"Yonder's" battery box January 24, 2005, 10:49:15 pm Yahoo Message Number: 49842Hi all,A long day, but I got the under frame battery box installed. All that's left is to run the cables to hook up the two new Trojan 105's to the original battery bank. Should get that done tomorrow. Then it's on to solar panels etc.I posted a bunch of photos. They are in the Yonder album in a sub album called "yonder battery box". Some have descriptions, unfortunately, when I was adding the descriptions it jumbled up the order of the photos . . . oh well. If you are curious enough to wade through them, then you'll no doubt figure out what's what.When I get time, I'll do a more comprehensive description of the project and post it to the LD enhancements group.all the best,bumper
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #1 – January 27, 2005, 09:33:53 am Yahoo Message Number: 49939Quote Hi all, A long day, but I got the under frame battery box installed. All that's left is to run the cables to hook up the two new Trojan 105's to the original battery bank. Should get that done tomorrow. Then it's on to solar panels etc.Quote I posted a bunch of photos. Hi Bumper, what a great job you've done! When you first mentioned doing this project months ago, I said to myself, "this I gotta see"! Your creative persistence is really something. You and Larry ought to go into business together. Add on an upholstery shop and LD can just ship over the almost finished product for you guys to complete!;-) Steve K.
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #2 – January 27, 2005, 10:33:48 am Yahoo Message Number: 49941Quote Hi Bumper, what a great job you've done! When you first mentioned doing this project months ago, I said to myself, "this I gotta see"! QuoteYour creative persistence is really something. You and Larry ought to go into business together. Add on an upholstery shop and LD can just ship over the almost finished product for you guys to complete!;-) Steve K. Thank you for the compliment! I wonder how many LD owners would opt for double the battery capacity if it were an option? Given LD's reluctance to do add more options, I don't see this making their short list. Like many such projects, I think as much time goes into the plotting and planning as in the building. Too, first one takes forever. It would be simpler and quicker to install an aux battery box before LD puts the coach body on, for sure. Done this way, it could be had for a reasonable cost . . . but not the way I did it . . . (g)all the best,bumper
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #3 – January 27, 2005, 01:40:10 pm Yahoo Message Number: 49956"I wonder how many LD owners would opt for double the battery capacity if it were an option? Like many such projects, I think as much time goes into the plotting and planning as in the building. Too, first one takes forever.""You and Larry ought to go into business together. Add on an upholstery shop and LD can just ship over the almost finished product for you guys to complete!;-)"bumper Nice job! Those load binders are good and stout, no way that's going to break. Using a pair of them might be a good way of hoisting the 4-battery tray that I want to build. The availability of a remote watering system has made this a realistic addition. No matter how well a hoist works, who want to get under the RV and check the water monthly? How about some more photos, you might save me a lot of design time.There is so much available space between the drive shaft and the driver's side frame rail. If we get more serious about long-term boondocking, an extra water tank would fit, mounted in that area. Poly tanks can be made in about any size so it's another consideration in how to use that area. It would be tough to make a living out of doing custom modifications, like yours. It take soooo much time to make it all work right, so many little things that you did not anticipate that need to be changed, adjusted or cutout and replaced. The paper, pen and tape measure stage can take hours and days, consuming many hours, sometime even during your sleep time, but it's better to make your mistakes on paper and not with the metal or wood.I can see why LD does not want to get involve in customizing. They would need to charge much more than what most people would be willing to accept. Still, I bet there is a sufficient amount of people willing to pay for what they want. I know there are a lot of LD owner that can easily afford a nice DP but prefer the smaller size of a Class C. These are the kind of customers who would willingly pay $20-30,000 more, as long as they get what they want (or about the price of a Born Free or Chinook, without all the stuff). Batteries, solar panels, top of the line electronics, navigation and communications, all fresh from the Factory, it would be nice. You will see many folks, on this site, complaining about the price for some of the Factory options; they just do not realize how much better is to have the Factory do something as opposed to some aftermarket RV tech. It's worth every cent. Every year there are more and more Baby Boomers getting into RVing and most of them