4 12v Batteries???

[CLAYTON]

Can you hook up 4 12v batteries like you do the 4 6v golf cart batteries. Any advantage to doing so? I have two extra ones.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

You can hook them up, it would be just like additional batteries in a camper that are setup to charge off of the vehicle.

 

[klenger]

Yes, you can hook them up, but do not wire them the same was as 6 volt gulf cart batteries. Four 12 volt batteries would be all wired in parallel, in other words, all four (+) terminals together and all four (-) terminals together. If the batteries are of different types and ages, a battery in poor condition can drain the power from the good ones, so be aware of this.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

Yep, I shouldv'e mentioned that. Also I had a problem once with one of our ambulances where it was just not turning the motor over and they were both brand new batteries and you load test them and everything checked out good, turns out one of them was only 550 CCA and the other was either 800 or 1000 CCA's and we swapped out the lower one and everything worked great so I suspect that the weaker battery was either holding back the other one or it needed both up at that 800 or so level in order to get it to fire up decent.

 

[EricBu12]

4 6-volt batteries will always have longer lasting power than regular batteries hooked in parallel.



I have a 36' 5th wheel and I have 4 Interstate 6-volt batteries. with running lights, furnace, water pump, TV's, etc... . The voltage stays closer to 12 volts longer.



A weak battery will always bring down the others... no matter if it is a 12 volt or 6 volt

 

[JFaughn]

To help better you might want to complete the ?
What are you wanting to do with the batteries ? I'm guessing run something off them being that this is the tow/RV .
But like others have said all batt. need to be the same , make , model , age - a battery is a bank of cells , one 12v batt. is realy 6, 2 1/5 volt cells [ if they are lead acid ]
When building a bank if you connect + to - you build volts , if you connect +to + you build amps.
If you want to run devices off of this bank , start with deep cycles , and not the marine rv batteries they are a compromise and do a bad job of both -starting & deep cycle.