Berkshire XL House Battery Recommendation

[vscr99]

I have a 2019 Berkshire XL. It has "World Wide" House batteries, the type you have to put distilled water in and check the SG periodically. They are starting to go bad so I'm thinking of changing them - since you cannot buy the same type of battery does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement.

[raidernation]

Expion has a 360 Amp-HR LiFePO4 battery that will provide more power, charge faster, reduced weight, and has a 15 year warranty.

More $$ up-front, but zero maintenance, no corrosion in battery bay, and lots of power.

I can now run a toaster or my coffee maker with the battery, with the 4 X 6 V 225 Amp-Hr batteries that came with the coach, I needed to start the generator to run these. I also did not have enough power to keep the basic AC systems on overnight with those batteries, now 12 hours and the SOC of the battery is still over 75 %.

[DogFather]

X2 on radernation's lithium recommendation.

I got really tired, really fast of needing to monitor & top-off water levels, equalizing, corrosion in the battery bay, acid holes in my pants, etc. And most of the battery's AH can be usable, unlike only discharging lead/acid batteries to 50% or so.

[Rednick69]

I don't have Expion, I have Battleborn but I agree, no maintenance, quick charging, and long lasting.

[Eric B FR Diesel]

Originally Posted by vscr99

I have a 2019 Berkshire XL. It has "World Wide" House batteries, the type you have to put distilled water in and check the SG periodically. They are starting to go bad so I'm thinking of changing them - since you cannot buy the same type of battery does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement.

how often do you use your coach? Lithium Batteries are great batteries, but also you usually pay a lot more for them. Also you may have to replace a few more components then just the batteries and switch around some setting. I personally see a lot of customer that switch to a AGM battery, or stay with lead acid batteries. They do make maintenance free batteries, and a lot of people do end up switching to these batteries over time. Remember if you switch the battery type you will probably have to switch the invertor settings, along with the some other components to match, like battery isolators.

[raidernation]

Yes, I had to replace battery isolation manager, and enter new settings in the MERC, but Expion provided me with all the settings, and it was an easy fix.

The Li-BIM was $ 100.

[vscr99]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Eric, we use the coach a lot, almost every weekend and often we are Boondocking. We owned a Georgetown before buying the Berkshire, so I was very surprised to see "old style" conventional lead acid batteries in the coach and also 6v ones. I typically don't keep a coach for more than 7-8 years so Lithium batteries are just not worth the expense, but I'll definitely go with 12v AGM's when I do the change.

[MartyQ]

Originally Posted by vscr99

Thanks for all the suggestions. Eric, we use the coach a lot, almost every weekend and often we are Boondocking. We owned a Georgetown before buying the Berkshire, so I was very surprised to see "old style" conventional lead acid batteries in the coach and also 6v ones. I typically don't keep a coach for more than 7-8 years so Lithium batteries are just not worth the expense, but I'll definitely go with 12v AGM's when I do the change.

Please let us know which AGM batteries you choose to install.

[camaraderie]

Originally Posted by vscr99

Thanks for all the suggestions. Eric, we use the coach a lot, almost every weekend and often we are Boondocking. We owned a Georgetown before buying the Berkshire, so I was very surprised to see "old style" conventional lead acid batteries in the coach and also 6v ones. I typically don't keep a coach for more than 7-8 years so Lithium batteries are just not worth the expense, but I'll definitely go with 12v AGM's when I do the change.

Many deep cycle AGM's are really dual purpose design. Suggest you look at either 6V AGM GC batteries or consider a premium AGM like the Trojan Motive w/ Cmax TRUE DC's, https://www.trojanbattery.com/motive-agm/

[Eric B FR Diesel]

Originally Posted by vscr99

Thanks for all the suggestions. Eric, we use the coach a lot, almost every weekend and often we are Boondocking. We owned a Georgetown before buying the Berkshire, so I was very surprised to see "old style" conventional lead acid batteries in the coach and also 6v ones. I typically don't keep a coach for more than 7-8 years so Lithium batteries are just not worth the expense, but I'll definitely go with 12v AGM's when I do the change.

I would stay with the 6 volt or the 12 volt battery, we use them on the product for a long time because we get more amp hours, which is the usable for the coach out of them vs a standard 12 volt. Check out this link...

https://www.getawaycouple.com/12-vol...2C%20as%20well.


Also we just now have got a Lithium Battery options this year for the 2022 model year, but it only available on the XLT, there's a learning curve we are finding, and that you also should really increase your solar at the same time to maximize the lithium option. We have found that setting up 2, 24 volt solar arrays on the roof, so that the batteries will get a solar charge even if the roof has an area with shade. I would expect more to come in the future, as the understanding for solar and lithium grows with manufactures.

[Dijoeboss]

Replaced all 4 of mine back in June because of lack of maintenance- I admit it!

[raidernation]

Still say these are the way to go.