Using Aux Battery location for "House" Battery?

[stingGreyNJ]

I'm surprised I've never seen this hack before as it seems a natural way to go.

I had my own Aux/ESS Battery issues and did the Aux Battery delete hack and it's all been perfect since.

As I consider a Genesis Dual Battery Kit with 2 new Odyssey ODP-AGM25 for a total cost of $1,300 the dead Aux Battery sitting below my perfectly functional Main Battery is just gnawing at me.

I can buy an RV Dual Battery Isolator for about $50, a quality new Aux14 battery for about $100 and a nice Fuse Block to wire "House" accessories to for $20. The wiring of "House" battery powered accessories is the same in either case.

I get it that the capacity of an Aux14 battery isn't as good as a Series 25 but for $170 vs. $1,300 I'd have much of the same functionality. Piece of mind when running accessories when camping.

So why aren't we all doing this? Why hasn't some aftermarket integrator coming up with a nice little kit to get this done?

What do you guys thinking?

--StingGreyNJ

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[GATORB8]

I'm surprised I've never seen this hack before as it seems a natural way to go.

I had my own Aux/ESS Battery issues and did the Aux Battery delete hack and it's all been perfect since.

As I consider a Genesis Dual Battery Kit with 2 new Odyssey ODP-AGM25 for a total cost of $1,300 the dead Aux Battery sitting below my perfectly functional Main Battery is just gnawing at me.

I can buy an RV Dual Battery Isolator for about $50, a quality new Aux14 battery for about $100 and a nice Fuse Block to wire "House" accessories to for $20. The wiring of "House" battery powered accessories is the same in either case.

I get it that the capacity of an Aux14 battery isn't as good as a Series 25 but for $170 vs. $1,300 I'd have much of the same functionality. Piece of mind when running accessories when camping.

So why aren't we all doing this? Why hasn't some aftermarket integrator coming up with a nice little kit to get this done?

What do you guys thinking?

--StingGreyNJ

The Aux14 you linked is 14 amp hour, lead acid is about 1/2 usable, so call it 7 amp hours, about 90 watt-hours.

I think you'd get a lot better use spending a more money for a portable power station.

 

[RubiBlueJLU]

I’m not advocating either way. Just adding thought….We full time in a class a rv, and in a bumper-pull camper.
Before you commit to either strategy, get a good meter and see how much your “appliances” really use. 1 amp hour will disappear quickly, along with the the rest of the amps.
14 amp hours is almost nothing in the bigger picture.
In the end, it comes down to what you want to run off of the battery and how long you intend to run things.

Just remember, no one ever said their jeep lift was too tall.

 

[TKL223/3]

I'm surprised I've never seen this hack before as it seems a natural way to go.

I had my own Aux/ESS Battery issues and did the Aux Battery delete hack and it's all been perfect since.

As I consider a Genesis Dual Battery Kit with 2 new Odyssey ODP-AGM25 for a total cost of $1,300 the dead Aux Battery sitting below my perfectly functional Main Battery is just gnawing at me.

I can buy an RV Dual Battery Isolator for about $50, a quality new Aux14 battery for about $100 and a nice Fuse Block to wire "House" accessories to for $20. The wiring of "House" battery powered accessories is the same in either case.

I get it that the capacity of an Aux14 battery isn't as good as a Series 25 but for $170 vs. $1,300 I'd have much of the same functionality. Piece of mind when running accessories when camping.

So why aren't we all doing this? Why hasn't some aftermarket integrator coming up with a nice little kit to get this done?

What do you guys thinking?

--StingGreyNJ

I have a Genesis gen 2 power hub I’ll sell you. It would bring your cost down by a few hundred bucks. It was on my Jeep for less than a week before I installed the gen 3 power hub.

 

[THAW]

I can buy an RV Dual Battery Isolator for about $50, a quality new Aux14 battery for about $100 and a nice Fuse Block to wire "House" accessories to for $20. The wiring of "House" battery powered accessories is the same in either case.

Cool concept, but...

1) you'd have better long term results with a DC to DC charger instead of a voltage sensing relay (RV isolator)
2) a 12 gang fuse block suggests 14 Ah won't be enough power for whatever you're planning... 14 Ah is approximately enough to charge a phone 8 times, or 5 phones at the same time once.

 

[GATORB8]

Cool concept, but...

1) you'd have much better long term results with a DC to DC charger instead of a voltage sensing relay (RV isolator)
2) a 12 gang fuse block suggests 14 Ah won't power whatever you're planning to run... 14 Ah is approximately enough to charge a phone 3 times (or 3 phones once).

