Community Forums

Online_17 · 09-05-2019, 04:31 PM

Do you remove your batteries when you winterize? Nightmare trying to remember how to wire up in the spring, haha

Last winter, I left in and plugged in my motorhome in every 2 to 3 week cycles. Just leaving plugged in all winter could damage the batteries or cause overcharging risk.

What do you do?

450Donn · 09-05-2019, 04:49 PM

If you have access to 120VAC simply leave it plugged in. Check the batteries monthly add water as necessary. In 35 years RVing oir RVs were always plugged in at home between trips. Never had a problem.

twinboat · 09-05-2019, 05:00 PM

You can store it like millions of boats in winter.

Remove the negetive battery cable from each battery and just make sure they are not touching the battery post.

You can store charged batteries like that for up to 6 months or more.

Arch Hoagland · 09-05-2019, 05:24 PM

Take a picture of the batteries with your cellphone before you disconnect them. Pretty easy to hook back up then.

legrandnorm · 09-05-2019, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Online_17

Do you remove your batteries when you winterize? Nightmare trying to remember how to wire up in the spring, haha

Last winter, I left in and plugged in my motorhome in every 2 to 3 week cycles. Just leaving plugged in all winter could damage the batteries or cause overcharging risk.

What do you do?

No need to remove them, just make sure that they are fully charged before disconnecting your batteries from the motorhome by using both "cut-off" switches situated usually in the staircase of gas motorhome; if you don't have those switches, I doute it, just disconnect the negative post of your chassis battery and the same on one of your coach battery.

Ray,IN · 09-05-2019, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by legrandnorm

No need to remove them, just make sure that they are fully charged before disconnecting your batteries from the motorhome by using both "cut-off" switches situated usually in the staircase of gas motorhome; if you don't have those switches, I doute it, just disconnect the negative post of your chassis battery and the same on one of your coach battery.

Most often the battery disconnect switch does not disconnect the LP detector, and fire/smoke alarms if hard-wired. It's best to simply remove the negative cable from the battery after it is fully-charged.

legrandnorm · 09-05-2019, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

Most often the battery disconnect switch does not disconnect the LP detector, and fire/smoke alarms if hard-wired. It's best to simply remove the negative cable from the battery after it is fully-charged.

In my mh, all accessories are disconnected except the smoke detector which is on a 9 VOLTS battery; btw, I change my smoke detector batteries every spring, in the house and in the mh.

ray999 · 09-05-2019, 07:02 PM

Just remove the negative!

lwmcguire · 09-05-2019, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

You can store it like millions of boats in winter.

Remove the negetive battery cable from each battery and just make sure they are not touching the battery post.

You can store charged batteries like that for up to 6 months or more.

Did the same with farm and ranch equipment with multiple batteries

If you have a week battery spring is a great time to find out, not on the road

Soppy · 09-05-2019, 07:13 PM

I make sure they are fully charged , then disconnect them.They survive the Northern Ontario Canada winters just fine. My AGM house batteries are now 11 yrs old and working good. They sat disconnected for 9 months and the voltage still measured 12.7 volts .

Gary RVRoamer · 09-06-2019, 11:06 AM

With the modern charger in his 2016 Thor, there should be no problem leaving it plugged in all winter. Especially if AGM batteries. If flooded cell type, make sure the electrolyte in the cells is up to snuff before storing.

Online_17 · 09-06-2019, 01:02 PM

This is what I thought but was plugging in for 2 weeks and then unplugging for 2 weeks just to be extra careful....and didnt think having the converter on 24/7 was a good idea after months of sub zero temps...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

With the modern charger in his 2016 Thor, there should be no problem leaving it plugged in all winter. Especially if AGM batteries. If flooded cell type, make sure the electrolyte in the cells is up to snuff before storing.

Mudfrog · 09-06-2019, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Online_17

This is what I thought but was plugging in for 2 weeks and then unplugging for 2 weeks just to be extra careful....and didnt think having the converter on 24/7 was a good idea after months of sub zero temps...

I put a timer on ours which I've set to power up the motorhome once a week for 12 hours. This was mainly to keep the chassis battery up since it looses charge after about 2 weeks when disconnected from power. This setup also makes for less maintenance of the batteries, less wear and tear on the converter/charger, and most likely gets us a slightly lower electric bill.

Our motorhome sits stored behind the house much more than it is used so this has worked out really well. The house batteries are a few years old and the chassis battery is from 2013. All are in great shape!

Disconnecting the batteries completely works ok too but it was more of a pain.

ken64k · 09-07-2019, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

You can store it like millions of boats in winter.

Remove the negetive battery cable from each battery and just make sure they are not touching the battery post.

You can store charged batteries like that for up to 6 months or more.

I am still just looking for a motorhome, but I've owned cabin cruisers for over 35 years and never removed the batteries in the winter (New England) Just make sure the bateries are fully charged and disconnect the negitive cable.