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Old 09-15-2013, 03:44 PM   #1
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General battery questions

Ok, some general battery questions:

1. After fully charging, should I keep the rig plugged in when in storage? Or does that reduce battery life? If I shouldn't keep it plugged in, should I disconnect the battery during non-winter storage, once it is fully charged? During winter, I assume I should fully charge then remove the batteries to warmer storage and then fully charge in the spring. Correct?

2. Should I keep a trickle charge on during storage, or just recharge in the spring?

3. My Voltage 3905 has a battery disconnect...does this completely isolate the batteries? Should have checked this before I pulled the batteries (and will when I decide what batteries to replace these with), but in meantime????
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Old 09-15-2013, 03:58 PM   #2
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I'll tell you what I do. I'm no expert, but I have never had to replace a battery in my 6 years of RVing.

Between camping trips, I plug in for 24 hours to ensure full charge then I shut off the battery disconnect (which does completely isolate the batteries). About once a month, I turn the battery disconnect back on and plug in again for 24 hours to re-charge.

During cold weather, remove the batteries and store in a warmer environment (but NOT on a concrete floor, so I have been told but I'm not exactly sure why). Keeping them on a trickle charge is recommended.

This what has worked for me.
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Old 09-15-2013, 04:40 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by kevinmiles View Post
I'll tell you what I do. I'm no expert, but I have never had to replace a battery in my 6 years of RVing.

Between camping trips, I plug in for 24 hours to ensure full charge then I shut off the battery disconnect (which does completely isolate the batteries). About once a month, I turn the battery disconnect back on and plug in again for 24 hours to re-charge.

During cold weather, remove the batteries and store in a warmer environment (but NOT on a concrete floor, so I have been told but I'm not exactly sure why). Keeping them on a trickle charge is recommended.

This what has worked for me.
I believe that "concrete floor" is urban legend. Batteries of yore were not very well insulated from power loss while sitting on a concrete floor. todays battteries are built with a whole lot better stuff. google it.
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Old 09-15-2013, 04:54 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinmiles View Post
I'll tell you what I do. I'm no expert, but I have never had to replace a battery in my 6 years of RVing.

Between camping trips, I plug in for 24 hours to ensure full charge then I shut off the battery disconnect (which does completely isolate the batteries). About once a month, I turn the battery disconnect back on and plug in again for 24 hours to re-charge.

During cold weather, remove the batteries and store in a warmer environment (but NOT on a concrete floor, so I have been told but I'm not exactly sure why). Keeping them on a trickle charge is recommended.

This what has worked for me.
Disconnect does not completely remove load from battery, the Alarms are hard wired into battery (safety) CO/Propane.
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Old 09-15-2013, 06:56 PM   #5
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My disconnect switch definitely removes all the load from the batteries. It is in one of the main cables coming off the batteries. My smoke detectors have their own 9-volt batteries and the gas/carbon monoxide detector has a blinking green light which no longer blinks when I have the disconnect switch off. I guess not all these trailers are wired the same! Note that if I am connected to shore power, even if the disconnect is off, everything runs off the converter.
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Old 09-17-2013, 12:08 PM   #6
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If you do take out the battery put it on a trickle charger. Use the one that has the charging and storage light. I do the same thing as kevinmiles does.

On the motorcycle I keep the trickle charger on all winter and never have had a problem. Of course the only month I didn't ride this past winter was Feb.
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Old 09-18-2013, 09:27 AM   #7
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My neighbor has used a solar panel on all his batteries, (Suburban, car, TT and ham radio) the smaller maintenance versions came on the market. He also services on of the radio towers that supports the Search and Rescue and emergency services.

He gets routinely gets more years out of his batteries than I ever had, by keeping on the maintenance charge. By keeping a trickle charge on you are not causing the shock of recovery from voltage drop.

Batteries just like tires love to be pampered. Here's a link the gives you some great information on the care and feeding of batteries. BatteryStuff Articles | Guide to Understanding Flooded, AGM, and Gel Batteries

Follow the routine that is layed out and you will be suprised at how long your batteries can last.
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