Roger and I completed my battery upgrade from my 2- 6 year old 8d's to his gently experienced L-16 AGM's from Fullriver. They are 6 volt batteries with 415 ah each giving me 830 ah total. My old batteries were 225 ah each so I had 450 ah when new. These batteries should last a while and give us plenty of power , almost double what I had before.
Thanks Roger for your help and batteries.
Is that 830 amp hours number for the L-16 batteries based on the A.H.@ 20 Hrs (the number on the battery sticker)?
In other words, is your actual usable capacity at 50% SOC half that number (415 A.H.)
Either way, twice as much is TWICE AS MUCH and that's a good thing! ^.^d
Nice! Is this just battery power or do you have solar?
I have 500 watts of solar on top. We will see how this does with our 12 volt refrigerator compressor, but the 500 watts worked well until our absorption refrigerator failed. Since we like to boondocks I decided to go with the 12 volt conversion from JC Refrigeration and upgrade my batteries. Still have my 10kw Powertech generator too. ^.^d
Are there 4 batteries there 2 parallel and 2 series? The picture show something red in the back and I assume it is another pair of batterires.
Unless there isn't room in your coach for a Samsung residential refrigerator I can't understand going with the 12-volt conversion instead of a Samsung since the data reported here indicate that the 12-volt conversion and the Samsung use about the same amount of energy.
We have a 36 ft U-270- small 2 door refrigerator.
I like the idea of using the 12 volt compressor and this unit was covered by warranty, so a no brainer for me. The right answer is the one that makes the most sense based on costs, space available, how you use your coach. Hope this helps David.
While 500 watts up top did well with your old fridge, I don't think it will be nearly enough running the 12V compressor and result in a pretty good percentage drop each day. You must have a lot of room left over to add more wattage.
Your batteries look great and may be our next direction when ours finally won't hold a charge. So far, so good. We have about half what you have now.
Craneman has 5 panels and perfect for his coach and residential fridge.
Pierce
6v L16 DC400-6 FullRivers are 415 amp hrs each at 20 hr discharge. Wired in series to get 12v and parallel to get 830 amp hrs total.
A custom rack uses 2/3 of the space of 2 8Ds. There is room for 6 of the L16s or you could use the DC335-6 FullRivers. Six of those are 1005 amp hrs in the space of two 8Ds and about 50 lbs net more than the 3 8Ds plus the upper rack.
A 25% discharge of the 4 L16s is going to be about 207 amp hrs or about 2.6KWhrs. Ted could use more solar to be completely generator free for an indefinite time but what he has will do OK in the summer sun.
Glad to help Ted and Karen out. This helps me on one of my projects. And it is fun to have them visit.
.never sold a used battery. Interesting. Either by itself or in a coach. Could be a great deal. What is your alternators output? What about the inverter?
I have learned to test every battery to measure its actual capacity as these all vary a bit.
Gives a good baseline for the future.
You may have more. Mk gels are to be measured after 15 50% cycles.
I found that if I could prove the condition of used things I got more money for them.
We are sort of preppers by reason of where we live in so cal. So I test everything personally as if I need it it HAS to work.
Bought a unusual inverter/li-ion battery power generator. High quality. Metal case. Solar charging. Anderson connectors.
It was to be able to power directly a small rv water pump. 20 amp output. New high tech expensive.
My buddy and I cannot get the unit to output almost any 12 volt power. Either inductive or resistive.
Shuts off, resets, shuts off.
Call the good ol boys in the east and explain this one is bad. Can you ship me a new one as I need this to work.
They fronted the exchange versus live me with no unit.
You guessed it. Brand new the second one does exactly the same thing.
The 110 side is perfect. 1800 watt capacity, 50 amp hours li-ion batteries.
So I bought 2 25 amp 14.1 volt power converters made for ham radio people.
Plugged into the units 110 volt outlets the external converters run my loads flawlessly.
So my test rig coming has a dial-able load to see where these cut off,
My buddy has a Russian guru who fixed my audit and I will have him open these brand new units up if they produce no power to verify what's inside. Both of them. My dime. Same as the ham converters. My dime.
So far I have 2 units that I can use pumps and other loads including 4 usb charging ports on each unit.
They say they have sold thousands. A few blog posters mentioned not running their pump either but as it was more to run 110 stuff and the charge phones they put them in a box and put them away.
My trust factor is zero myself. Like Reagan said "trust but verify."
How much for what? The what is what I have learned to confirm.
Just me. I am sure your stuff is fine. Just for grins I test things because I am a nerd.
I notice if my battery voltages after amp hours used match. So far so good after 5 years. But I will test them as it's my neck if I really need them to work.
Changed out running good condition alternator and starter this week also. Put the good used spares back in the boxes and put them under the coach.
How much height clearance do you need to use these L16's? My battery area on my 96 U295 has a closed storage above the 8d batts that contains the 12 compressor and a few other things. That may be my limitation.
Google?...it's pretty easy to look this stuff up...
DC400-6 | Fullriver Battery (https://www.fullriverbattery.com/product/dc400-6/)
DC335-6 | Fullriver Battery (https://www.fullriverbattery.com/product/dc335-6/)
My battery bay in a U320 is about 4" narrower than Ted's U270 bay. So in his the batteries are aligned NS with room to spare. In mine they were aligned EW, three across the back and one in front (in the LP tank bay)
Racks are different.
If you have a slide in your coach (at least 99-01) there is a beam along the top of the bay openings on the driver's side. This will make the L16s harder to get in. The DC335-6s will be a much easier fit.