Winter time battery storage

[lockinload]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Ever think that you abused the batteries during use and that's why they failed.

I live in the NE and have had boats for 40 years, and I still do have, boats in NY and FL.

I disconnect the batteries during the off season and they last for years.
In some storage yards its a requirement.

Once I added a solar panel to my RV I never had another issue with killing batteries. Just sharing my experiences, long ass winters in Colorado.


FYI, the OP isn't in a storage yard, he has shore power. That was the point of his question, I would maintain my batteries in his situation.

[dix39]

Originally Posted by 153stars

That sounds like bad cell in one battery drawing higher amps then the charger upped the volts out of float and just cooked them.
A good tender probably wouldn't have cooked the other battery.
Poeple have done great with plugged in, disconnected and on tenders. I would just stay away from cheap tenders that go bad and take you batteries with them . Show green charge light with no AC voltage, until batteries are flat.

The bad/failing cell was my assessment also, I think you are correct. That cell was using a bit more water than the others before we left.

In my case it was plugged in to shore power and being charged by the convertor in the system, or whatever else is there to control the charging rate. Since that system does not charge the chassis batteries I use a trickle charger for it. The trickle charger seems to be a lot easier on that battery than the MH charging system is on the house batts.

Since I wasn't there to stop the system from continuing to charge the failed and boiling battery, acid was discharged all over the battery compartment. In order to prevent that from continuing to corrode the battery compartment I had to neutralize the acid, clean and paint the compartment. I found that a little pneumatic tool with rods that move back and forth to remove rust/paint, and a shop vac. worked best for cleaning. What a chore.

Steve

[GMoore]

Originally Posted by lockinload

In my 25 years plus of owning RVs I have lost too many batteries do to poor maintenance. I've had new batteries that sat all winter, took a charge in the spring and died by the end of the year. Why take the chance on an expensive item? It's just too easy to keep them maintained. A quality battery that is not abused should last many many years.

All have opinions, mine is the other way and it is also from my experience.
Stored my MH and toad in Anchorage for four winters with the ground cables disconnected, That's six 6 volt and two 12 volt batteries with no ill effects. I asked around locally before I decided to store this way. The opinion up there is to charge and disconnect if you have a good battery to start with. No going to check on them required.

That was a great 5 year period. Drove up in 07 and back in 2011. I usually flew up May and back in Sept, DW came up with the cat in June and back in August. Should have had frequent flier miles for the cat too.

[Persistent]

Originally Posted by GMoore

All have opinions, mine is the other way and it is also from my experience.
Stored my MH and toad in Anchorage for four winters with the ground cables disconnected, That's six 6 volt and two 12 volt batteries with no ill effects. I asked around locally before I decided to store this way. The opinion up there is to charge and disconnect if you have a good battery to start with. No going to check on them required.
…

I agree! An excellent plan for 3 to 6 months of storage when you do not have to support engine and transmission always on systems.

AGM batteries would be good for 6 to 12 months using this strategy.

[GMoore]

Originally Posted by Persistent

I agree! An excellent plan for 3 to 6 months of storage when you do not have to support engine and transmission always on systems.

AGM batteries would be good for 6 to 12 months using this strategy.

I should have added, I also did an equalizing charge at the end and during the season. Most all of our camping was done with no hookups. Most of the gen charging was shut off during the absorption phase.

[marjoa]

I think MAYBE the OP's battery issues over the years could be an inadequate converter and it's just not charging the batteries properly. He has stated he's lost several batt's over the years. He didn't post in his signature what his coach is but on his profile it says 2001 Newmar.

Our coach—a 2012—of course had a converter, but it was totally ineffective to keep house batt's charged properly and healthy. It basically was a big trickle charger. It constantly released .5 amps charge to the house batt's. It NEVER took the batt's through any other stage of charging. This was destroying my batt's over time.

So, I replaced that converter in 2017 with a 4 stage Smart Converter from Progressive Dynamics and switched from 12V house batt's to 2 6V batt's. Now with this new system it charges the batt's regularly through all 4 stages of charging. I have no issues anymore with my batt's.

Keeping healthy batt's does require exercising them properly. That fella in Alaska is a perfect example IMO. He boondocks pretty much the whole time up there. He's constantly using batt power probably goes down to 70%, 60% or so, then charging them up again either by solar or generator or whatever. In any case, this is good for batteries. Batteries that are kept constantly on shore power never receive that kind of exercising if you don't have a good Smart charger. So if you don't boon dock or exercise your batteries you need good Smart charger that takes your batt's through all 4 stages of charging. Your batteries will love you.

I may not have worded this all perfectly but you get the picture.

Technology has come a long way since 2001. I think the OP should dig deeper into what type of converter his has and consider upgrading or at the very least see if it's working properly. If you have good batt's, and take care of them and charge them properly, they should last years.

[airshot]

Make sure batteries are fully charged then disconnect them. Have had boats, trailers, motorhomes etc and never had a battery issue if they are not abused. Full charged battery should easily last for 6 minths in the cold if disconnected. In the spring my batteries will show 12.5 V or higher after 6 months in storage.

[airman1]

Just kind of an "aside"...the last RV I owned had a sliding tray on which the house batteries were mounted. My present RV doesn't have that sliding tray and the maintenance of my house batteries has gone "down hill" considerably.
It's just miserable trying to maintain those batteries in the back of the compartment without that sliding tray. Take my word for it.

I guess the point is: When you're buying a motor home whether it's new or used, you might want to be sure that the RV has a sliding tray for the house batteries. Deferred maintenance of these batteries is going to translate into additional costs that relate to the too frequent purchase of those batteries. I'm pretty sure AGM batteries are in my future...

Happy Travels...
Heading to Homosassa, FL in January
Steve & Brenda w/ dogs Isabelle and Lilly
2016 Thor Tuscany XTE 40 AX
Toad - 2016 Chevrolet Equinox AWD - all four down