What Batteries Came With My RV?

[Rittersrv]

I have a 2023 Forester 2441DSF, Ford E-450 7.3 V-8. I just removed the house batteries for the winter and noticed there are no markings except the “+” and “-“ for the battery terminals, no brand, group, size or date of manufacture code. Does anyone happen to have that info you could share. They look like size 24 to me, but who knows.
Thank You Very Much
OBONE-B

 

[Aussieguy]

wonder if dealer had some old stock.. or returned batteries?

seams strange there would be nothing on the battery ... no label fell off and is laying in the tray?

 

[Rittersrv]

I agree it is strange, but no labels laying ing the tray. They are the batteries that were installed at Forest River, I know this because the spray on insulation on the bottom of the rig was sprayed through an opening in the battery tray and is on the battery case. I don’t even know the CCA amps because there is no label.

 

[Rittersrv]

I did find a marking saying Made in the USA, so that’s good anyway.

 

[Aussieguy]

would not be too concerned
use them till they die....
CCA is not important to house battery

when you look for new ones look at good deep cycle lead acid (Golf cart type)
or Lifepo4 ..... <-------- best choice

by this time you'll have camped out more and have an idea of your power usage
get battery that suits your USAGE ..... even if you have to install them in a different location to make them fit.

I moved mine ( in a trailer) took an hour.

 

[RedLdr1]

With Forester / Sunseeker the house batteries are usually installed at the plant before shipping. I'd email the Service contact listed on their webpage HERE.

 

[kenandterry]

would not be too concerned
use them till they die....
CCA is not important to house battery

when you look for new ones look at good deep cycle lead acid (Golf cart type)
or Lifepo4 ..... <-------- best choice

by this time you'll have camped out more and have an idea of your power usage
get battery that suits your USAGE ..... even if you have to install them in a different location to make them fit.

I moved mine ( in a trailer) took an hour.

Aussieguy……

You may be making your assumption that CCA is not important for house batteries, as it applies to trailers.
Please be aware that quite often, motorhomes that have an onboard generator……as many do…..are sometimes designed to call upon the house batteries to start some fair sized generators. Onboard generators can be anywhere from 3500-6500 watt, so they have significant starting demands on their associated batteries.

 

[Aussieguy]

get the best house batteries you can... there is always an alternative to starting generator

add a small battery just to start generator
use the chassis starter battery for generator starter

 

[brucemc]

Our 2250 came with 2 unmarked group 27 12V batteries; I replaced them with a pair of new SLA 6 volt batteries 6-7 years later, only because the 6 volt batteries were surplus and gifted to me.
I suspect FR's batterys are supplied in bulk, which may be cheaper by virtue of being unbranded/unlabeled.
The quality is likely as good as any branded/labeled battery.

All things considered, either set is/was fine.

Despite being unmarked, I'd use the batteries until they fail. That would likely be 5-10 years give a modicum of care.
We keep our unit plugged in and the converter/charger takes care of keeping both the chassis and house batteries charged.

 

[Mr Brian]

We're entering our sixth year of a pair of the similarly unmarked house batteries that arrived new in our 2020 3011DS - and though we certainly expected to change them by now, they're still working fine.

 

[Reverse_snowbird]

get the best house batteries you can... there is always an alternative to starting generator

add a small battery just to start generator
use the chassis starter battery for generator starter

This Forester is a motorhome and as kenandterry said, it comes with 'house' batteries that are needed to start the onboard generator.
Also, regarding LiOn batteries, there needs to be additional protection like a dc-dc converter installed to protect the engine alternator.
Advice for tt owners can be different than advice for mh owners.

 

[Aussieguy]

hmmm....... all I said was get the best battery to use for the house
don't see how this applies to any category....... other than batteries
And my advise was to use what he had until they needed replacing
also said to look at decent lead acids.....

wow!
-----------------------------------

general battery advise to all types of RVs ... get what suits your needs and learn how those new batteries need to be installed , charged and maintained

 

[Rittersrv]

Thank you everyone for posting, I appreciate all. I guess the bottom line is run until the batteries need to be replaced, measure the batteries dimensions and get a similar size battery to fit the space or maybe upgrade to better batteries.
Thanks again
OBONE-B

 

[Mr. Dan]

hmmm....... all I said was get the best battery to use for the house
don't see how this applies to any category....... other than batteries
And my advise was to use what he had until they needed replacing
also said to look at decent lead acids.....

wow!
-----------------------------------

general battery advise to all types of RVs ... get what suits your needs and learn how those new batteries need to be installed , charged and maintained

You also said:

wonder if dealer had some old stock.. or returned batteries?

seams strange there would be nothing on the battery ... no label fell off and is laying in the tray?

would not be too concerned
use them till they die....
CCA is not important to house battery

when you look for new ones look at good deep cycle lead acid (Golf cart type)
or Lifepo4 ..... <-------- best choice

by this time you'll have camped out more and have an idea of your power usage
get battery that suits your USAGE ..... even if you have to install them in a different location to make them fit.

I moved mine ( in a trailer) took an hour.

 

[Reverse_snowbird]

Thank you everyone for posting, I appreciate all. I guess the bottom line is run until the batteries need to be replaced, measure the batteries dimensions and get a similar size battery to fit the space or maybe upgrade to better batteries.
Thanks again
OBONE-B

One of the things you need to do that you don't normally have to do with car batteries is maintenance of those deep cell batteries.

 

[fuzzball]

Took a tour of the FR3/Georgetown factory summer of 2021 and there was a pallet full of plain black house batteries labeled Superior Brand. Not sure if anything has changed since then.