Stupid move, paid the price - Page 2 - Dutchmen Owners
Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×

Go Back   Dutchmen Owners > Dutchmen Lifestyle | Camping, Fun & Hobbies > Photography and Video Forum
Click Here to Login
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 08-01-2015, 12:12 PM   #21
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Roselle
Posts: 1,292
Illinois
Mike, the reason Pirate's new ride is like a Harley is that they are money pits. The cheapest part of owning one is buying it. You spend 20 grand on a new bike and then another 15 grand just to make it "right". With my new Voltage, I'm finding it's kind of the same! Like you Pirate, I would never give up my riding experiences. I've ridden my current bike through every state (obviously not Hawaii, although I did rent one and ride around Oahu). People I've met and things I've seen;... Right now I'm parked next to a M/C club from South Carolina roughing it living out of their cargo trailers. If you weren't a biker, they would scare the hell out of you. Nicest guys in the world, offering tools, Walmart runs, etc. Today, a ride thru Spearfish Canyon.
Rusty
PS. I like the way you travel Aaron.
__________________

__________________
2015 Black F-350 Platinum Diesel Dually Crew Cab
2019 Riverstone Legacy 38MB (Full Paint/All Options)
2015 Voltage 3990 (Full Paint, All Options) Sold 6/18
2005 Harley Ultra Classic w/too many miles
lcv800 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-01-2015, 03:26 PM   #22
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Canon City
Posts: 860
Colorado
Rusty,

Spearfish canyon today...what a ride that is!!!

Don't forget to stop at get a beer at the Back Porch bar in Spearfish.

Pirate
__________________

Pirate is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2015, 07:30 PM   #23
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
OP here with an update.
Well to the shock of probably no one who has had to have extensive repairs done by the RV shop, the trailer has been in there all summer and still is there today. They have actually finished all of the repairs on the exterior and axles but are waiting on the final trim components to finish repairing the interior. This was wood paneling and framing that was on the interior side of the front end that got bashed in. It actually looks pretty dang good. I went to the storage lot and blew out my water lines and added a couple gallons of anti freeze to each of the waste tanks yesterday. Our temps are now hovering around freezing every morning and I wanted some piece of mind that the unit is already pretty much winterized. I don't think there was much water in the gray or black tank since it really never got used, but I also just wanted that piece of mind so I dumped a couple gallons of anti freeze down the drains and toilet.

Some bad news is I think that my 2x6V batteries might be shot. I didn't want there to be any issues with the repairmen possibly disconnected my solar components in the wrong order, so I had disconnected all the wiring from the battery myself before dropping it off in July. This was when I thought things might take around a month to complete, so I just checked in at the shop every week or so and made sure my voltage wasn't getting unhealthy low. It really wasn't, but once I realized that things were not going to be finished up anytime soon I hooked the solar back up. I noticed at that time there was a lot of corrosion on my battery terminals, that had never been that way before. I checked back on in few times after that though and the battery voltage always showed things to be cruising along in float mode so I expected things were working properly. When I went there yesterday for the winterizing, the voltage was in absorption. When I cut the solar input, the battery voltage dropped quickly and when I put any type of load on it at all it dropped into the 11.5V range. Hooking solar back up and the voltage jumped back up to the absorption level. Strange behavior that might suggest the batteries have not enjoyed their stay at the yard...

I am looking forward to getting this thing parked back in my driveway and I can start to get it back into working condition. Then getting back to camping next season.
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2015, 08:37 PM   #24
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Meridian
Posts: 54
Idaho
I just bought a new camp trailer this year and put 2 6V batteries on it. In researching what to buy, one thing I remembered is that you don't want the batteries to run completely down. I wouldn't have know that if I hadn't read it. Something about the deep cycle as I remember. I will be taking mine off and placing them in the garage on a battery tender for the winter. I hope yours turn out to be OK, they are expensive.
RickNTee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2015, 09:18 PM   #25
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
Yes, you're right about not wanting them to get too deeply discharged which is why I was checking on them periodically and ultimately hooked the solar back up to them while it sat in their storage lot. They really never were discharged lower than maybe 50%, then I hooked them back up to solar anyway so they should have sat there happily at full charge for the duration of their stay. But the way they acted yesterday was peculiar and indicative of something wrong. 11.5V is basically totally dead and not a good sign at all. But I wasn't going to spend time trouble shooting during my lunch break so I just did what I needed to and left.

My 6V are from Costco and aren't really anymore expensive than typical batteries, but I certainly want them to still be fine since I've only had them a couple years!
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-2015, 07:36 PM   #26
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
OP check in,
The camper is back home!!! Turns out the last few weeks of waiting were for having the decals professionally applied. I didn't know that and wasn't expecting to have "Aspen Trail" neatly displayed on the front again for the job to be finished. But it was in the insurance quote and paid for, so whatever...

