Chassis battery charge off-season

[GrandpadaveB]

First winter with our Journey DP so am curious what others do to protect the chassis through the winter. I have the home plugged into power so the home batteries are staying charged no problem. I checked the meter in the home yesterday and the chassis batteries were at 11.9 volts. Was wondering if it's appropriate to place a pair of jumper wires between the two sets of batteries to trickle charge the chassis batteries or do I just need to put a battery tender on them?

Wasn't worried about this until my doctor at Mayo in Rochester said our trip south this winter couldn't happen since they want to do a stem cell transplant in a few weeks which takes me out of commission for several months. Health has to come first.

[hfbundy]

If the chassis battery is identical to the coach batteries, a jumper should not be a problem. However, on my previous coach I jumpered AGM coach batteries to a conventional chassis battery and the chassis battery failed in less than 2 years.

[select55]

Originally Posted by GrandpadaveB

First winter with our Journey DP so am curious what others do to protect the chassis through the winter. I have the home plugged into power so the home batteries are staying charged no problem. I checked the meter in the home yesterday and the chassis batteries were at 11.9 volts. Was wondering if it's appropriate to place a pair of jumper wires between the two sets of batteries to trickle charge the chassis batteries or do I just need to put a battery tender on them?

Wasn't worried about this until my doctor at Mayo in Rochester said our trip south this winter couldn't happen since they want to do a stem cell transplant in a few weeks which takes me out of commission for several months. Health has to come first.

Put a battery minder or tender on the chassis batterys is best .do u not have a chassis battery shut off?? most do also to note some battery minders wont activate unless battery is above a certain voltage so you may have power charge before activating the minder

[Clay L]

I have used a BatteryMinder Plus for about 10 years and it has worked well. It will handle up to 4 batteries. We used them on the farm equipment when we inherited a 3000 tree commercial peach orchard a few years before we stopped full timing. We had 7 batteries that were brought inside during the winter and we had two BatteryMinders to take care of them. We weren’t around except during harvest and the manager took care of the place. I have used a BatteryMinder Plus for about 10 years and it has worked well. It will handle up to 4 batteries.
We used them on the farm equipment when we inherited a 3000 tree commercial peach orchard a few years before we stopped full timing. We had 7 batteries that were brought inside during the winter and we had two BatteryMinders to take care of them. Our manager was not familiar with them but became a convert and he works for the new owner and they are still in use after six years.

See Battery Minder

[Tom N]

I highly recommend and use a Trik-L-Start. Winnebago has installed these as standard equipment for the last 6 or 7 years. $29.95 from the founder of iRV2.

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Ultra...-p/tls-oem.htm

Ultra TRIK-L-START Starting Battery Charger/Maintainer

[select55]

Originally Posted by Tom N

I highly recommend and use a Trik-L-Start. Winnebago has installed these as standard equipment for the last 6 or 7 years. $29.95 from the founder of iRV2.

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Ultra...-p/tls-oem.htm

Ultra TRIK-L-START Starting Battery Charger/Maintainer

Agree I absolutely forgot about that unit those are great for sure

[wa8yxm]

Two answers (well technically 3)
My House on wheels has a BIRD (Bidirectional Isolation Relay Device) so the house takes care of the chassis when plugged in just as the chassis takes care of the house when driving.. Best option, if you got it.

Two (And 3) are the Trick-L-Start and (The Echo Charge) devices, competing devices, I see they are described above, both work the same way Echo costs more.

NOTE: Thanks to US-Gear and the wiring installed for my Unified brake Decelarator..... The house also charges my car from time to time. Yup, tie line there too.

[bobmac]

.if your Journey is a post 2006 model, you should have a Trik-L-Start already installed
I am uncertain as to the exact year that Winn started to install them in DPs but you could call them with your SN and they can tell you for certain. If you have one, a small portion of the charge going into the house batteries will be diverted to your chassis batteries. This along with idling about once a month for 5-10 minutes, should take care of your chassis batteries.

[LarryW21]

I wish you well with the medical procedure.

[cbeierl]

Here's Winnebago's Service Tip on installing the Trik-L-Start: 2006-04 Trik-L-Start -

(Note that the LSLProducts link in this pdf is out of date--the link earlier in this thread is correct.)