Upgrading BC20X Battery Awareness ~ Installing the Victron Battery Monitor 15Mar25

Normal stock battery monitoring in an RV typically only provides an instantaneous measure of voltage. One actually needs to draw some on the battery bank to determine it's true state. Plus, once fully charged, it's total amp-hour capacity can be measured and a relative percentage remaining can be derived at any future point. My Victron BMV712 Smart Battery Monitor is the right kit for the job in our Basecamp 20X... it uses a custom shunt to draw and measure current; it even connects to my phone via Bluetooth. I installed it today; that turned out to be more of an issue from a mechanical access standpoint than anything else. Getting to the batteries beneath the front bench, beneath the sealed bonnet in which they reside was arduous and tight and required pulling off the front panel and removing all hookups before doing the install. I did install the shunt on the inside of the panel adjacent to the removable piece ~ tight but doable. I installed the monitor UI on the removable panel after sawing a 2" hole in it. The install was electrically simple after I got some 6 gauge connectors and "stole" some 6 gauge wiring from one of the existing runs. Thank goodness, one 50' spool of 8 strand 6 gauge is $80!

Yeah... charging now after long term lack of use AND older batteries. That's the next step, to see if the current batteries are good enough for the coming season... looking a bit dubious thus far.