Battery Question

[stardalo]

I have an 03 Winnebago Journey 36DL. Getting ready to hot the road this summer. My batteries are 3 years old and are starting to show their age. I have 5 Interstate "high cycling" 31-mhd batteries currently installed. 2 are starting and 3 are house. I never dry camp and when i am running down the road, the generator is usually powering the house, so i was wondering if i can just change out the 2 starting batteries without any major downside. Just wondering what the repercussions of mixing old batteries with new ones will do. Not looking to change the type, i.e agm vs gel vs traditional wet cell, just the 2 actual starting batteries. thank you.

[Skip426]

The starting batteries are not part of the coaches power pack , so changing just the two start batteries will have no effect on the house batteries because as soon as the engine is off they are separated.

Now if you were thinking of changing only two of the three house batteries , that's a different kettle of fish.

My two start batteries are 3 1/2 years old and the 4 golf cart 6 volts for the house are 6 , no problems.

[Nuclear]

The coach and chassis batteries are two different sets, as Skip426 pointed out.

My experience is a battery set is only as good as the weakest battery in the set. That being said, I'd replace 2ea chassis batteries and 3ea coach. (Provided they are indeed bad)

Again, as Skip426 mentioned, a 3 year old battery may not need to be replaced.

[bluepill]

A few thoughts.

1. If you really never have to rely on the House batteries, then keeping the old ones is probably no biggie.

2. Consider that 3 new group 31's should cost about $300 and last at least 3 years. That's a hundred bucks a year. If you have a decent sized inverter, you have the opportunity to use it for short periods (like running the coffee maker or microwave or TV) without bothering to start the genny. I don't like to run a genny for less than half an hour, because I want it to come up to full oil and coolant temperature before shutting it back down.

3. If your genny fails, you have the inverter available if those house batteries are strong.