Help on battery replacement..............................

I need to replace my original batteries from 2017. 2-6 volt Centennial CB6-224AH. 2017 Hallmark Guanella. A couple of questions and thoughts............

First, I am very lucky nothing bad happened, I pulled the camper off the truck and was going to put the battery tender on and found this....................... They were so swelled up that I had to use a pry bar to separate them to remove them from the battery box.



Not sure if they got overcharged or what. We do not use the camper very often and it is stored in our shop which is not climate controlled. Would keeping it plugged into an outlet overcharge this much?

Also, we have a new 2024 F250 and need to use an extension cord due to the 7-pin location in the new truck. This would not do damage like this to the batteries, would it?

As for the replacement, I was thinking of doing one lithium battery, however, my inverter from the 2017 PD4045KV does not have the switch to run lithium, being a 2017 model.

I want to find smaller batteries (footprint) due to the size of the battery box but not having any luck. After research, it states that new batteries should be replaced with the same AH, which, in my case, is 224. So another question is why are others replacing them with much less stated AH if this is the case?

I could update my inverter but don't want to get into rewiring everything.

Any help, suggestions, and information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Scott

Overcharging or a short can cause a lead acid battery (AGM) to heat up and bulge.

Ignore the "replace with the same Ah" advice. You choose your battery Ah based on what it needs to power and for how long. Lead acid batteries are de-rated by about 50% (at least by 30%) because you do not want to discharge them below 30% to 50% of capacity. So the useful Ah of your 228 Ah batteries is about 114 Ah to 150 Ah. Lithium batteries can be discharged to a few percent of capacity, so a 100 Ah lithium may be a suitable replacement,

There are a number of good posts on this site for calculating how much Ah you need, but my advice is to get as much Ah as your battery box will hold and your budget can handle. "Babied" AGMs last maybe 7 years before replacement. Lithium batteries are good for 10 or more. If you do not have one, I strongly recommend a battery monitor to keep track of your battery state of charge (% of Ah still available). My strong preference is the Victron Smart Shunt. I have used the Renogy, but it does not reset when the battery is fully charged and it slowly becomes inaccurate.

Your AGM inverter will still charge a lithium battery to about 80%. A DC-DC charger will let your truck alternator will fully charge a lithium. Lots of posts on DC-DC chargers.

Jack said:

Overcharging or a short can cause a lead acid battery (AGM) to heat up and bulge.

Ignore the "replace with the same Ah" advice. You choose your battery Ah based on what it needs to power and for how long. Lead acid batteries are de-rated by about 50% (at least by 30%) because you do not want to discharge them below 30% to 50% of capacity. So the useful Ah of your 228 Ah batteries is about 114 Ah to 150 Ah. Lithium batteries can be discharged to a few percent of capacity, so a 100 Ah lithium may be a suitable replacement,

There are a number of good posts on this site for calculating how much Ah you need, but my advice is to get as much Ah as your battery box will hold and your budget can handle. "Babied" AGMs last maybe 7 years before replacement. Lithium batteries are good for 10 or more. If you do not have one, I strongly recommend a battery monitor to keep track of your battery state of charge (% of Ah still available). My strong preference is the Victron Smart Shunt. I have used the Renogy, but it does not reset when the battery is fully charged and it slowly becomes inaccurate.

Your AGM inverter will still charge a lithium battery to about 80%. A DC-DC charger will let your truck alternator will fully charge a lithium. Lots of posts on DC-DC chargers.

Click to expand...

Thanks some great info.

It appears that your battery is the GC2 size. Battleborn sells a 100Ah GC2 LiFePO4 battery. A pair of those 12 volt batteries should fit in the same location. I have those in my FWC Hawk camper.
Remember that wiring them is different than a pair of 6 volt batteries like you have now. They must be wired in parallel instead of in series like your lead acid batteries.
If you look at the manual for your Progressive power supply/charger, it appears that it may actually support lithium batteries. Contact tech support at Progressive to learn how to configure for lithium.

I have a similar unit on my Intech Pursue trailer. I installed a LiFePO4 battery in it and had to change a jumper on the Progressive circuit board plus add a Charge Wizard dongle to support higher charging current for a longer time to quickly charge the battery. It has worked well for 3 years.

Contact Progressive with your charger model & serial number by phone as I had to do for my Pursue trailer several years ago.

Good luck,
Paul

PaulT said:

It appears that your battery is the GC2 size. Battleborn sells a 100Ah GC2 LiFePO4 battery. A pair of those 12 volt batteries should fit in the same location. I have those in my FWC Hawk camper.
Remember that wiring them is different than a pair of 6 volt batteries like you have now. They must be wired in parallel instead of in series like your lead acid batteries.
If you look at the manual for your Progressive power supply/charger, it appears that it may actually support lithium batteries. Contact tech support at Progressive to learn how to configure for lithium.

PD4000 Series - Progressive Dynamics

The Mighty Mini Compact All-In-One System offers an AC/DC Power Distribution Panel and Inteli-Power Converter with Charge Wizard battery charging technology.

www.progressivedyn.com

I have a similar unit on my Intech Pursue trailer. I installed a LiFePO4 battery in it and had to change a jumper on the Progressive circuit board plus add a Charge Wizard dongle to support higher charging current for a longer time to quickly charge the battery. It has worked well for 3 years.

Contact Progressive with your charger model & serial number by phone as I had to do for my Pursue trailer several years ago.

Good luck,
Paul

Click to expand...

Thanks Paul!

PaulT said:

It appears that your battery is the GC2 size. Battleborn sells a 100Ah GC2 LiFePO4 battery. A pair of those 12 volt batteries should fit in the same location. I have those in my FWC Hawk camper.
Remember that wiring them is different than a pair of 6 volt batteries like you have now. They must be wired in parallel instead of in series like your lead acid batteries.
If you look at the manual for your Progressive power supply/charger, it appears that it may actually support lithium batteries. Contact tech support at Progressive to learn how to configure for lithium.

PD4000 Series - Progressive Dynamics

The Mighty Mini Compact All-In-One System offers an AC/DC Power Distribution Panel and Inteli-Power Converter with Charge Wizard battery charging technology.

www.progressivedyn.com

I have a similar unit on my Intech Pursue trailer. I installed a LiFePO4 battery in it and had to change a jumper on the Progressive circuit board plus add a Charge Wizard dongle to support higher charging current for a longer time to quickly charge the battery. It has worked well for 3 years.

Contact Progressive with your charger model & serial number by phone as I had to do for my Pursue trailer several years ago.

Good luck,
Paul

Click to expand...

I did look at the circuit board yesterday and I can’t find any switch that may be on newer models. I will call them.

The other thing is to maybe spend a few minutes trying to figure out why the old batteries got "cooked". What are the battery settings on the charger now?

Vic Harder said:

The other thing is to maybe spend a few minutes trying to figure out why the old batteries got "cooked". What are the battery settings on the charger now?

Click to expand...

I will have to look.