I have been trying to determine if my batteries are shot. As I said before, there was a lot of corrosion on the terminals that was never there before. I think that was probably the culprit for the solar not doing its job while it sat at dealer lot; it was making for a loose and intermittent connection. Things are already acting much better since I cleaned things up.
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-11-2015, 06:41 PM   #27
Senior Member
 
DC8Captain's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Golden
Posts: 178
Colorado
Glad you got your Aspen Trail back and it looks good with the new decals.
__________________
Dale & Deb
2009 Silverado Crew Cab 2500 HD
2014 Dutchmen 275BH TT
DC8Captain is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-17-2015, 04:53 PM   #28
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
Battery update.
I left the TT plugged in with the converter on (WFCO putting out 13.6V, as is typical) for a few days, as well as changing my solar controller algorithm to what I term my "winter storage" profile. This uses 14.8V bulk/absorption setpoint and uses temperature correction. It has now been unplugged for several days and I'm back to relying on solar only. First thing in the morning while it is still dark with temps around freezing and the battery voltages are always over 12.6V, so I feel pretty confident that they are being maintained at 100% charge. I have not opened up the battery cases to check the SG yet, I'm holding off for a nicer day. :-) But it seems like I get quite a bit of voltage drop from just flipping on some of my LED lights, more than I recall in the past. Almost a 0.1V drop per lamp. Maybe that's a sign of weakened batteries?
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-17-2015, 05:43 PM   #29
Senior Member
 
hddecker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: kamloops
Posts: 2,152
British Columbia
Quote:
Originally Posted by ewarnerusa View Post
Battery update.
I left the TT plugged in with the converter on (WFCO putting out 13.6V, as is typical) for a few days, as well as changing my solar controller algorithm to what I term my "winter storage" profile. This uses 14.8V bulk/absorption setpoint and uses temperature correction. It has now been unplugged for several days and I'm back to relying on solar only. First thing in the morning while it is still dark with temps around freezing and the battery voltages are always over 12.6V, so I feel pretty confident that they are being maintained at 100% charge. I have not opened up the battery cases to check the SG yet, I'm holding off for a nicer day. :-) But it seems like I get quite a bit of voltage drop from just flipping on some of my LED lights, more than I recall in the past. Almost a 0.1V drop per lamp. Maybe that's a sign of weakened batteries?
Sounds to me like the perhaps solar charge controller hasn't seen the full charge and may have boiled the battery fluid out. It doesn't take long even in the winter.

Or like you said batteries going south, but if your batteries are packing it in, they usually won't make it through a night if your running the furnace and other loads.

Lets hope it's just time for new batteries and not something worse.
hddecker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-17-2015, 06:50 PM   #30
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
I checked water levels the other day and they are topped off. It was during the day and solar charge was happening, so while I did dip my hydrometer in the cells it was giving a biased high reading.
The trailer is essentially in winter storage. I go out there and tinker all the time but usually use nothing but lights (all LEDs). Sometimes I'll crank up the propane furnace, but not usually. Last time I used the furnace for about 30 minutes, the battery voltage seemed to come up pretty well after I shut it off.
I guess I should do some experimenting with running some loads all night long and seeing where that leaves me in the morning.
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-17-2015, 08:15 PM   #31
Senior Member
 
hddecker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: kamloops
Posts: 2,152
British Columbia
Quote:
Originally Posted by ewarnerusa View Post
I checked water levels the other day and they are topped off. It was during the day and solar charge was happening, so while I did dip my hydrometer in the cells it was giving a biased high reading.
The trailer is essentially in winter storage. I go out there and tinker all the time but usually use nothing but lights (all LEDs). Sometimes I'll crank up the propane furnace, but not usually. Last time I used the furnace for about 30 minutes, the battery voltage seemed to come up pretty well after I shut it off.
I guess I should do some experimenting with running some loads all night long and seeing where that leaves me in the morning.
Sounds like your batteries need to be charged up with a good old battery charger, then load tested.

If you have one weak or dead battery it will cause the remaining batteries to work harder. I had one go bad and it was all the second one could do to maintain our low usage, then when I turned the furnace on it wouldn't last the night.
hddecker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2016, 04:20 PM   #32
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
OP Update

Beautiful blues and greens?
OP update:
I opened up the battery cases and found that the corrosion was back in lovely green and blue. I cleaned all that gunk off and scraped things with a pocket knife and sandpaper until I had nice gleaming metal at all the connections. I also cleaned up my ground connection to the frame. This seems to have addressed the voltage drop, with the panels off and inverter on with a laptop computer charger load of just under 100 watts I'm only getting a small voltage drop. It seemed to level out at around 12.4V. Voltage measurements are taken right at the posts via the SCC voltage sense wires. I dipped the hydrometer in each cell and the readings were all right around 1.300 with panels disconnected. I'm still a ways off from camping season, but experiments in the driveway with loads applied overnight suggest to me that the batteries are performing normally now. I think the culprit behind my large voltage drops was the corrosion.

First battery in series, lovely greens and blues:


Close up of the green gunk:


Second battery in series:


Cleaned up:
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2016, 09:21 PM   #33
Senior Member
 
hddecker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: kamloops
Posts: 2,152
British Columbia
Quote:
Originally Posted by ewarnerusa View Post
I think the culprit behind my large voltage drops was the corrosion.
Very likely the cause.

