House battery in 2000 RT 200 Versatile (Chevy chassis)

[Tucker's little brother]

It's located underneath in the rear, driver side. How can I access it? I have no idea what the battery is or it's condition and I'd like to be able to pull it out and have a look/see. Nothing really in the "manual" about how to go about this.

Thanks in advance!

[EsotericSnowman]

I don't think that year had a nice convienent door or tray or detachable fender or anything to get to the battery. I think you just have to crawl underneath to get to it. If you don't want to crawl underneath you could take it to an autozone and they'll crawl under there and test it for you for free. You'll know at least whether the battery tests well or not even if you can't visually check it.

Edit: I know some models in that year range had an access cover somewhere under the bed in back. If you pulled back the carpet under the bed there was an access cover in the floor that let you get to the top of the battery compartment.

[Tucker's little brother]

Originally Posted by EsotericSnowman

I don't think that year had a nice convienent door or tray or detachable fender or anything to get to the battery. I think you just have to crawl underneath to get to it. If you don't want to crawl underneath you could take it to an autozone and they'll crawl under there and test it for you for free. You'll know at least whether the battery tests well or not even if you can't visually check it.

Edit: I know some models in that year range had an access cover somewhere under the bed in back. If you pulled back the carpet under the bed there was an access cover in the floor that let you get to the top of the battery compartment.

I just got the RT back from our mechanic who gave the whole vehicle thorough checking-over. He said the only way he could get at the battery from from underneath. He got it up on the lift and was able to pull it. The battery tested fine, but there was no time stamp on it...so we don't know how old it is or when it was installed (could possibly be the original). Anyway,
I have all the info I need about this particular battery (manufacturer,part# etc.), so I'll be using that to try and find out about its age and anything else I might need to know.

As far as the vehicle goes, everything looks great and the previous 3 owners generally did a good job of keeping it up. The only real issue is that this RT has a brand new Onan generator- installed a year and a half ago. Problem is...it has only been run for 1 1/2 hours in that period of time! It starts up fine, but from what I've been reading about these things, it should have a lot more hours of usage under its belt than it has. Can't believe that the person we bought it from spent 2k plus on this generator, and was apparently never told that she needed to start it up on something of a regular basis.