Distance between house batteries

[Tulsatraveler]

Have a 1989 Dutchman.  It has the single house battery under the hood.  I want to add a couple ( or four) of AGM house batteries as I build towards solar.  Should I pull that battery out from under the hood, or should I leave it in place wired into the house batt. wiring? It will be about 20 feet from the front one to the ones in the rear of the RV.  If I leave it in,  I think i will have to replace the battery now in to match the batteries in the rear wont I.

 

[Almost There]

Yes, you'll have to replace the existing battery to match the new ones you're adding.

IIWM I'd put all the batteries in the same place. Running wiring that far from one that is wired in to a battery bank would be more trouble than it's worth IMO - and probably quite costly as well since the big fat cables needed are rather pricey.

 

[Weight]

Why not build a house bank separate and keep the under hood as an emergency battery?

 

[Ticklebellly]

Battery banks really need to be close to each other in electrical terms. I recently dealt with a small voltage drop found across the strapping between two batteries by making up leads of equal length from charge source to battery terminal. 20 foot of jumper to connect into a bank of new batteries would be two problems to deal with; voltage drop across the jumper and mismatched batteries in the bank.

I like the earlier suggestion of having keeping the current house battery as an emergency source. No need to replace now, you could use it until dead and then decide whether or not to replace, at all.

 

[DLTooley]

I've wondered about this, having a conjoined house/starting charging system consisting of both solar and alternator charging. I've asked the question here before and got the opposite answer.

It seems to work fine with a 50 watt solar panel. I did just get a AGM start battery this spring and am swapping out the 50 watt panel for a 100 watt.

 

[sephson]

Battery banks really need to be close to each other in electrical terms.

I'll second this advice. DC power does not do well traveling over long lengths of wire. In order to minimize the voltage drop, you would need to use a larger gauge of wire than you might expect. Using 1 gauge wire as an example at $3.50 to $4.50 per foot, the estimated twenty foot run between batteries would cost $75.00 to $90.00 per wire.

You would be much better off keeping all your batteries in the same location. If you want to keep the ability to charge off of your alternator, the wires for charging the battery do not need to be the larger gauge wires you would need to make an under the hood battery part of your battery bank..

 

[user 15722]

Have a 1989 Dutchman.  It has the single house battery under the hood.  I want to add a couple ( or four) of AGM house batteries as I build towards solar.  Should I pull that battery out from under the hood, or should I leave it in place wired into the house batt. wiring? It will be about 20 feet from the front one to the ones in the rear of the RV.  If I leave it in,  I think i will have to replace the battery now in to match the batteries in the rear wont I.

Best information I have seen in research is your battery bank should be balanced properly.
The AGMs will be far superior in most ways.
Probably best to get rid of that excess, now un-needed weight ?
I'd find a way to use it, myself... lol  But I know I'd be better off giving it to someone in need for their experiments.
Gotta learn to let go of the extra stuff...
wheels