::) If I have three (3) 12 volt batteries hooked up in "Parallel" and I want them all to charge equally, does it make any difference if I put the Plus + charging terminal and the Neg - charging terminal on the same battery or should I put the Plus on the first in line battery and the Neg on the last in line battery forcing the current to flow through all batteries? Does it make a difference? The battery system draws from all batteries, from the first set of posts would it charge the same way? ??? ???
Gerry,
From a purist standpoint, the charger (as well as coach connections) should be on the positive post of battery #1 and the ground on the negative post of battery #3.
But for low-amp charging, is this arrangement is not easy to do, connecting them differently will not make a huge difference.
It will make some difference. Preferred wiring is positive charge/draw from first in bank and negative charge/draw from last in bank. That keeps the wiring to all batteries about the same length so that voltage drop caused by wire length is similar for all batteries.
There is a diagram and explanation of the two ways of wiring here: http://www.batteriesnorthwest.com/batteryschool.cfm?TID=6#ANC6 (http://www.batteriesnorthwest.com/batteryschool.cfm?TID=6#ANC6)
Seems that IMO and research that the more perfect you can equalize the cable lengths the better.
Well worth the effort. My guru buddy made all my positive and negative cables the same lenght and then all three negative cables end together as does all the negatives. Same exact lenght as the positives. Then the final connection to the coaches wiring is from where the three come together on both positive and negative.
Any other way as far as my info goes some batteries are being used less or more than the others and the life of the batteries will be affected.
Yes more work.
^.^d Thanks Guy's !! I think you both said the same thing, for the Best/most effective way to hook up.........