Prospective House Battery Bank Siting

[HazMatt]

The only sub-floor storage that came on my Thomas 3800 is the start battery box, just aft of driver's steer wheel, and another of approximately the same size, fore of the shotgun duallies.
No clue what it was engineered to support; prolly spare fluids, tools, radiator shroud during warm weather (nippers for the driver after a rough day transporting the little nippers...)
Is there any compelling reason this oughtn't be my place to place my bank?

[Iceni John]

My suggestion would be to make a proper compartment for the house batteries, then you won't use up valuable existing underfloor storage for them. It needs to be well ventilated to allow hydrogen to escape while charging, but if it's open underneath it will also allow a leaking or overheating battery to harmlessly drip acid onto the ground. It's really nice to have the battery trays on slides so you can easily access the rear batteries, otherwise how will you regularly check their electrolyte level and add water? If the house batteries are near the start batteries, you can easily interconnect them to help boost the start batteries in cold weather - Blue Seas make some nice switches that are ideal for this. Just remember to keep the batteries separate from the inverter/charger or any other electronics because their acid fumes will damage PCBs and connectors, but the house batteries should still be as close as possible to the inverter to minimize voltage drop under high-current loads.

John

[TheHubbardBus]

I'd say that if you can work out a way to locate them inside the bus, while still allowing for a means of venting, that would be ideal, as it would likely protect them from extremes in temp that might otherwise shorten their lifespan and/or decrease their output. Plus, batteries are heavy, and depending on the size of your bank, could significantly weight one side of the bus relative to the other. Putting them inside could potentially allow for more flexibility in optimizing weight distribution and/or traction.

[AZHippie]

I'm also debating location. Welding up a good box underneath sounds appealing to save space inside but I'm also concerned for extreme temps.