Battery replacement

[gmferg]

The box lids actually press against the propane tanks now, slightly deformed. There was more cutting and welding I saw than was worth it to me. If I were to do it, I would cheat the propane pan forward on it's angles then cut off the battery mount angles, shorten their lengths and re-weld in place. It gets tricky since TM has a lot of weld on those angles and you have to shorten them the right amount since they are attached to the frame where it narrows up for the tongue.

I also can't flip the lids around on the boxes because the front shell hits the cable hoods. I haven't taken a picture of the unit closed yet. I had purchased a box for the T105 and tried to make it work with no luck. Without a lid on the box, the front shell would just touch the box and push it all the way forward.

[Wavery]

As I stated before, this box is really intended for indoor use. I just spent a couple hours sealing up the cable access holes in this box to make it suitable for outdoor use.

I am now completely finished with this project and I have a lot more time invested than I had anticipated.

If anyone else buys this box for tongue mounting, I would suggest that you devise your strategy for sealing up those big holes and hinging the box (if that's your desire) before mounting the box. Once the box is mounted, it's a back breaking job to work on it.

Originally Posted by harveyrv

As I stated before, this box is really intended for indoor use. I just spent a couple hours sealing up the cable access holes in this box to make it suitable for outdoor use.

I am now completely finished with this project and I have a lot more time invested than I had anticipated.

If anyone else buys this box for tongue mounting, I would suggest that you devise your strategy for sealing up those big holes and hinging the box (if that's your desire) before mounting the box. Once the box is mounted, it's a back breaking job to work on it.

Battery Boxes - Follow up

We're about to upgrade to two Trojan 6V batteries (planning on the T145s) from a 12V T27. From earlier posts here and looking over other options, it seems like there are two battery box options viable without having to rework the angle iron on the hitch. The other dual 6V boxes that I've seen are too wide to fit without having to cut and re-weld the angle iron. At present the width is only 7-3/4".

The first option is the white box for both batteries from All Battery that Wayne and others have used. The second is two individual boxes from Quick Cable (#120174, 10-11/16" x 7-3/16" x 12"). I was curious, if after working with the white box, folks still seem to think it's the way to go. A single box is cleaner for sure, but it read like this box was intended for interior applications and required some rework. Thoughts? Is the polyethylene plastic holding up in the sun?

Thanks

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by trisht

Battery Boxes - Follow up

We're about to upgrade to two Trojan 6V batteries (planning on the T145s) from a 12V T27. From earlier posts here and looking over other options, it seems like there are two battery box options viable without having to rework the angle iron on the hitch. The other dual 6V boxes that I've seen are too wide to fit without having to cut and re-weld the angle iron. At present the width is only 7-3/4".

The first option is the white box for both batteries from All Battery that Wayne and others have used. The second is two individual boxes from Quick Cable (#120174, 10-11/16" x 7-3/16" x 12"). I was curious, if after working with the white box, folks still seem to think it's the way to go. A single box is cleaner for sure, but it read like this box was intended for interior applications and required some rework. Thoughts? Is the polyethylene plastic holding up in the sun?

Thanks

The box that I used is fine......my planning was poor.

If I had it to do over again, I would attach the piano hinge, latch and hole covers before installing the box and batteries. I was acting like a kid in a candy store.......I wanted that box on the tongue for a camp-out the next day and caused myself a lot of uncomfortable labor.....

If you go with the taller T145s and plan on hinging the lid, you might want to run your pop-rivets (or screws) from the inside, out. Otherwise your fasteners may rub on the batteries.

If I were storing my trailer outside, I would consider painting the box for UV protection. I'm just not sure what paint will stick to polyethylene. The other option might be to make a cover out of Sunbrella (for when it is in storage). Short term exposure to the Sun will have little effect. Months on end of daily exposure may effect the poly negatively. I have seen small poly boats and toys that fall apart after a year in the Sun.

Now that the job is done, I love the battery box. It makes it VERY convenient to check on the batteries, hook up my 12V air compressor etc. I hated having dual boxes, especialy with those darn webbed straps....

