Adding extra house battery.

[wward208]

I plan on doing a considerable amount of dry camping this winter and I am looking for some tips on adding another house battery. I have a 2010 Monty model 3150 which came with one 12 volt deep cycle installed. I realize that by installing two golf cart batteries I would have more reserve capacity but since my 12 volt is new I want to add another 12 volt. My question is on the vent system and where to locate(buy)a battery box like the original that came installed from factory. Is the venting necessary? Another thing, I use a Honda 2000 for power. Thanks.

[thor]

venting is very very important the gases eed to be vented properly or the gases and a park can cause a fire .it is a must.some people use a honda companion as while as your honda.the companion works together with yours so the two will give enough power to run 30 amps which should run your air tv or other apls.

[Rondo]

Bill-- You might go into the Search site at the top of the page and type in battery box. I'm not sure if it will bring up anything but I do know there have been threads on it! I've seen boxes bought and boxes that some of the owners made themselves out of plastic totes like you buy at Wally World or any other department store of the like. I still have a single deep cell battery in our 2004 2980RL and I've been thinking of doing what you want to do also because we did experience a power problem on our way back from the Fall Rally in Goshen and we could have used that extra time with 12V power if we hadn't gotten it taken care of before we left the CG.
On the post edit-- As Randy said you definately need that vent system to take the gases givenoff by the battery away. Hole in top of the box and one in the bottom to cause a flow through environment in the box to pull any gasses out!

[noneck]

I bought one of those storage containers from Office Depot, cut a hole in it to install the vent tube. Mine was selected to hold 2 Group 27 and one Group 24...

[wward208]

Thanks for the input! It had entered my mind to make my own box or find a plastic tote which would hold two batteries. Sounds like a plan. Thanks again.