Suggestions for battery location

Flyer51 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:26 pm

I am considering adding a second house battery to my Vista 278 but I am having a hard time figuring out how to fit it in amongst the existing two batteries, generator, etc. Has anyone successfully added a third battery to their setup? My goal is to get enough power on board to keep the fridge cold during a night out on the hook or is than even possible without running the gen during the night?

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 5:11 pm

Mine stays cold at night with no gen.

Hopefully M3Eater will see this and reply. He has added one to his. I remember seeing pics of how he did it. He just rearranged the two existing and added a tray.

I think Ben is thinking of doing this also.

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 5:15 pm

He's got a picture in this thread of the setup...

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4187&p=41513&hilit=add+battery#p41513

GTBecker · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:57 pm

I put two house batteries opposite the stock dual batteries. It fixed the port list at the same time.

Tom

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:42 pm

firecadet613 wrote:

I think Ben is thinking of doing this also.

I would love to add a second house battery, but I'm not sure my current charger (Guest 10/10) can handle the addition of another battery. I guess I'll have to add a charger upgrade to my winter project list. I actually have the battery and tray sitting in my basement. Has anyone else added another battery without upgrading the stock charger?

bndfishing · **Posted:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:52 pm

replace the back battery with 2 6v batteries, you can get them from Costco for about $70.00 then move the front battery closer to the edge and they will all fit. This will give you a good 3 days on the hook without loosing house batteries.

GTBecker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 11, 2010 7:13 am

Bliss36 wrote:

... added another battery without upgrading the stock charger?

Your charger can handle more, or larger, batteries. It will just charge them all more slowly than a larger charger might.

I've been through a number of chargers after the stock drymount unit failed; I initially used a Guest 10/10 (which failed), then two successive Promariner 10/10/10 chargers (both failed) after I added the first house battery, and now an Iota DLS45 as the primary charger/supply for four batteries - and an unplugged Guest 5/5, on the start batteries alone, for backup. The batteries are all automatically banked via two Yandina Combiner100 ACRs, and the Iota maintains them very well.

Tom

Frank_L · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:20 am **Posts:** 6

We have had a number of failures of guest chargers on Vista 258, 278, 318.
We are yet to determine cause.
To overcome a high charge current created by adding another battery I have installed the BEP VSR (voltage sensing relay).
See this link for details and wiring diagram.

http://www.bla.com.au/index.php?fn=prod ... 079&eId=10

www.iFourWinns.com

Suggestions for battery location

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