Thanks Wayne. I hate those webbed staps as well - might be motivation enough to go with this solution. btw, what is the small black box with the red handle mounted on your battery box?

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by trisht

Thanks Wayne. I hate those webbed staps as well - might be motivation enough to go with this solution. btw, what is the small black box with the red handle mounted on your battery box?

It's basically just a connector box with a power cut-off switch. All of my hot leads go to one pole on the switch (Including the inverter). The house power is protected buy a 40A time delay circuit breaker. The other pole has a single battery cable going to the battery. I have a 175A fuse on the battery to protect against direct shorts and for the inverter.

Thought I'd share how rev 2 of the dual 6V battery box install went. I call it rev 2 since I based this implementation heavily on Wayne's experience - thanks Wayne.

I bought the dual box (GCE-G) from allBattery for $40 + $10 shipping. This box is perfect since the width fits on the existing angle iron. The allBattery guys were great by the way. I placed the order on line and they actually called me the next day to tell me they just ran out. I told them I needed it before the following weekend and they pulled it off. He called me Tuesday of the following week to let me they had restocked and were shipping it that day. I had it by Thursday.

I made a few mods to Wayne's implementation. Instead of trying to close up all the extra routing holes, I just rotated the lid 180 degrees which pretty much covered all the openings. I then cut a small hole in the box at the one opening in the rotated lid where I intended to route the cables in. I probably could have got by even without the cut and just snaked the wires under the lid, but this should have less friction on the wires.

I also liked the idea of putting a couple of holes in the bottom to drain water if ever necessary. To avoid issues should the battery ever leak, I plugged the holes from the bottom with 1/2" tapered rubber stoppers. These seal tight but can be removed when desired. The way the bottom of the box is grooved, putting the stoppers in the center channel adds no height to the floor of the box.

The box is pretty rigid, so I wasn't sure about the need for the plywood in the bottom. …but when I started thinking about getting a drill inside the box and/or how to get the holes in the box and angle iron lined up, I decided to use the plywood for a template. I used 1/4 x 2" bolts (not self tapping screws.) I drilled 4 holes in the plywood. Then taped it to the outside bottom of the box and drilled the holes in the box. Then I took the template to the frame and secured it with some C-clamps and drilled those holes. Ultimately I decide it could only help to use the plywood in the box and I confirmed I still had enough height (which was a bit of concern since I installed T145s which are a bit taller than the T105s). Everything lined up perfect.

The last mod I made was to use some lashing straps to hold the lid on instead of a hinge and clasp. While I hated the strap that came with the 12V box, these lashing straps have a real easy to use cam buckle. The other thing I did to add a safety back-up was in how the straps were routed. Instead of routing the strap between the box and both pieces of angle iron, I routed it between the box and the angle on the front and under the back angle iron. The other strap I did the opposite. This way I have two straps that actually hold the box to the frame, as well as hold the lid on. I doubt the bolts would ever come out, but the strapping technique was free so why not.

Thanks again for everyone's earlier input on this thread.

Costco has Interstate 6v golf cart batteries that have the same specs as the Trojan T105 for $73.99.

[TREXHUNTERS]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

I still can not find anyone that makes a box to hold dual group 27 batteries.

Max length is 35 inches, or it will be too long to fit.

I took two individual boxes (Norco I believe), cut the ends off and fastened them together with pan screws and adhesive to make a single box that would fit two 27s end to end. Works great!

Unfortunately I haven't had as good of luck with the batteries themselves. I've been using the Costco Grp 27 Marine batteries which are made by Johnson Controls. I'm sure that I've really abused them though. I've had the problem where the TM fridg. and fan ran off of them exclusively because of a bad Bargman connection and I'm sure that I have run them below 50% a few times as we dry camp most of the time.

I'm also looking at getting higher capacity batteries to guard-band my inattentiveness and am looking at the higher capacity 6v batteries. The boxes are the issue that I too am trying to solve.