A Question From Roger

I woke up this morning wondering what I was going to write about today and luckily I had a question from Roger asking me where I put the larger batteries that I use in the Arctic Fox. That made my whole day, I love questions like that, it not only gives me something to write about, it gives me an opportunity to take pictures and I like taking pictures.

The Arctic Fox 27 – 5L has a very convenient place to put batteries, in fact it's probably the most convenient place I've ever had in an RV to locate the batteries. It's handy to get to, it's built really strong, and the battery's slide in and out so it's easy to put water in them, so it really bothered me that I couldn't use that place.  My battery dreams were much larger than the place that was provided. The two battery trays were too close together and the batteries I wanted were to tall to fit. But If all you want for your battery needs is two 12 V  you will love the location that's provided.

Compartment where the batteries are supposed to go

I knew from the beginning that I was going to be living on sunshine which usually means that I would be looking at a minimum of two 6 Volt batteries. Reason being is that 6 Volt batteries are true deep cycle batteries and 12 Volt batteries normally aren't even if they are called Marine 12 Volt batteries. So after doing some complicated mathematical computations I quickly realized that I was going to need four 6 Volt batteries to provide the amps that I would use in a day or two.

Fortunately the Arctic Fox has a large storage bay in the front which has a really strong floor because that's normally where they put the generator. I didn't want the generator so that left me with plenty of space for batteries. Now you don't want to go putting your batteries in a compartment with any delicate electronic gear like your solar controller and your inverter, the gases from the battery could damage the equipment. So I needed a box to keep the batteries away from the other equipment. I could've built something, or I could've spent a small fortune buying a box designed for the job but I decided the easiest way was to buy an inexpensive ice chest from Walmart, I did a little measuring and the size was perfect.

Walmart ice chest full of batteries

The batteries fit just perfect

vent hoses from the battery box top and bottom

Putting the batteries in the ice chest made them a little difficult to get to when they need to have water added. So I bought a battery watering system that allows me to add water to the batteries from an easy to use location which happens to be the battery compartment where they were supposed to be in the first place.

Arctic Fox battery storage Compartment being used for a watering system

The question Roger asked was actually a two-part question the other part being, "how did I calculate my amps used ? " And that gives me an interesting post for tomorrow. So thank you Roger, you not only made my day you made my tomorrow.