want to have all their electronic stuff with them. Some RV manufacturer will figure this out. I hope Steve, at LD, is thinking about some of this. LD needs to start building in wire chases through out each coach. It can be extremely difficult to run wire to many areas. Most major modifications are electrical in nature and many of our coach's have hundreds of feet of added wiring. As you have or will find out, it can be real pain to access and/or to run wires through many areas. LD has been using the same basic templates to build the framing, for years. The framing was designed many before the electronic boom hit. There was no need in the past to add more wires, except for an occasional extra light or something. Customer's needs change so the product needs to change too. LD's framing need to be built with adequate races so their coach's can be improved and modernize through many years of use. LD's have always had a timeless look to them from the outside but the insides have remained modern, this is another needed step in that process. If they do not want to do custom wiring, fine, just make it possible for it to be done afterwards without tearing half of the MH apart.I will get off the soapbox now and go to sleep :-)Larry
"Yonder's" battery box Reply #4 – January 27, 2005, 11:11:38 am Yahoo Message Number: 49945All this talk about adding more batteries, got me to thinking -- has anyone added more batteries to a Twin/King? If so, where did you put them? Bumper, I know you did all the fabrication yourself, but we aren't handy enough to do so ourselves, nor do we have the tools. Do you have any idea how much we'd have to pay someone to fabricate some kind of frame to hold 2 more golf cart batteries?Linda & Earl 2004 23.5' Red TK From Quartzsite, AZ
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #5 – January 27, 2005, 11:27:20 am Yahoo Message Number: 49948We added 4 to our RK. If anyone's interested, let me know. We had it done in Q. There are several possibilities there. We're heading back thru today, on our way East again.Linda & Earl Hylton wrote:
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #6 – January 27, 2005, 11:44:05 am Yahoo Message Number: 49951QuoteWe added 4 to our RK. If anyone's interested, let me know. We had it done in Q. There are several possibilities there. We're heading back thru today, on our way East again. I don't suppose you're spending the night in Q? We'd love to meet you and see your battery setup, but today is filled with stuff to do.Linda & Earl 2004 23.5' Red TK From Quartzsite, AZ
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #7 – January 27, 2005, 08:49:27 pm Yahoo Message Number: 49976QuoteWe added 4 to our RK. If anyone's interested, let me know. We had it done in Q. There are several possibilities there. We'reQuoteheading back thru today, on our way East again.Linda & Earl Hylton wrote: All this talk about adding more batteries, got me to thinking -- has anyone added more batteries to a Twin/King? If so, where did you put them?Quote Linda & Earl 2004 23.5' Red TK From Quartzsite, AZ Evelyn,You added 4!!? As in a total of 6? Where oh where did you put them all?On the MB, assuming one is not putting batteries in existing compartments, it might be possible to add more than the two golf cart batteries I added for a total of 4. But, one could not do so and a)still use heavy duty marine type battery boxes like the Blue Sea unit I used and b) keep the new battery bank close to the original. This is 'cause the battery box adds about 2" in all dimensions. Thgre's a lot of room underneath back by the rear bumper - - but that ain't where you want to add a lot of weight (g).Linda,Not really sure how much it would cost. But suspect most welding shops are going to have a labor rate of more that $60. If you had the design for someone to build, and someone knew what they were doing (I didn't!!), it could be done in a day. If they were being mass produced, even by hand using jigs etc, they could be made for a lot less. BTW, for those looking to build a battery box, I had other ideas for lifting the battery box up into position. One involved a tray for the box that hinged on one upper edge. Two rods would attach to the opposite lower edge to form a longer ramp that would be lowered or raised using a bottle jack underneath. Battery box would be slid up the rod or rails . . . in retrospect and given how darn heavy two golf cart batteries are (they gain even more weight when one slides them under a motorhome), this was probably not a good design. The cargo tie-down ratchet and strap I used for raising the box came from McMaster-Carr. If anyone is building one, I'll be happy to provide the part numbers.bumper
[Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Adding Batteries Reply #8 – January 28, 2005, 05:04:37 pm Yahoo Message Number: 50024Quote from: Evelyn Sedillos-Hansen "We added 4 [batteries]to our RK. If anyone's interested, let me know. We had it done in Q. There are several possibilities there." [snip]Would you post the information here for the group? I think there are a number of LDers who would like to have this information.Sharon N.
