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5th wheel / RV mounting question...

ghostwriter66

"Here - Hold my Beer"
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EE from LAX CA -work in SouthTX for giant evil Oil
So one of the subs that works for us is asking us if we can help him set up his new (16) 3.2 200aH battery bank for him ... since he feeds us all the time and we are bored to death out here - we have no issues at all helping him ...

He has a 5th wheel with a compartment in the front where he is currently running 5 AGM batteries ... you can see the front apartment in the picture ...

ANYWAY ...we need to figure out a way of mounting all 16 batteries in there and i am looking for pictures or diagrams of how people have mounted theirs in either their RV or similar configurations .. ...

I am thinking that the best way is going to put all the batteries in a row to distribute the weight best i can against the back wall ...

I am thinking of putting down some of the rubberized padding we have (that we stand on to relief fatigue) and sitting the batteries on that and then just building an open air box/frame around the 16 batteries and call it a day ...or something like that -- any suggestions would help ... I am thinking that i need to stick with wood and not metal since I am not a real "mixing batteries and metal" together type of girl plus trying to avoid additional weight ... and thinking that I could literally make a lightweight frame with some 1x4 or something -- sit it on the padding and then use cargo straps to hold it in place -- OF course with 16 batteries the thing isn't moving and weighs a ton ...

any suggestions would be appreciatedImage137-optimized.jpg
 
Similar storage compartment in the front of my RV. I put down 1” foil backed styrofoam, then 1/4” aluminum plate with a 200w 48v heater sandwiched in between. 3D printed cell holders (that came with my packs purchased from Lion energy on fleabay) allow for some airgap between cells. Another layer of 1” foam on top, then ratchet straps to hold it all in place. 4P16S configuration in pics, now reconfiguring to 16S4P with separate BMS per string for redundancy E2E69EED-B547-4EF4-9185-B6DDB337D7E0.jpegE2D020B3-C542-4345-B84C-F9749A623987.jpegB26FABC4-3A3F-4207-8ECB-D086F215CDEC.jpeg
 
Similar storage compartment in the front of my RV. I put down 1” foil backed styrofoam, then 1/4” aluminum plate with a 200w 48v heater sandwiched in between. 3D printed cell holders (that came with my packs purchased from Lion energy on fleabay) allow for some airgap between cells. Another layer of 1” foam on top, then ratchet straps to hold it all in place. 4P16S configuration in pics, now reconfiguring to 16S4P with separate BMS per string for redundancy View attachment 9133View attachment 9134View attachment 9135

wow
 
Wow is right. How much does that weigh in at ? one item most people with big battery banks in their 5th wheel is they lay down some sort of reinforcement on the floor. ie: 1/2 plywood or metal plate etc. then they strap down the batteries or battery boxes to the plywood.
 
Wow looks nice Cass
Ghost , a couple milkcrates and some double stick tape , cells wont move at all , see pic
 

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If it was me (and ive posted pics of the one i recently did this way) i would find some sort of nice heavy duty plastic container (action packer etc) to mount all the batteries in and run insulated studs out for the battery cables. this way everything can be mounted and buss bar'ed outside the vehicle and it protects the batteries nicely.
 
Hey Ghost, the milk crate was my 3rd thought, my 1st was a camco double wide battery box which would house them nicely but the calb cells are 2 5/8 " thick ,so 8 cells wide was a1/2" too wide for the box . I dont know what kind of cells you are using so maybe a couple of boxes would work!!.
 

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Hey Ghost, the milk crate was my 3rd thought, my 1st was a camco double wide battery box which would house them nicely but the calb cells are 2 5/8 " thick ,so 8 cells wide was a1/2" too wide for the box . I dont know what kind of cells you are using so maybe a couple of boxes would work!!.

Thanks .. good find ... we are using Aluminum type cells on his rig ... I have to agree with @backwash and will probably put down some 1/2 inch plywood and then a sort of rubberized pad to absorb some of the vibration and then just build a small wooden cage to keep the batteries together and strap the entire thing to the RV Storage wall ...
 
Sounds good , i also stuck them together with double stick tape to keep any strain off the terms . Good luck on the build.
 
20190706_202434.jpg

This is in the front compartment. The charge wizard you see is disconnected, not needed for present system.

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1/2" rubber mat under batteries so the metal floor doesn't suck heat from batteries during extreme cold temps.

20190826_062231.jpg

In this thread there are a couple more pics and one where I tapped into the heat duct.
 
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This is a pic of my cells upside down, i put a heating pad on them before i put them in the milkcrate, will probably never need it but its there. It has a thermostat, on at 45' off at 68'. I will install a lighted switch and keep it off.
 

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