Adding a battery to a Coleman?

[olmy]

I have a Coleman Cheyenne 97 that I would like to add a battery to and need some guidance. Can anyone advice me on how to wire in the battery. Also with two tanks and the arm for a WDH there is little room left. Is there anyplace else to mount the battery other removing the WDH arm which I rarely use? Thanks.

[wynot]

I have a Coleman Cheyenne 97 that I would like to add a battery to and need some guidance. Can anyone advice me on how to wire in the battery. Also with two tanks and the arm for a WDH there is little room left. Is there anyplace else to mount the battery other removing the WDH arm which I rarely use? Thanks.

Do you have the area available where the batteries are normally mounted on the tongue, about halfway up the tongue?  I don't know where the WDH fits, so I am guessing it's around where the friction sway mounts.

[wavery]

I have a Coleman Cheyenne 97 that I would like to add a battery to and need some guidance. Can anyone advice me on how to wire in the battery. Also with two tanks and the arm for a WDH there is little room left. Is there anyplace else to mount the battery other removing the WDH arm which I rarely use? Thanks.

Welcome to PUT

Some people just buy a plastic battery box ($10 at Walmart) and carry the spare battery in the TV. When the first battery gets low, you merely swap them. Take the discharged battery and charge it.

If you mount the battery on the trailer, purchase 2 appropriate length (lightweight) battery cables and run the cables neg to neg and pos to pos.

I removed one of my 2 propane tanks and mounted the 2nd battery there. The only reason that I like to have the 2 batteries mounted is because I have a 2500w inverter on my PU. If it wasn't for that, I would prefer to carry the spare battery and swap them for charging.

[tlhdoc]

Olmy welcome to PUT.
 
If you don't have a battery tray on your trailer you can get one from a Fleetwood Folding camper dealer.  If you do great.  You will still want to visit a Fleetwood dealer and get the battery wires from them.  It consist of a black (positive) and a white (negative) wire with loops to connect to a battery on one end and a white plastic connector on the other end tying the two wires together.  There is also a little metal box on the black wire.  It is a self resetting circuit breaker.  You will also need a battery box.  They are a plastic box with a removable lid with vents in the lid.  Now you just need the battery.  A deep cycle battery is what you want.  They come in 3 standard sizes.  Group 24, group 27 and group 31.  The larger the number the larger the battery.  Mount the battery in the battery box on the tongue of the trailer, connect the wire set you purchased from Fleetwood to the battery and then plug the white connector into the matching end on the tongue of your trailer.  That is all there is too it.  A 3 stage "smart" charger is recommended for charging the battery.

[wavery]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM!! :eyecrazy:

I guess I may have mis-read olmy's question :p

I was thinking he wanted to add an "additional" battery. After reading it again, I guess he was asking about installing a single battery. Thanks for correcting that

[shswright]

Olmy welcome to PUT.
 
If you don't have a battery tray on your trailer you can get one from a Fleetwood Folding camper dealer.  If you do great.  You will still want to visit a Fleetwood dealer and get the battery wires from them.  It consist of a black (positive) and a white (negative) wire with loops to connect to a battery on one end and a white plastic connector on the other end tying the two wires together.  There is also a little metal box on the black wire.  It is a self resetting circuit breaker.  You will also need a battery box.  They are a plastic box with a removable lid with vents in the lid.  Now you just need the battery.  A deep cycle battery is what you want.  They come in 3 standard sizes.  Group 24, group 27 and group 31.  The larger the number the larger the battery.  Mount the battery in the battery box on the tongue of the trailer, connect the wire set you purchased from Fleetwood to the battery and then plug the white connector into the matching end on the tongue of your trailer.  That is all there is too it.  A 3 stage "smart" charger is recommended for charging the battery.

I have a 88 coleman that has no battery. Also there is no connector on the tongue. I do have a white and black wire sticking out of the tongue. I would like to connect a battery to the convrter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tlhdoc]

 
 
I have a 88 coleman that has no battery. Also there is no connector on the tongue. I do have a white and black wire sticking out of the tongue. I would like to connect a battery to the convrter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The wires are the black positive and white negative.  If you want to wire it the way it is supposed to be, you will need to get the set of battery wires and the matching white plastic connector for the wires that you have.  Install the one side of the plastic connector on the trailer wires and then you can connect the battery to the camper.  Good luck with the project and welcome to PUT.  If you would like to see the plastic connectors let me know and I will take a picture of them.  

[tknick]

I have a 88 coleman that has no battery. Also there is no connector on the tongue. I do have a white and black wire sticking out of the tongue. I would like to connect a battery to the convrter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you do not already have the connector, I would just go to radio shack or any electrical supply place and get a 12v connection that can handle the current draw you will have.  I'm just guessing that will be cheaper than the official Fleetwood one.  I would definitely recommend the self-resetting circuit breaker.  that could prevent a lot of potential problems.  You should be able to get that from radio shack as well.  

let us know what you decide on.

travis

[countrymech]

We have a '95 Coleman Royale and I added Dual battery trays when I mounted the dual LP tank tray. I welded the dual tank mount into the original tray area. Then I made two new battery trays from 1 1/8" angle iron. One battery tray was mounted on either side of of the dual tanks and welded right to the frame as well as braced down to the original tray with strap. Worked pretty slick. I even took links of 1/4" chain and welded them to the battery trays as attachment points for a bungee cord safety strap over the battery boxes wich were bolted into the new trays. Heck the chain worked so well that I added more links to the tongue and rear bumper for lashing our gear and our canoe down. Good luck.

[shswright]

If you do not already have the connector, I would just go to radio shack or any electrical supply place and get a 12v connection that can handle the current draw you will have.  I'm just guessing that will be cheaper than the official Fleetwood one.  I would definitely recommend the self-resetting circuit breaker.  that could prevent a lot of potential problems.  You should be able to get that from radio shack as well.  

let us know what you decide on.

travis

Thanks for the advice, upon closer examination I realized that there is also a red wire. I hooked a inline fuse to the red and black wire. I then hooked those wires to the positive side of a 12v charger. The white on the neg.
LIGHTS!!!! IT WORKED.
Now I just need to see if the Fleetwood or Radio Shack connector has a spot for the red wire and I am on my way.

[shswright]

Thanks for the advice, upon closer examination I realized that there is also a red wire. I hooked a inline fuse to the red and black wire. I then hooked those wires to the positive side of a 12v charger. The white on the neg.
LIGHTS!!!! IT WORKED.
Now I just need to see if the Fleetwood or Radio Shack connector has a spot for the red wire and I am on my way.

I hooked up the deep cycle battery today using the wires from Fleetwood. Everything is working fine. Thanks for the advice, now when we co camping this weekend we will have lights.