2017 Winnebago Era 70X Battery replacement

[WinEra70X]

Hi folks

Complete newb to the RV world ( or electric work in general lol )

I recently noticed that my coach battery died after I forgot to disconnect it while putting it in storage.

Going through the manual I found the coach battery is located behind the rear wheels in a bracket attached to the chassis.

Is it something I can replace myself without taking to the the shop? If so, can I do it without any jacks to lift the car off the ground?

I looked everywhere on the internet but couldnt find anyone that has done this, perhaps its too simple to even make a video about

Also if I can do it myself, what kind of battery do you guys recommend?


please help!

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by WinEra70X

Hi folks

Complete newb to the RV world ( or electric work in general lol )

I recently noticed that my coach battery died after I forgot to disconnect it while putting it in storage.

Going through the manual I found the coach battery is located behind the rear wheels in a bracket attached to the chassis.

Is it something I can replace myself without taking to the the shop? If so, can I do it without any jacks to lift the car off the ground?

I looked everywhere on the internet but couldnt find anyone that has done this, perhaps its too simple to even make a video about

Also if I can do it myself, what kind of battery do you guys recommend?


please help!

Welcome to the forum WinEra70X!

I'm sure someone here with your model will be along to advise you on battery access. Most will also advise to test them first. But if you do end up replacing them, I'd recommend AGM's if they are as difficult to access as you describe. You could go cheaper with wet cells, but the lower maintenance of AGM's would be worth their extra cost to me.
.

[Tompdx]

Originally Posted by WinEra70X

Hi folks

Complete newb to the RV world ( or electric work in general lol )

I recently noticed that my coach battery died after I forgot to disconnect it while putting it in storage.

Going through the manual I found the coach battery is located behind the rear wheels in a bracket attached to the chassis.

Is it something I can replace myself without taking to the the shop? If so, can I do it without any jacks to lift the car off the ground?

I looked everywhere on the internet but couldnt find anyone that has done this, perhaps its too simple to even make a video about

Also if I can do it myself, what kind of battery do you guys recommend?


please help!

Resurrecting this old thread because I was in the same boat and couldn’t find the answer either.

Decided to upgrade my single 100ah AGM house battery on my 2019 Winnebago Era 70M Sprinter. Turned out to be a fairly easy job, but there are definitely a few things I would have liked to know, so I’m sharing them here.

My battery is located in front of the rear passenger tires as shown in the owners manual. (See photo). I had to jack the vehicle using the bottle jack about 6”. Ignore the battery hold down bolts for now. Loosen or remove the 2 11mm nuts from the studs on the bottom corners of the battery tray (circled in red). Then position a floor jack under the battery tray. Take the weight of the battery off the chassis, but don’t raise the tray more than a few mm because that will impede your ability to move the battery tray.

The battery tray studs are situated in short, approximately 1/4” slots. Slide the floor jack and battery toward the center of the rig about 1”. I used a screw driver to separate the bottom of the battery tray from the side that remained attached to the chassis.

Once the battery and floor jack are moved, you can lower the jack to gain access to the battery cables. I was only able to lower it about 6” because of a short positive cable. But that was enough room to remove the retaining nuts for the cables. Once the 4 cables (2 pos, 2 neg) are removed, the battery can be lowered and pulled back out from under the vehicle. Now you can remove one battery hold down bolt, and replace the battery. Replacement is the reverse of removal.

I went with a nearly identical dimension lithium ion replacement. (My stock battery was a Group 31 Napa 100ah AGM). Even thought they are the same rated amp hours, the Lifepo4 solved my problem. With the old battery, which may have needed replacement due to age, etc., so perhaps not a fair comparison, I had 11 volts by morning running only the refer. But the new battery stays fully charged over night under the same conditions.

[rowiebowie]

Welcome to the forum Tom!

Nice informative first post.

Mounting lithium batteries outside means keeping them above freezing to charge, and above zero degrees to us unless they have a heat source. Also, did you change your solar, inverter/charger, etc. to ones with lithium charging profiles?

