General Boards > Technical Support

2008 Beaver Patriot Thunder Battery Configuration

(1/3) > >>

Ante Peros:

Our Battery configuration does not match the manual that came with our 2008 Beaver Patriot Thunder. We have 2 battery bays on the passenger side - far back. Our manual says we should have 4 small house batteries and 2 larger batteries for the chassis. In the last bay there are 2 AGM4DT975 batteries and in the next compartment the top shelf contains 2 more AGMDT975 batteries and the lower shelf has 3 Deca 1131MF's. Does anyone have a similar configuration to this and be able to explain to us which batteries are for the house and which ones are for the chassis? It seems like a simple question but we have had several mechanics who have contradicted themselves and each other. Leaving us with a blank stare.....Thank you!   Ante and Ginny Peros

I tried to post pictures but it says the files are too big.....

Joel Ashley:
The three 1131MF I believe are your 12 volt starting (chassis) batteries, at ~950 cold cranking amps (cca).  More commonly there are only two chassis batteries necessary, but a C13 CAT is a large engine that may be best off having three. 

The four remaining glass mat (AGM) batteries must then be by default the house batteries, although being 12 volt they aren’t ideal for that application.  It’s preferable to use 6 volt deep-cycle batteries for the house circuits because they carry more reserve capacity;  they can run things longer when dry-camping.  That said, the AGM4D-T975 rates nearly 400 minutes of reserve capacity, and though it can be a starting battery it is a deep cycle type.  The more common group GC2 is dimensionally smaller and is a much lighter weight battery, so it more easily fits many RVs.  Your apparently large rig has room for the bigger 4D batteries, but often builders/designers with space restrictions cannot keep all batteries of the same type together.

It would seem you need to seek out better mechanics if they aren’t experienced enough to sort this out.

Joel

Steve Huber:
I think the AGMs are the chassis batteries as they supply a total of 2200 CCA (550 ea) which is required for the coach (see pg 23 of the 08 Patriot wiring diagrams). Thus the 1131MFs must be the house batteries. They don’t spec AHs but do show reserve capacity of 195. This converts to 81.25 AHs per battery (AH=(RCx25)/60). 3 batteries at 12V yield 243AH. Converting to the 6Vs required by the house system gives you 486Ahs which meets the requirement per pg 23 of the wiring diagrams.
Steve

Ante Peros:
Dear Joel -
Thank you sooooo much! Maybe it was our own confusion...that created the question. We are learning every day with our beloved "beast". We also have a long running discussion on when the batteries should be replaced. We just, evidently replaced all the chassis batteries (the 3 smaller ones) when we had the Aquahot serviced -all at the same time - but we have replaced the larger batteries independently over the last 3 years at one point or another. We have kept trickle chargers on the big batteries while we have stored her but still seem to have low battery signals when we start her up again- that would make sense since those are the house batteries not chassis. But then we have a long wait for the inverter to begin really working when we set her up again. We check all the batteries and try to make sure they are all charged but we are struggling with that first day of no electricity - even when plugged in - on the first day. Your break down of the battery configuration was amazingly helpful!!! Sincerely  Ante and Ginny

and I just received Steve's post as well - which brings us back to - which one's are which.....we are learning.....

Ante Peros:
We are looking at page 23 in the wiring diagram - thank you Steve - but if we look at the configurations listed there are no combination of 3 batteries listed for the house (domestic) batteries.....So going by that we are thinking:
 the 3 smaller batteries for ISX engines must be for the chassis
and the AGM's are for the house.
What the heck is an ISX engine? rats - I just googled it and that is a Cummins engine. We have a cat.
I wonder if there is a way to really figure this out when we use the 2 battery cutoff switches in the battery compartment when we store her....one at a time and try to figure out what power goes off?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page