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Can I Replace My RVs Two 6 Volt Batteries With One 12 Volt Battery?

by Rick
(Raleigh NC USA)

Can I Replace My RVs Two 6 Volt Batteries With One 12 Volt Battery?

Can I Replace My RVs Two 6 Volt Batteries With One 12 Volt Battery?

I have two six-volt batteries that are the auxiliary power batteries. One of the batteries is dead. Can I change the batteries out for one 12 volt battery or do I need to use the two 6 volts batteries and what is the difference? Thank you

ANSWER Hi Rick yes you can replace your RV's 2 six volt deep cycle batteries with one 12 volt deep cycle battery, but you shouldn't. I am not going to go into a lot of technical details as to why, but I will simply tell you that two 6 volt deep cycle batteries are far more efficient than one 12 volt deep cycle battery.

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The 6 volt deep cycle batteries will provide your RV with 12 volt power for longer and will withstand more charging than a single 12 volt deep cycle battery.

I would recommend that you replace both 6 volt batteries, even though you state that only one is bad. Although the other 6 volt battery shows as being good it may still have a limited number of times that it can be recharged. I know that there will be some other RVers that disagree with me on this point and they are welcome to leave their comments.

When you have two new 6 volt batteries, their lifespan will pretty much mirror each other. You do not state how old your batteries are, but I still think it is a better idea to go with two new ones.

If you would like to get more information on the different types of batteries, please read the answer I provided to this question Are 2 Six Volt Batteries Better Than 1 Twelve Volt Battery To Provide Power To Inside Of RV.

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I wish you the best of luck in getting your battery situation squared away. If any of our visitors have suggestions or tips for you they can leave them by clicking on the add a comment link located near the bottom of this page.

Happy RVing

RVing Al

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Comments for Can I Replace My RVs Two 6 Volt Batteries With One 12 Volt Battery?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Can I replace my ZRVs two 6 volt batteries
by: Emrudd

You can use two - twelve volt in parallel but the. Most amp-HR I have found is 120 AmpHrso that will give you 240 AmpHr. Two - 6 volt golf cart batteries should give you 235 AmpHr. The only difference is the golf cart batteries should last almost twice as long. So I would use the golf cart batteries.
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starstarstarstarstar 		for Craigs, 2 twelve question
by: Anonymous

It will come down to the amp hour rating of the 12v batteries. I find that 12v batteries have less than half the amp hours of many 6v batteries that I use in series. I would always go with a 6v series parallel circuit. The USBattery site is a good resource to research this and a place to dream of a 900 Ah system. :-)
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starstarstarstarstar 		amphr rating
by: Mr. Natural

Amp hour ratings are another important part of batteries. Some charging circuits require settings to match the batteries. 2 batteries in series will have the Ahr of one of the batteries, while 2 batteries in parallel will have the Ahr of the sum of the two parallel legs. As an example, 4-6 volt batteries hooked up in a series parallel circuit each having an Ahr rating of 235 Ahr will have 235 Ahr for each leg of the series circuit and 470 Ahr for the sum of the parallel circuit.
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starstarstarstarstar 		how about 2 twelves
by: craig nickerson

i'm sure that two six volt batteries are better than 1 twelve, but are two sixes in series better than 2 twelves in parallel?

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