Do you soak your battery cable terminals in baking soda and water when you clean them, or a commercial battery/terminal cleaner.

What I can see from your pictures, I believe your battery cables are going to be effected by the corrosion as well, if not now they will be soon. The corrosion can work it's way into the cut ends of the wires and does it's nasty work until the cables can't handle the load. If the cables are starting to swell near the terminals, you have corrosion eating away already.

When I make up battery cables, I use the sweat on terminals (soldered), next comes shrink tubing, then I put on a coat of brush on electrical tape, only leaving enough of the terminal showing to make good contact on the post bolt. When I clean the terminals, I trim back the brush on tape, soak them and after they are clean and dry, I put a new coat of brush on tape on them.

Once they are all nice and clean and refastened the terminals and posts gets a nice coating of dilectric grease, it helps to slow down the corrosion. Been using this process for a lot of years and never had a cable go bad.
__________________
Jim

When I was a kid I was going nowhere fast, now I'm an old man I'm going everywhere slow.
hddecker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2016, 09:42 PM   #34
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
yeah I'm concerned about my cables, too, because the exposed wiring at the tip shows corrosion. I didn't do any soaking like you mentioned. It is strange because the first 3 years my batteries never showed any corrosion at all. Not that I checked frequently, but the times I did check I never noticed anything unusual. But then after spending a couple months at the shop last summer I seem to have a recurring corrosion issue.
__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2016, 11:03 PM   #35
Senior Member
 
hddecker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: kamloops
Posts: 2,152
British Columbia
Quote:
Originally Posted by ewarnerusa View Post
yeah I'm concerned about my cables, too, because the exposed wiring at the tip shows corrosion. I didn't do any soaking like you mentioned. It is strange because the first 3 years my batteries never showed any corrosion at all. Not that I checked frequently, but the times I did check I never noticed anything unusual. But then after spending a couple months at the shop last summer I seem to have a recurring corrosion issue.
That's why I like the sweat on terminals, they don't leave any exposed wire. It looks like you have lots of wire so you can cut them back to good wire and put new terminals on them.

Do you also clean the top of your battery? As your battery is going through the charge/discharge cycles it gives of vapor and it gets trapped by the lid of the battery cover then falls back on to the battery. Once you have that nice coating of acid on the top of the battery it starts it's work and corrosion sets in

The best way to maintain your batteries is to remove them from the boxes and clean all the surfaces of all of the components. I have been using a commercial battery cleaner for a couple of years now, made by either Gunk or Solder Seal. It has an acid reveal in it, sprays on as a whiteish foam and turns purple when acid is present.
__________________
Jim

When I was a kid I was going nowhere fast, now I'm an old man I'm going everywhere slow.
hddecker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2016, 12:50 AM   #36
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Canon City
Posts: 860
Colorado
And its not a bad idea to spray the battery terminals with sealer. Like this stuff I been using for years:

Permatex 80370 Battery Protector and Sealer, 5 oz. net Aerosol Can

Just a thought,

Pirate
Pirate is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2016, 02:33 PM   #37
Senior Member
 
hddecker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: kamloops
Posts: 2,152
British Columbia
Pirate,

I can't say I've seen that product in Canada, but I'm gonna have a look. If it works like dilectric grease, but without the grease part I'll be sold. The worst part of my routine is getting the old grease off.
__________________
Jim

When I was a kid I was going nowhere fast, now I'm an old man I'm going everywhere slow.
hddecker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-02-2016, 04:02 AM   #38
Senior Member
 
nineoaks's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Graceville, FL
Posts: 148
Florida
I use a spray cleaner on all my batteries on every batter, including the tractor etc. I then spray the sealer on and have no problem with corrosion buildup, I also paint the top of the + post with red fingernail polish so there is no mistake about the terminals.
__________________
Roy & Mary Fralick and our 5 camping Chihuahuas, Gypsy, Sammy, Delilah, Pebbles and Mitzi
nineoaks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 05:58 PM   #39
Senior Member
 
ewarnerusa's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Helena, MT
Posts: 606
Montana
Clean up day

So I pulled things apart again, baking soda cleaning and scraping of corrosion again, then reassemble with dielectric grease and protectant spray. I also cleaned up the corrosion on my cable ends and applied liquid tape. Hopefully I'm good!

Cleaned up pics.




__________________
2012 Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar on the roof | 2x6V GC batteries | 1500 watt PSW inverter | Micro Air on A/C | so far strictly boondocking
ewarnerusa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 06:18 PM   #40
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Canon City
Posts: 860
Colorado
Ummm....so are you saying your batteries and charging system are good?

Or that you as a person are good??

Not sure how we would judge that???? LOL!!!!

Pirate
__________________

Pirate is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dutchmen RV or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.


All times are GMT. The time now is 07:48 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright 2020 Social Knowledge, LLC All Rights Reserved.
×