats/40s-vt-400-ess


2016 Sabre 36QBOK
2015 Ram 3500 CUMMINS

[teamjendy]

I need to learn more about these battery systems and how they function. Perfect source for me. Thanks.

[drivmsafe]

Originally Posted by teamjendy

Has anyone upgraded the battery system in their FR3? If so, what did you do?

The only upgrade I"ve seen is someone went from 2, 12V batteries to 4, 6V. A new battery mounting plate would have to been made in order to hold the 4 batteries.
Hope this helps.

[wayne and sherry]

I neglected my 2015 FR3 30DS stock batteries, mostly because they are out of sight out of mind. mine were not only low on water but we're also dead dead dead... And for a long time. I yanked em out, cleaned em up, filled with distilled water, and used my buddies ship to shore charger. I nursed these battery's for 3 days with over night rests and I'm happy to say I've got them back and hovering around 78%. Not bad for the long dry dead period of about 6 month with most of that time being winter.

[Still Kickin]

Just for knowledge sake, the portion of the plates that were uncovered in acid, are now dead. If you're only using them sparingly, you probably won't notice it, but if you dry camp much, you will. The test would be, put a load on them from the 78% you believe them to be maintaining, and then after a short time, re-test. That will give you some idea, how much functional utility your dealing with.

[Landshark1]

Originally Posted by teamjendy

Has anyone upgraded the battery system in their FR3? If so, what did you do?

When I got my 30DS, I added solar, and when I did that, I removed the original 2 - 12V house batteries and installed 4 - 6V batteries. I did have to install another battery holder for the extra batteries. The reason being that from what I've read, battery longevity favors the 6 Volt batteries. My understanding is that a major cause of deep cycle battery failure is the shedding of active material from the battery plates and the 6 volt batteries have thicker plates. I'm no expert on the subject, but that's what I ended up doing.

[wayne and sherry]

Originally Posted by Still Kickin

Just for knowledge sake, the portion of the plates that were uncovered in acid, are now dead. If you're only using them sparingly, you probably won't notice it, but if you dry camp much, you will. The test would be, put a load on them from the 78% you believe them to be maintaining, and then after a short time, re-test. That will give you some idea, how much functional utility your dealing with.

Yea sir, at this time in our lives we don't dry camp, only RV parks. We might dry camp over night during a trip but we will always be in rv park camp grounds with full hook ups. I know the battery's are in a bum leg and l already know what batts I'm going to replace them with. But for now I'm happy they even came back at all.

[wayne and sherry]

Well since bringing my stock batteries back to life after finding them dry and dead l thought I would give a little update. Out 30DS is at a storage place covered up, we're both away from home at school working on our masters. So when we went home to get our motor home (Minnesota) and bring it out here (Virginia) that's when l learned my battery's were kaput. It's been about 7 weeks since all this and we visited our motor home yesterday. The 1st good sign was when l unlocked our rig and opened the door the steps came out powerful and fast. I hit the battery disconnect switch and walked right to the control panel where the slides, generator and LP,fresh,holding,battery info is. I pushed the button and all the little lights came on showing a full charge. I'm thinking that's alright. Well anyway while we were there l started the V10 and let her run about 15 minutes, just to let the engines alternator tingle the battery's just a hair. I'm happy and feel lucky, cuz those suckers were low and dead.

[ScottBrownstein]

Hopefully you will be lucky, but my bet is that while they will hold a charge, their total capacity has been permanently reduced from the permanent loss of oxidized plate area that was not covered with electrolyte. As others have said, the problem will appear when you draw significant current and the state of charge drops much faster that it would have with fully capable batteries. If you don't boondock you should be OK, but if you really need those amp hours they are probably gone forever.

[kerber77]

My husband replaced ours soon as he took delivery - I'll ask exactly which type and let you know - a gel type I believe? And more capacity overall. He said our batteries though on a brand new coach were actually mfg two years ago- he got credit for them and traded up for brand new ones.

[DavidMPDK]

Ok, I got tired of worrying about the stock batteries not having enough amp life for boondocking. Here in the west, boondocking is so abundant with locations I had to do something. The areas are too breathtaking not to stay awhile. So, I took the plunge and built the rack (40$ in material) for the (4) 6v T-105 plus. There was plenty of room in the FR3 30DS. Welding a brace to the left side and previous rack gave it the stability it needed. I will add an auto fill system to maintain them. After all was done, I said to myself "Self, there looks like you have enough room for another row of 4 batteries in front of these" Decided not to get too greedy. Would have to re-plan everything. I will eventually get better batteries (AGM or whatever new tech) when I burn these up. I sent some photos to show it is doable and NICE TO HAVE!

[AngioTech55]

How is everyone who has a 25DS checking their battery fluid since its outa sight outta mind?