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #9 – January 30, 2005, 10:21:30 am Yahoo Message Number: 50138"John Morgan" wrote:>QuoteEvelyn, You added 4!!? As in a total of 6? Where oh where did you put them all?Yepper. We now have a total of 6 Trogan T-106's, 2 125 ea solar panals (T=250W) & a Solar boost 2000E. We are sitting in Lebanon, MO w/ heavy overcast skys & we be a chargin'. We looked at where to put the extra batteries & had pretty much decided to put them on the top level of the tall storage compartment right behind the driver's seat. But, we'd have to run the cable thru the compartment between the orig battery & that compartment. I asked why not just put them in the compartment right next to the orig batteries. We measured & they *just* fit. We couldn't have done it w/out the Pro-fill battery watering system (that we saw at the Live Oak Caravan Campout, demonstrated by Terry.) [Sorry Andy, I don't know exactly how to spell it & am too lazy to look it up. So I'll try to hit every misspelling I can, at least one of them w/B right.] W/ the profill to mind the battery water, we're O.K. We built a battery box to fit in the storage compartment & slipped the batteries in thru the larger compartment before closing the new battery box. One of the big reasons to put them there was the cable length required to put them anyplace else. We have had to shift storage to try to balance things out. All heavy stuff now goes on the passenger side. For this reason (balancing), protection & storage space preservation... I think that between the rails is a great idea. But it wasn't an option for us, I'm just not that good. ;-) The wire for the solar panels comes down thru the fridge vent (careful about the fridge coils, they get very hot & can damage the wire insulation.)
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #10 – January 30, 2005, 11:18:15 am Yahoo Message Number: 50145Quote "John Morgan" wrote:> Evelyn,You added 4!!? As in a total of 6? Where oh where did you put them all?Quote Yepper. We now have a total of 6 Trogan T-106's, 2 125 ea solar panals (T=250W) & a Solar boost 2000E. We are sitting in Lebanon, MO w/ heavy overcast skys & we be a chargin'. I couldn't find a T-106 on the Trojan website, did you mean T-105 (6V, 225 AH, weight 62 lb)?What model LD do you have?On the driver side of my MB, there's a large exterior storage compartment directly behind the driver and right below the original battery box. It would hold 4 T-105's, but I think would need serious reinforcement before doing so with the extra 250 pounds of battery.I haven't yet weighed my MB. The water tank is on the driver side, as is most of the "built-in interior weight" (refrig, stove, toilet etc). Like you, I'll try to concentrate on storing all things heavy on the passenger side. Does anyone have the side-to-side weight distribution of an MB with full water tank?all the best,bumper
Re: "Yonder's" battery box Reply #11 – January 30, 2005, 01:40:06 pm Yahoo Message Number: 50148"John Morgan" wrote: QuoteYepper. We now have a total of 6 Trogan T-106's, 2 125 ea solar panals (T=250W) & a Solar boost 2000E. We are sitting in Lebanon, MO w/ heavy overcast skys & we be a chargin'. I couldn't find a T-106 on the Trojan website, did you mean T-105 6V, 225 AH, weight 62 lb)?Quote What model LD do you have? I haven't yet weighed my MB. The water tank is on the driver side, as is most of the "built-in interior weight" (refrig, stove, toilet etc). Like you, I'll try to concentrate on storing all things heavy on the passenger side. Does anyone have the side-to-side weight distribution of an MB with full water tank?Quote all the best,bumper ---- Yea, I did mean the T-105's. We have an RK. We built the reinforcement into the battery box. The LD comes from the factory very well balanced (by all accounts). I wouldn't load in such a way as to thro that off. We're now putting everything heavy on the passenger side.... only because of putting teh extra batteries on the drivers side. We're trying to rebalance, after throwing the natural, factory balance off.
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