Side note with the fuse block that was linked, I don't run negative bus fuse blocks in vehicles to keep size down.

 

[THAW]

Side note with the fuse block that was linked, I don't run negative bus fuse blocks in vehicles to keep size down.

#metoo

 

[VKSheridan]

Scott, the auxiliary battery doesn’t offer much for amp hours which is the exact reason so many of us simply delete the thing and allow “the house” to draw off the main battery. You’d be better off stashing a LifePo4 somewhere inside and charging it with solar, wind turbine and/or a Li-BIM or DC to DC charger.

 

[stingGreyNJ]

Thank you to you various wizards. What a wholesome and helpful corner of the internet.

The Aux14 you linked is 14 amp hour, lead acid is about 1/2 usable, so call it 7 amp hours, about 90 watt-hours.

I think you'd get a lot better use spending a more money for a portable power station.

I thought AGM was more than 1/2 usable but the internet says otherwise. It seems you're quite right. Here's a random Jackery with 288Wh for $236 (or 22.5 AH assuming 12.8V battery) and far simpler wiring of accessories. So way more capacity for nearly the same cost.

To go with something more simple here's a USB battery bank without AC or 12v output 60Ah is $35! My proposed 7 amp hour solution for $170 compared to 6 or 7x usable capacity for less than 1/4 of the price. Yikes.

Before you commit to either strategy, get a good meter and see how much your “appliances” really use. 1 amp hour will disappear quickly, along with the the rest of the amps.
14 amp hours is almost nothing in the bigger picture.
In the end, it comes down to what you want to run off of the battery and how long you intend to run things.

The size, expense and impermanence of a portable power station always kept me away from them. In detail, I camp in my Jeep and finding a place for a big heavy battery while still allowing a dog and I to sleep seemed difficult.

I don't have difficult power requirements. I did a month long trip and camped in the Jeep roughly every other night. I did think carefully about what I wanted and didn't end up with a Power Station or a dual battery group. I used 3 lithium ion battery banks (10k-20k AH) that stayed bungee balled out of the way and charged while underway.

1 ran usb lighting
1 ran exhaust fans
1 kept phones charged

It was fine. But the wires all over the place, even managed well, seemed so Jank so was thinking of something more permanent.

Now I'm wondering why anyone would bothers with a Genesis Dual Battery solution at all.

--StingGreyNJ

 

[azjl#3]

you can fit a larger than oem battery in the oem tray, take out a plastic spacer, you can get next size up, cant tell you what that is. I think it beat the motorcycle sized batter plus oem battery in cca.

 

[GATORB8]

Thank you to you various wizards. What a wholesome and helpful corner of the internet.



I thought AGM was more than 1/2 usable but the internet says otherwise. It seems you're quite right. Here's a random Jackery with 288Wh for $236 (or 22.5 AH assuming 12.8V battery) and far simpler wiring of accessories. So way more capacity for nearly the same cost.

To go with something more simple here's a USB battery bank without AC or 12v output 60Ah is $35! My proposed 7 amp hour solution for $170 compared to 6 or 7x usable capacity for less than 1/4 of the price. Yikes.



The size, expense and impermanence of a portable power station always kept me away from them. In detail, I camp in my Jeep and finding a place for a big heavy battery while still allowing a dog and I to sleep seemed difficult.

I don't have difficult power requirements. I did a month long trip and camped in the Jeep roughly every other night. I did think carefully about what I wanted and didn't end up with a Power Station or a dual battery group. I used 3 lithium ion battery banks (10k-20k AH) that stayed bungee balled out of the way and charged while underway.

1 ran usb lighting
1 ran exhaust fans
1 kept phones charged

It was fine. But the wires all over the place, even managed well, seemed so Jank so was thinking of something more permanent.

Now I'm wondering why anyone would bothers with a Genesis Dual Battery solution at all.

--StingGreyNJ

I run a relatively large power setup in our off-road camper (3x100 AH Lithium and 3kw pure sine). When we're fully working from camp, even it won't keep up with demands for a full week.

My biggest recommendation is to identify your actual power needs, then build off of that. Give yourself some headroom for improvements/upgrades down the road.

On the cost/benefit side, in my opinion, it takes a bit for the value of a fully built system to surpass a PPS. Between the added labor and space required, I'd say that's probably in the 100 Ah range.

Side note for comparisons, the USB only power banks will be rated at 5 volts rather than 12.8. If you swap everything to watt hours (multiply the Ah by voltage) it will give you a better comparison point.

While there are some benefits to a dual 12v battery setup (jump yourself, run a 24v welder, same electrical system, etc.), I would generally agree that in most use cases it may not be the best option regardless of cost.

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