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Old 06-25-2014, 08:19 AM   #1
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House Batteries (Issue)

Hi,

Last time I went dry camping I noticed after only having my cabin lights on for a few hours in the evening my house battery levels were almost at the 1/3 level according to the control center. I took the rv in to the shop and sure enough the battery's tested bad. I had both batteries replaced with interstate marine group 27 batteries. I left the rv parked overnight with nothing on and when I checked it in the morning my batteries were already at 2/3 level(per the control center). Could I have some other underlying issue or is this the norm? Thanks
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Old 06-25-2014, 12:06 PM   #2
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What MH do you have?
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Old 06-25-2014, 12:21 PM   #3
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Your house batteries power more than just the lights when dry camping. Thermostat, refrigerator, LP detector, water heater, perhaps inverter, etc. all use 12 v power. I'd also suggest using an accurate voltmeter instead of the LED light bar on display panel. You could also check charging function when engine is running, on shore power, and generator power. Compare voltages to batteries after they have equalized for a couple of hours. If you don't see a voltage increase in the 3 mentioned conditions, you have a charging issue.
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Old 06-25-2014, 01:06 PM   #4
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Thank you. I have a 2012 Thor ACE 29.1 motorhome
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Old 06-25-2014, 09:01 PM   #5
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If you are serious about your batteries status, I would look into a battery monitor... what kind of inverter/charger do you have? Is it a Magnum? If so then I would install an ME-BMK battery monitor... this will tell you how much power is leaving and how much power is being put in the batteries... and based on calculation, will tell you the batteries state of charge of 0-100%, you never want to go below 50% state of charge.

Amazon.com: MAGNUM MAGN-ME-BMK / Battery Monitor Kit ME & MS Series: Computers & Accessories
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Old 06-30-2014, 11:20 PM   #6
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ACE batteries

George ..
What BFlinn181 said is right to the point .. there is a lot of stuff running off those batteries. I have a 2012 ACE 29.1 also and mine came with 2 " marine grade " 12V batteries. When dry camping I got about 2 days max out of them before they got so low as to need imediate charging.

One gave out completely after about 15 months or so.

I replaced both with 4 " Golf cart" style 6V batteries in a series / parallel circuit.
Now my Amp Hour rating is 450 compared to 200 with the original 2 12V batteries.
Even more important is that while those original 12V are not designed to be drained down in the same way the 6V style are. The 6V batteries are almost the same size as the 12V but only 3 cells each instead of 6 cells in a 12 V. The cells are much thicker and made differently so as to be repeatedly drained down and then recharged up over and over.

I was able to fit all 4 6V batteries into the space available and I added a slide out tray to mount them on so I can get at them easily.
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Old 07-01-2014, 12:03 AM   #7
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Thank you. I ended up going with two new Interstate group 27 batteries. They ran me about $130 each plus install. The golf cart size batteries were quoted at $145 each for 4. I couldn't budget for that this time around! Thank you though for the info.
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Old 07-01-2014, 08:14 AM   #8
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If you have a battery shut off switch, usually near entrance, it probably doesn't turn everything off. Putting an actual battery shut off switch can allow you to store RV long term without power.

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