Summer storage without electricity

[Charlandpv]

I’ve stored my DS for the summer in a yard that does not provide electricity. Since my DS has a solar panel I was wondering if it was necessary/helpful to turn the chassis batteries disconnect switch or not. In doing so will that prevent the solar charger from maintaining the chassis batteries. I tend to believe that the disconnect switch is located after the charger-battery connection but would like to have confirmation of this before throwing the switch.
Thank you

[BFlinn181]

This would be a simple thing to test yourself with a meter or test light. How big is the solar panel? Is it big enough to counter any phantom drains on the 12v system? If not, I'd disconnect the batteries to make sure they stay mostly charged. Also, are the house and chassis batteries charged by the solar panel? Again, it's something you could determine by using a meter.

[Houdoxi71]

Make sure all of the batts are charged, then shut it all down/disconnect. I remove the chassis battery and store it at the house as well.

My coach has/had a solar panel mounted on top of the ac unit that was supposed to trickle charge the house batts in storage. It got damaged due to a winter storm in 2003, and we had no idea until next spring. House batts were flat dead, and had to be replaced due to a small phantom load somewhere..

Also. Open up all of the cabinets and fridge doors while it sits, if some of the cabinets won't stay open that's a good time to replace/repair the lifts!

[HavingABlast]

When my coach is in the storage yard (no electricity) I:

Turn off all electronics (fridge, lights, inverter, etc.),
Turn off the house “salesman switch”,
Flip the 120v circuit breakers to the off position,
Use the battery disconnect switch on the chassis batteries.

Initially I went up to the coach every week to check the battery voltages. Now I am confident that my voltages are fine for 3-4 weeks. So now I go up every 3-4 weeks and run my generator to exercise it, and to recharge my house and chassis batteries. I also top off the water in my house batteries after they are fully charged.

[HavingABlast]

Originally Posted by HavingABlast

When my coach is in the storage yard (no electricity) I:

Turn off all electronics (fridge, lights, inverter, etc.),
Turn off the house “salesman switch”,
Flip the 120v circuit breakers to the off position,
Use the battery disconnect switch on the chassis batteries.

Initially I went up to the coach every week to check the battery voltages. Now I am confident that my voltages are fine for 3-4 weeks. So now I go up every 3-4 weeks and run my generator to exercise it, and to recharge my house and chassis batteries. I also top off the water in my house batteries after they are fully charged.

Don’t forget to activate the circuit breakers to the inverter (for charging) and some other circuit loading device (A/C or Heat Pump depending on ambient temperature) for the long term health of your generator.

[TonyDi]

By solar panel do you mean that small panel on the front of the roof? That is a 5w panel and really won't do tiddly. I installed (2) 100W panels and they will charge and keep my batteries fully charged.

[Charlandpv]

Yes. I’m refering to the small panel that is strictly used to trickle charge the chassis batteries. All I’m trying to find out is, if I still want it to do its job can I nonetheless shut iff the chassis discinnect switch ir do I have to keave it on? I know it won’t do squat for the house batteries but I’m not concerned by those since there are 8 of those and the 12V disconnect is off.

[BFlinn181]

If you have a meter or test light, try removing the cable from the battery and bridge the gap with the test light or meter. If the light is on, you have a phantom drain. I store my RV for months over winter by turning off the chassis disconnect (no phantom drain) but my house batteries have things still hooked up with battery disconnect off so on those batteries I use a mechanical battery disconnect. I can leave the RV as long as 5 months and return to start as if it was last used the day before.

[pduggs]

Originally Posted by HavingABlast

Don’t forget to activate the circuit breakers to the inverter (for charging) and some other circuit loading device (A/C or Heat Pump depending on ambient temperature) for the long term health of your generator.

So, you keep the inverter and AC/heat working while the coach is in storage, is that right?

[WinnieView]

If the batteries are receiving any sort of charge they should probably be checked each month if not sealed.
We have found over the years through the summer months in AZ where of course it's a dry heat that they do need regular watering.

[TonyDi]

Originally Posted by Charlandpv

Yes. I’m refering to the small panel that is strictly used to trickle charge the chassis batteries. All I’m trying to find out is, if I still want it to do its job can I nonetheless shut iff the chassis discinnect switch ir do I have to keave it on? I know it won’t do squat for the house batteries but I’m not concerned by those since there are 8 of those and the 12V disconnect is off.

As I said that 5W solar won't cut it. You still have phantom drains on the batteries and it might maintain but it is unable to really charge the batteries. I had one and on a few occasions my batteries were low. That's when I converted to the bigger solar panels.No problems since then.

[HavingABlast]

Originally Posted by pduggs

So, you keep the inverter and AC/heat working while the coach is in storage, is that right?

No I didn’t mean to say that. What I intended to say is that you want the inverter/charger and A/C circuits active when running the generator. The charger circuit so the batteries get recharged. The AC circuit active so you can put a load on the generator. I was told that it was important to partially load a generator while it is running.

[WardSimmons]

Originally Posted by Charlandpv

I’ve stored my DS for the summer in a yard that does not provide electricity. Since my DS has a solar panel I was wondering if it was necessary/helpful to turn the chassis batteries disconnect switch or not. In doing so will that prevent the solar charger from maintaining the chassis batteries. I tend to believe that the disconnect switch is located after the charger-battery connection but would like to have confirmation of this before throwing the switch.
Thank you

We store in a surface lot without electricity. With the chassis battery disconnected at the switch, the small solar panel does maintain our chassis batteries.

While we also have 400 watts of solar for the coach batteries, as I understand it the “bridge” that opens between the house and chassis batteries to “share” charging will not do so when only on solar power, and this is consistent with what I have seen. It appears the chassis batteries remaining fully charged is strictly a function of the small chassis battery solar panel.

I did quickly discover that the small panel is not adequate if the chassis battery is not disconnected at the switch. I hope this answers your question.

[Charlandpv]

Thanks Ward. That’s what I wanted to know. I will use the chassis disconnect switch