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12 volt battery charging

 ::)  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?  ??? ???
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Gerry & Brenda
CHARLOTTE HARBOR, FL
1994 Grand Villa - # 4466
U300 Unihome - 6V92 Detroit
4 speed Allison - Jake Brake

Re: 12 volt battery charging

Reply #1 –
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.
Brett Wolfe
EX: 1993 U240
Moderator, ForeForum 2001-
Moderator Diesel RV Club 2002-
Moderator, FMCA Forum 2009-2020
Chairman FMCA Technical Advisory Committee 2011-2020

Re: 12 volt battery charging

Reply #2 –
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
J D Stevens
1997 U295 CAI 36' Build #5085
2002 Subaru Outback
Motorcade 16869
Bellville, TX

Re: 12 volt battery charging

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Gerry Vicha –
::)  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?  ??? ???

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. 
"Riding and rejoicing"
Bob
1997 U320 40' Mid entry, build 5132,  wtbi ce27, 4th owner
2007 Solara convertible
2 prodeco tech outlaw ss electric bikes

1095 watts solar
08 Ls 460 and a sc430
2000 Ford F-250 superduty 4x4

Re: 12 volt battery charging

Reply #4 –
 ^.^d Thanks Guy's !!  I think you both said the same thing, for the Best/most effective way to hook up.........
The selected media item is not currently available.
Gerry & Brenda
CHARLOTTE HARBOR, FL
1994 Grand Villa - # 4466
U300 Unihome - 6V92 Detroit
4 speed Allison - Jake Brake