Battery Disconnect

[rlrich]

I've been reading of some cases of battery boil over due to overcharging. We live in our Excel and I'm wondering if I should use the battery disconnect and run solely on the converter. We move twice a year so we stay put for 6 months at a time. This is the 2nd trailer we've owned with the disconnect switch but I've never really questioned the correct use of it. I just assumed it was for storage purposes only.

Thank You

Rick & LaVonne
Summer Iowans/Winter Texans
'07-36TKE

[rlrich]

I've been reading of some cases of battery boil over due to overcharging. We live in our Excel and I'm wondering if I should use the battery disconnect and run solely on the converter. We move twice a year so we stay put for 6 months at a time. This is the 2nd trailer we've owned with the disconnect switch but I've never really questioned the correct use of it. I just assumed it was for storage purposes only.

Thank You

Rick & LaVonne
Summer Iowans/Winter Texans
'07-36TKE

[rockintom]

First off rich welcome to our forum!! As you can see we have a lot of fun and try to help each other every once in a while.

Regarding your question. I'm not exactly sure I know the "correct" answer. Here's some things to consider:

Your Excel has a very good converter and knows when to reduce charge as needed. It will trickle charge when the batts are fully charged. With that said, I'll tell you how we use ours. First off, we've been FTing in our rigs for over 3.5 years.(live in 350 days a year) I turn my disconnect switch off when parked for a while and stay in one spot. Just run on shore power. About once a week I turn the batteries on to charge for a few hours. Then shut it off again. I have to add distilled water to my batts about once every 4 or 5 months. My experience is you'll find as many answers to your question as there are Excelers.

One thing you need to remember is that when the batt switch is off....if your shore power goes down....you loose all 12V lights, refer, etc in the unit. So, if you leave for a week for some reason and the shore power goes down for a long time....your refer would not work (you need 12V for igniter and fuel control operation)! Same for the furance and water heater working on propane. The chances of long term shore power loss is not very likely though.

Also, you must not forget to turn ON the battery discount when traveling so you have electric brakes!! When in off you have no trailer brake assist and no battery charging off the TV.

I be interested to see how others do it!
HTH rockin'

[Jim & Bona]

Good question, Rich. I've recently been wondering about this myself.

Like Tom we fulltime. Approximately 1/3 of our time is spent without shore power (dry camping or boondocking). As Tom said, you have an excellent charger/converter in your unit. It would be worthwhile to spend a few minutes reading the its manual if you haven't already done so.

My batteries are AGMs so I don't worry about water levels. I leave the batteries connected all the time. While I have considered disconnecting while on shore power, the concern about forgetting to reconnect when travelling takes priority in my case.

Happy travels.

[MonacoMama]

rlrich...I would also like to welcome you to iRV2 and also the Excel forum! I would like to offer you some "Excel karms" to go under your name on the left side if you say it is ok.

I don't have an Excel - but we do have the inverter set-up. I was living in my rig for over a year and always left the switch on. What was done though was a monthly check of the fluid in the batteries and addition as needed.

You can find what another one of our more astute members did here...he does all his own work on pretty much everything.

Again...welcome to the forum...we hope you visit & post often!

MM

[clspds]

rlrich,

Welcome to the forum. We turn ours off when connected to shore power.
Have a good winter.

Paul

[Dan Hen]

The newer Excels have the Intelapower (Spelling??)invereter and it does a great job of keeping the battery in good condition. The older Exces we had a 03 and it had what was refered to as the Cheap Chinse inverter and it did use water when we had the shore power hook up for a long time. I replaced the Chines with the Intelapower and noticed quite a differance in water use in the battery.

I leave the battery switch on when we are useing the trailer.

I do know that the rooms or jacks with the new hydrolics can not be operated the battery switch off, inverter does not put our enouph power.

Dan

[LindaH]

We added solar to our Excel and, in doing so, our converter is completely bypassed. This, plus the fact that we have AGM batteries, means that we don't have to worry about battery boil over.

However, in all of other RVs we've had with "regular" batteries (i.e., non-sealed batteries, both 6-volt and 12-volt), we've never used the battery disconnect switch even when we were plugged into electric, and we've never had a problem with the batteries boiling over. It's my feeling that if you do, there's something wrong in the system somewhere that needs to be corrected.

[Workshop]

My 2001 RLE came with the PD9100 series CONVERTER. I find it to be a great unit. I have added the Charge Wizard to the unit to update it to current specs. Don't know if the current Excels have the Progressive installed.

I don't full time but do leave my unit plugged in all the time. I very rarely add 'distilled water' to the batteries. With my prior unit, I wouldn't think about doing that. The Charge Wizard does what it says it does and find that it will drop the charge/operating voltage to 13.1v after it senses the batteries are charged.

I don't find leaving the battery disconnect engaged a problem. Having two sets of batteries, I just need to remember to select the other set every so often to keep them charged as well. I find it to be a good time to 'inspect stuff' and look at things I don't always look at.

Rockin'.... in your comment: "Also, you must not forget to turn ON the battery discount when traveling so you have electric brakes!! When in off you have no trailer brake assist and no battery charging off the TV." .....I installed my battery selector as mine didn't come with one. Did Excel wire the units so the TV wouldn't provide charging or braking if the switch is in the off position? Would assume it would? If you have a weak/dead battery, would guess it would affect the braking if the 'break-away' cable was pulled as the 5er separated. As I wired mine, I have full +12v to the 5er even with the switch off.

workhorse

[Bruce and Jenna]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Workshop:
Rockin'.... in your comment: "Also, you must not forget to turn ON the battery discount when traveling so you have electric brakes!! When in off you have no trailer brake assist and no battery charging off the TV." .....I installed my battery selector as mine didn't come with one. Did Excel wire the units so the TV wouldn't provide charging or braking if the switch is in the off position? Would assume it would? If you have a weak/dead battery, would guess it would affect the braking if the 'break-away' cable was pulled as the 5er separated. As I wired mine, I have full +12v to the 5er even with the switch off.

workhorse </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I tow with my 12v switch off. Electric over hydraulic brakes work fine. Dunno about TV charging.

[rockintom]

Bruce,

Good point. My aftermarket disk brakes also work with the batteries shut off. I figured it was the way they hook them up. My original electric drum brakes only worked with the batts on!

[rfhtlh]

if you are towing without your batteries turned on, aren't you disabling the emergency brakeing system on the trailer if it breaks away from the truck?

[rockintom]

rfhtlh,
I hear ya. Wonder that myself. Don't have a solid answer, but you would think the manufacturers would have it hot at all times for safety reasons. I can't check mine as I have an aftermarket(Kodiak)disk system now and since they installed them, I have brakes and emergency brakes with the batt disconnect in either position. All I know is that I DID NOT have electric brakes when I had the discount in the off position on my original drum brakes. rocky

[evan0810]

If you follow the positive lead from the battery, I think you'll find they are totally disconnected w/ the switch in the disconnect position.
Ed