New House Batteries And Front Windshield Insulation

Wow! What a job and if Sandy had not been along by my side it probably would have been a disaster. What a helper she is and in particularly the attention she gives to detail making sure I followed all the correct steps in making this change out.

I've mentioned we needed to change out the house batteries as they no longer would supply the voltage needed to run the ice maker and outside freezer as we traveled. We had to run the Genset when traveling. We picked up four US Batteries 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries #US 125XC2 in Longview yesterday. What a sticker shocker say right at $700! When I take back the four old batteries they will refund me $96.

So, yesterday evening I took pictures of how the old batteries were wired, Also drew out a sketch of the four battery wiring and tagged each cable with which battery post they went to. I also measured the DC volts to make sure the new batteries after installed would match the old readings.

I felt pretty comfortable that I had all this down and could start the swap out this morning. Before putting a wrench on anything I first turned off the shore power and then turned off the inverter.
The next step was to remove the negative (chassis ground) cable from the negative post.After that I loosened all terminal nuts and removed the cables from their appropriate posts with the positive cable being the last thing I disconnected. Didn't get a spark one. Had I Sandy would have jumped ship.

The next big job was pulling out the old batteries. Let me tell you those suckers are heavy (about 68 lbs. each). Sure glad we have a slide out tray for the batteries. Otherwise I don't know what we would have done. The next shocker we had was the condition of the battery tray itself. Talk about rusty and filthy you wouldn't have believed it. I was so embarrassed I didn't bother to take a picture. Got my scrapper and wire brush out and began cleaning and a scrapping. Then we painted the tray with a rust preventive black spray paint.

After it was cleaned and painted we placed the new batteries on to the tray. This was another big job. Took Sandy and I both to lift them up and on to the tray. After checking to make sure they were in the correct orientation we started reinstalling the cables in the reverse order we used to disconnect them. Installing the positive posts first with the negative post last. Again no big spark but I did accidentally touch the wrench to the tray and got a little spark.

We then double check everything with our picture, drawing and voltage measurements. Everything looked good so it was time to turn the shore power back on. the inverter was the last thing we turned back on.. Everything came back up without a problem. Sandy did have to reset her clock radio as it had no backup batteries.

Our next project was to install some double sided insulation shield on the inside of our front windshield. My friend Joe aka Speedy had told me about what he did for his front windshield. So at Lowe's yesterday we picked up a roll of Reflectix Insulation. It came in a 48" x 25' roll.
The 48" height was a perfect fit for the windshield and we cut the length for a perfect fit. Prior to the installation and depending on the time of the day we would measure anywhere from 90 deg to 95 deg at the front. This was even with the outside windshield screen which in our opinion does not do a good job. After the Reflectix Insulation was put in place the inside temp is 15 to 20 degrees cooler. Thanks for the tip Speedy.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.