Truck Camper Batteries – Are Yours Batteries Parallel or Series ?

There are two different methods of connecting two batteries in your Truck Camper, parallel or series.

The parallel connection will increase the amperage of your battery bank. The battery bank connection is:

  • Connect the first battery’s positive post to the second battery’s positive post
  • Connect the first battery’s negative post to the second battery’s negative post.
  • Connect your camper’s positive cable to the first battery’s positive post.
  • Connect your camper’s negative cable to the second battery’s negative post.

When you connect to the battery bank in this manner, you will double the available amperage without increasing the battery bank voltage.

Drawing of a Parallel wired batteries
Drawing of Parallel wired batteries

 

When you have two 6-volt batteries, series connections are used to increase the voltage of your battery bank to 12-volts. The connections in this type of battery bank are different than parallel. The battery bank connection is:

  • Connect the first battery’s negative post to the second battery’s positive post
  • Connect your camper’s positive cable to the first battery’s positive post
  • Connect your camper’s negative cable to the second battery’s negative post

When you connect to the battery bank in this manner, you will double the battery bank voltage without increasing the amperage of the battery bank.

Drawing of Series batteries
Drawing of Series wired batteries

Any suggestions comments – good or bad – don’t hesitate to contact us at

webmaster@northeast-truckcampers.org. Thank you.