question

toddbender avatar image
toddbender asked

shunt install 4 serial/parallel batteries

My RV has four 6v AGM batteries wired in series/parallel.  Two 
batteries (connected serially) are in the front engine compartment, two batteries (presumably also connected serially) are in a tray 
underneath the chassis at the back of the RV (difficult to 
see/access).  The batteries in the front are grounded to the 
chassis and there is no wire from a negative post back to 
the back of the RV.  I assume the back batteries are grounded to 
the chassis in the rear.

Can I install the shunt on the negative to ground wire on just the front two batteries and get meaningful data from the monitor?  If I configure the monitor with the capacity of just two (instead of 
four) batteries, will I effectively get usage data reflecting all 
four, since they are all connected together anyway?  It seems to me that both the front pair and rear pair of batteries should show 
equivalent draw/charge data, equivalent voltage, etc.  If the front two batteries are low, then the rear two batteries are low too. 
Would there be any distortion of monitoring data in this case?
installation
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1 Answer
kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

If there is no common ground for the batteries, you can only get full information for the ground connection where you insert the shunt. If your shunt has a second battery function, you can also get voltage readings for the other pair.

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