battery problem

[Boeing Guy]

Had a battery problem I need help with on my 2004 Winnabago Journey. While hooked up to shore power, all 12v power was lost. Refer wouldn't work, lights would come on dim and slowly go out. Couldn't start Gen from power panel, but could start from dash panel. Went home and had batteries checked All 3 batts were very discharged. One came back as bad battery- replace. The other two registered good battery -recharge. This MH has been in a pole barn for 2-2.5 years being taken care of by a family friend while the widow sorted out the estate. He winterized it and took care of it but I am not sure if it was run often. We just bought it. A contributing factor might have been that the MH has been in the shop for 2 weeks for Awning motor replacement. It was located pretty far from the main building and I suspect that they might have used the battteries while working on it. The batteries are about 2 years old so i suspect that they were bought by the friend. They are interstate batteries, 600 CCA 750 MCA, deep cycle 160 reserve, not sure of the ampre hour rating. The Owners manual calls for 130 amp hr, 225 reserve capacity, 665 CCA. My logcial mind tells me to go out and buy three of the proper batteries, install them and not have to deal with it for a while. But ever since I bought this thing I have been digging up cans of money from the back yard and throwing the money at it. I think I just dug up the last can. So what do you recommend. One battery or three. What brand and type? Can i mix and match? Do I have to go to an RV store and get boned or is there a cheaper way to buy them? The power panel had a reading "13.3-float". Not sure what that means but I assme that the charging system was working but trying to charge a bad battery. I assume that if you have 3 batteries in parallel (I think) and one is bad, it affects the entire circuit. Looking for suggestions.

[F&D ABQ]

If you just search this forum (Winnebago Owners) for "batteries" you'll get more information than you really want! A quick skim indicates that you have 2 batteries in parallel for House, one for Chassis. Since your engine apparently started, I'd change out the house batteries for the largest deep-cycle batteries that will fit (size 29 if you can, but size 27 is pretty good). No, you needn't go to an RV house. Sam's Club will do fine. Now, if you want the very best -- start digging for more cans!

[dc8cappie]

My 2005 Meridian uses 3 house batteries (Interstate series 29 Deep Cycles 210RC) and 2 chassic series 31 interstate. Some people install 4 Trojan 6 volt Deep cycle batteries in series parallel for a total of 440RC.

Check out this post. Journey battery replacement, questions