[booster]

Originally Posted by Tompdx

Resurrecting this old thread because I was in the same boat and couldn’t find the answer either.

Decided to upgrade my single 100ah AGM house battery on my 2019 Winnebago Era 70M Sprinter. Turned out to be a fairly easy job, but there are definitely a few things I would have liked to know, so I’m sharing them here.

My battery is located in front of the rear passenger tires as shown in the owners manual. (See photo). I had to jack the vehicle using the bottle jack about 6”. Ignore the battery hold down bolts for now. Loosen or remove the 2 11mm nuts from the studs on the bottom corners of the battery tray (circled in red). Then position a floor jack under the battery tray. Take the weight of the battery off the chassis, but don’t raise the tray more than a few mm because that will impede your ability to move the battery tray.

The battery tray studs are situated in short, approximately 1/4” slots. Slide the floor jack and battery toward the center of the rig about 1”. I used a screw driver to separate the bottom of the battery tray from the side that remained attached to the chassis.

Once the battery and floor jack are moved, you can lower the jack to gain access to the battery cables. I was only able to lower it about 6” because of a short positive cable. But that was enough room to remove the retaining nuts for the cables. Once the 4 cables (2 pos, 2 neg) are removed, the battery can be lowered and pulled back out from under the vehicle. Now you can remove one battery hold down bolt, and replace the battery. Replacement is the reverse of removal.

I went with a nearly identical dimension lithium ion replacement. (Mine stock battery was a Group 31 Napa 100ah AGM). Even thought they are the same rated amp hours, the Lifepo4 solved my problem. With the old battery, which may have needed replacement due to age, etc., so perhaps not a fair comparison, I had 11 volts by morning running only the refer. But the new battery stays fully charged over night under the same conditions.

Specs for a 2019 70M show a two way electric/propane frig, have you changed it out for a compressor version? If not you would not get overnight decently on 100ah of battery with frig on electric.

[Tompdx]

My Era came with 200 watts of solar and a Zamp inverter/charger. All I had to do was select “Lifepo4” in the battery type window. I did a simple battery swap - fingers crossed!

[Tompdx]

Originally Posted by booster

Specs for a 2019 70M show a two way electric/propane frig, have you changed it out for a compressor version? If not you would not get overnight decently on 100ah of battery with frig on electric.

No, I didn’t change it, and I have to assume it came with the vehicle. It has an AC/DC compressor type Nova Kool.

[Tompdx]

Originally Posted by rowiebowie

Welcome to the forum Tom!

Nice informative first post.

Mounting lithium batteries outside means keeping them above freezing to charge, and above zero degrees to us unless they have a heat source. Also, did you change your solar, inverter/charger, etc. to ones with lithium charging profiles?

I decided to go with an Expert Power lithium battery because they have a self-heated option for an extra $75.

[ctarmor]

I built a 610amp hr battery bank for my ERA 70x. Instead of replacing the 2 AGM batteries, I added a DC-to-DC changer to keep AGM batteries charged from the Lithium bank.

The Lithium bank I placed under the back sofa. I have two DC-2-DC chargers, one to charge the lithium bank while the the car is driving, or plugged in. The 2nd Dc-2-DC is to charge the AGM batteries when the car is not running or plugged in.

I added a changeover relay to control which DC-2-DC charger is ON.

I took the generator OFF (it was broken - rusted out). Winnebago build quality is really bad, there is no protection from rust anywhere undercarriage. The screws winnebago uses are not rust proof either.

[ctarmor]

Originally Posted by booster

Specs for a 2019 70M show a two way electric/propane frig, have you changed it out for a compressor version? If not you would not get overnight decently on 100ah of battery with frig on electric.

I have replaced my Norcold (it never worked properly). I replaced it with TruckFridge

https://truckfridge.com/collections/...gerator-models

I have a 2015 ERA 70X