Electrical Gremlins

[twinboat]

Be careful of leaving the battery disconnect switch off, while storing with shore power.

On many RVs, the converter/charger is on the disconnected side of switch. It will power lights and pumps, but not send power to charge the batteries.

You need a volt meter ON THE BATTETY terminals to see if charging is happening. The little lights inside only tell you there is voltage above 12 volts being produced. Not where its going.

[1bigmess]

If the trailer is in storage for the winter, take the batteries home. Leave them on a Battery Tender or the like until you want to use the trailer again.

The shore power system should work regardless of battery presence or state of charge.

As to why they won't stay charged while parked and connected to shore power, I have no idea.

[Guido Gamil]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Be careful of leaving the battery disconnect switch off, while storing with shore power.

On many RVs, the converter/charger is on the disconnected side of switch. It will power lights and pumps, but not send power to charge the batteries.

You need a volt meter ON THE BATTETY terminals to see if charging is happening. The little lights inside only tell you there is voltage above 12 volts being produced. Not where its going.

Thank you twinboat. I have several suggestions to check and this will be one of them. I hope to get up there next weekend.

As someone mentioned in this thread they say to turn battery switch off when left in storage on shore power. I have only owned for four seasons and have always left switch on when plugged in storing or camping on shore power. My unit is a 2015. Is it as simple as testing to see if batteries are charging with switch on then testing with switch off to see if voltage drops or climbs?

[Guido Gamil]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

If the trailer is in storage for the winter, take the batteries home. Leave them on a Battery Tender or the like until you want to use the trailer again.

The shore power system should work regardless of battery presence or state of charge.

As to why they won't stay charged while parked and connected to shore power, I have no idea.

#1, If I have it plugged in while in storage why would I need to take batteries out to charge them? I am under assumption while on shore power they are kept charged.

One thing I have read is that while they are on shore power you need to check the H20 level in batteries because they will lose water and fry the battery. I failed to do that last winter and everything was fine, but this winter I did not do that and thought maybe that is why my batteries failed the first time.

[1bigmess]

You do need to check the battery water level if your converter/charger is a cheap one. they do a poor job of keeping batteries healthy. Why drive three hours to do this when the batteries can be in your garage?

Why take them out and take them home? Because a $50 Battery Tender would do a much, much better job of keeping them charged *and* healthy for more than one year. You would have less or no water boiled out of the batteries. It would automatically charge them if needed and would do a better job of maintenance or float charging a full battery. And you would avoid the problem of not knowing how or why your RV's on board converter/charger is doing a bad job or not working at all three hours away from home.

For my money, if it was a choice between $150 in new battereis every year, or the small inconvenience of bringing them home for the winter and putting them on a $50 Battery Tender and being able to check them to make sure they aren't losing water and being able to replace any water that gasses out, I'd pick bringing them home. I recently parked my trailer in a friend's back yard since I'm working close to home, and I'll go over this weekend to get the batteries out and put them in my girlfriend's garage on a Battery Tender. It's much better for them than letting my OE converter/charger cook the water out of them.

Some links for you:
The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tende...5600756&sr=8-8

[Cumminsfan]

I've been using the OEM WFCO 55W converter charger in my current and previous 5er and have had zero issues with it boiling the battery water. My last WFCO was going on 6 years and the batteries were 5 year old Costco 6V GC batteries.
Current TT has 4 Interstate 6V GC batteries and the OEM WFCO and no water issues yet. Only had it about 7 months but I see no reason it won't perform the same.
Are PD chargers better? Sure but mines not broke so I'm not fixin it.
I've also left my 5er plugged in 24/7/365. My new TT I use the solar in the summer and the WFCO from Nov-April FWIW.

[brulaz]

Originally Posted by Cumminsfan

I've been using the OEM WFCO 55W converter charger in my current and previous 5er and have had zero issues with it boiling the battery water. My last WFCO was going on 6 years and the batteries were 5 year old Costco 6V GC batteries.
Current TT has 4 Interstate 6V GC batteries and the OEM WFCO and no water issues yet. Only had it about 7 months but I see no reason it won't perform the same.
Are PD chargers better? Sure but mines not broke so I'm not fixin it.
I've also left my 5er plugged in 24/7/365. My new TT I use the solar in the summer and the WFCO from Nov-April FWIW.

