Battery questions

mtn-high

mtn-high

Campground Host- FUNKYTOWN
Joined
May 23, 2008
Posts
954
Location
Howard, CO
Preface: I know pretty much nada about automotive/RV "electrical" systems. Stupid questions will certainly abound.

Scenario: Original camper battery died 2 years or so ago. (anyone know what the specs for the original battery in a 2008 Hawk were?)

Replaced that with..mistakenly...a cheapie "EverStart'(EverFART) from The Evil Empire..'cus it was close/easy. Yeah..I know. WHAP! Live and learn.


The Everstart wasn't a closed cell and had a stink from the get go. However...2 weekends ago we went out and the battery started stinking >really< badly...WIFE COMPLAINING type "badly". (you guys know the drill!)

Further inspection showed it was very low on water (my bad) and was nice and hot to the touch. I instantly unhooked it from the system.

Bought a sealed Optima Blue top online...but think I screwed up cus I didn't notice/match the "ah" rating. (is a 55ah)

Tried to hook it up ....but when I hook up the negative wires the lights on the "BZ-240" panel go out.... and there's no juice anywhere.

Did I fry something simply unhooking it/leaving iit unhooked for a week? The FWC "manual" is weaksauce and offers no help....though I did see it stated a "115ah" or higher battery should be used....of course...AFTER I aleady ordered the Optima

Tell me where I'm being stupid....other than just the normal stuff:LOL: I'm famous for. Is the 55 "ah" of this battery have anything to do with this not working/too low of a rating?

God I love this stuff....:oops:

OK..you can laugh now

mtn
 
Laugh? Heck, I'm waiting to see the answer. I didn't know there was a recommended 115ah minimum. I have two of the blue tops for a total of 110ah. And the first time I hooked them up I might have mixed my positive and negative. WOW! That was exciting. :oops:
 
The battery rating has no affect here. They're likely advising about 115ah so if you have a heater/fanstastic fan/etc. running you're not pissed off if you run out of juice too fast.

You sure you're hooking up the wires right since FWC uses black/white rather than typical DC red/black?

P.S. I'm not super close but if you wander past my neck of the woods I can take a look if you need it.
 
Laugh? Heck, I'm waiting to see the answer. I didn't know there was a recommended 115ah minimum. I have two of the blue tops for a total of 110ah. And the first time I hooked them up I might have mixed my positive and negative. WOW! That was exciting. :oops:


The 115ah recommendation is listed in the BZ-240 specs. (I have no idea what this thing does but the lights are purty LOL) There's no info on the original battery anywhere in the Owner's packet so I don't know if FWC offered a battery with those specs or not from the factory.Sure would be a nice touch to have list of all of the orginal equipment somewhere, huh? (another 'live and learn" moment)

Dopey me...I was "smrt" enough to separate and note the neg/positives as I took em off the old battery (I thnik..LOL)....and then...stupidly thought that all I'd have to do was slide a new battery in place and rehook **** up and I'd be good to go.

unfortunately, >nothing< has been "good to go" for me since my son died 2 years ago. Small **** that SHOULDN'T be a problem...yup...can take days 'cus my head is still so damn fried. Too bad this isn't something I can just blow off/walk away from/throw the **** away...'cus that's where a lot of things have ended up that get on my nerves these days...

sigh. I just wanna go campin', dammit.
 
The BZ controller is likely noting that battery capacity assuming you have it maxed out. I assume its a 10amp controller or something like that, if it was really able to flow 10amps (ie you had enough panels to do so) then it would be overkill for a smaller battery. They "recommend" you charge at 10% the rated capacity.


Btw, non-sealed batteries vent hydrogen gas. Between venting hydrogen gas, likely with a tad of battery acid vapor its no wonder you had smells.



Sorry to hear on your boy. Do I recall you setting up a flippac for him back in the day or am I thinking of someone else? :(
 
The BZ controller is likely noting that battery capacity assuming you have it maxed out. I assume its a 10amp controller or something like that, if it was really able to flow 10amps (ie you had enough panels to do so) then it would be overkill for a smaller battery. They "recommend" you charge at 10% the rated capacity.


Btw, non-sealed batteries vent hydrogen gas. Between venting hydrogen gas, likely with a tad of battery acid vapor its no wonder you had smells.



Sorry to hear on your boy. Do I recall you setting up a flippac for him back in the day or am I thinking of someone else? :(



I bought him a Wildernest for his Tacoma.... His buddy who was with him when he passed now has the truck/shell and just moved to Houston. sigh. Ain't nothin ever gonna be right again...

here's the battery/the way I thought was correct to hook it back up. Jeez...what a retard. This grief **** can stump you like nothing else I've ever encountered. Life for me these days is like being on Quaaludes (multiples) and being incredible dense without any buzz... just insane...
 

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Just guessing here, but you might have the battery wires hooked up backwards ?


The battery amp hours should not really matter for anything in the camper.


Check to see if you have it hooked up this way ...


BLACK CAMPER WIRE = NEGATIVE (-) POST ON THE BATTERY


WHITE CAMPER WIRE = POSITIVE (+) POST ON THE BATTTERY



I can help walk you through it as time allows.

thanks

:)




.
 
YOWZA!

That pictures helps.

The wires are hooked up wrong.

:eek:


Hook the "White" wire up to the Positive (+) Terminal.

Hooks the small Orange wire up to the same Positive (+) Terminal

(you can see that the small orange wire becomes a white wire where the crimp is)


Hook Both of the Black wires up to the Negative (-) Terminal.


That should take care of it.

Let us know if that works.

:)




.
 
Take the black wire in the grey jacket down to the negative post and bring the orange wire up to the positive post.
 
THANK YOU all. Told ya I had no fookin clue:rolleyes: It's workin' as it should now.


Now I just need to decide if I should go with more ah or see where this goes/if this is enough of an "ah" rating to take care of biz/run the heater all night.

Thanks again

mtn
 
55ah is a bit light for stuff like the heater if you're trying to run in steady but you've already got the battery so run it and see what you think.

A commonly available one folks find in the AGM world is the sears diehard platinum 31M, that is around 100ah. They go on sale sometimes for the lower $200s (they don't give them away!). I've seen cabelas running specials on their AGM line as well at times. Those are common suppliers I look at when trying to suggest a battery when someone is buying remotely.

Local battery suppliers vary a lot (something like batteries plus will likely charge a premium, battery supply warehouses will often get you some more bang for your buck).
 
I >can< send this back. Was $195. Price isn't as much of a concern these days as simply getting something that is gonna frickin' work....and work well. I don't wanna have to get up and start the truck in the middle of the night to keep the wife happy :rolleyes: I'll have to see what they wanna gank me for to send it back.... then make a decision.

One of the challenges here for me is that there aren't many businesses up here in the hills like there is in the city. Options are definitely limited.

Thanks for the help
 
For that amount of money I'd pay a tad more and get something closer to 100ah, that's just me.

2hr in either direction are bigger stores, hit something on your way camping if needed (just write down the wires this time ;)).
 
1 hour and 10 minutes from problem posted to answer supplied. What a great website and members here.

mtn-high glad you got it working again! Go camping

X2
 
OK...other than how to hook it up correctly.....let's see if I am seeing this right/am learning anything at all...

55ah battery

Atwood heater- draws 3.5 amps

55ah/3.5 = 15.7 hours of fan usage per "full" charge (on new battery)



After refilling to proper levels and a short hit with the charger the old battery reads 12.4 v


If I still drank, I'd need a beer about now. :p


Yeah Ted.... I was thinking the same thing as I was putting this back together and feeling like a dummy!
 
Almost, the concept is right except when it actually comes to usable capacity. The higher percentage of the capacity you use the less times the battery can do it. You will never pull the full 55ah out, going past 80% usage usually causes permanent degradation. Gererally sizing for something like 25% depletion under normal conditions with 50% being high useage scenarios is my preference. Leaves you some buffer for if you get in a situation and ideally still doesn't cause damage.
 
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