It's not over-charging and boiling, but under charging that is the WFCO's weakness. It rarely gets them up over 13.6V, whereas 14.8-14.9V is usually recommended. But if you have solar to bring them up to a higher V , then all is good.

[Azimuth551]

This may not be part of the issue but I know I drew down batteries to zero when camping one year. Luckily they were six volts and I brought them to a shop and they brought them back to life with three days slow charging.
It turns out that my battery ground on the frame was lose and this created a short. I tried charging with my portable generator and it was dead. I did not figure out the wiring issue until I started looking hard at stuff.
I know the wiring is kind of weak on thee trailers, so I cleaned up my rats nest and also moved my ground to a spot inside where it is protected like someone else did on here. I did find that my ground was not very tight, just snug which will cause issues eventually. I would just double check all the connections you can reach and ensure they are tight.
I leave my 4-6volt batts on the trailer and trailer plugged in....zero issues with that set up. Of course its better to keep the batts in a nice insulated garage.

[Guido Gamil]

[QUOTE=1bigmess;5064553]You do need to check the battery water level if your converter/charger is a cheap one. they do a poor job of keeping batteries healthy. Why drive three hours to do this when the batteries can be in your garage?

Why take them out and take them home? Because a $50 Battery Tender would do a much, much better job of keeping them charged *and* healthy for more than one year. You would have less or no water boiled out of the batteries. It would automatically charge them if needed and would do a better job of maintenance or float charging a full battery. And you would avoid the problem of not knowing how or why your RV's on board converter/charger is doing a bad job or not working at all three hours away from home.

For my money, if it was a choice between $150 in new battereis every year, or the small inconvenience of bringing them home for the winter and putting them on a $50 Battery Tender and being able to check them to make sure they aren't losing water and being able to replace any water that gasses out, I'd pick bringing them home. I recently parked my trailer in a friend's back yard since I'm working close to home, and I'll go over this weekend to get the batteries out and put them in my girlfriend's garage on a Battery Tender. It's much better for them than letting my OE converter/charger cook the water out of them.

Hey 1bigmess,

This makes sense to me. For the record the RV is stored at my home, I just don't live there right now. I have about 5 tenders on things like boat, atv and motorcycles. They all use sealed batteries so don't need to check H20 level. I can easily put a tender on the RV, I just didn't think it was necessary. My boat has a similar set up and I turn battery switch to off, and keep a tender on both batteries. Can I do the same thing with the RV, turn battery switch to off and put a tender on each battery without disconnecting them?

[egwilly]

Right after we bought the GP, installed a Battery Minder in the pass thru area.

No battery issues in 3 years now. Highly recommend it. It de-sulfates while charging.

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by Guido Gamil

My boat has a similar set up and I turn battery switch to off, and keep a tender on both batteries. Can I do the same thing with the RV, turn battery switch to off and put a tender on each battery without disconnecting them?

Absolutely you can.

[Guido Gamil]

Thank you everyone for some good solid advice. I have some more homework to do and now but have more knowledge to try and isolate what is going on. It may take me a few visits. When I get to where the RV is stored I have lots of other chores to take care. I will come back to this thread with my findings in case someone else has a similar experience.

Cheers!

[Mark_K5LXP]

Originally Posted by Guido Gamil

I can easily put a tender on the RV, I just didn't think it was necessary. ... turn battery switch to off and put a tender on each battery without disconnecting them?

My RV sits 20 feet from my back door and this is exactly how I do it. My logic is this - if I leave the RV plugged in the converter and every circuit in the RV is energized. I'm basing it on faith that the converter will be putting out the correct voltage based on temperature, that all the energized devices operate fault free, and that any surge or spike that comes into the AC line will never cause a failure to the converter or energized devices. If you believe all of those things are possible with unattended equipment for months at a time, you have WAY more faith than me. With the RV unplugged and the switch off I've now isolated the RV from the hazards of the AC mains, and the only connected device is a $35 tender which only does one thing and they do it well. Could it fail? Sure. But I would rather have that fail and possibly end up with a dead set of batteries than a fried converter and other equipment AND dead batteries. Since it's so convenient I can easily check on mine once in a while but if I would have to leave something unattended to chance, it would be a lone mains connected tender and not a mains connected MH.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM