Another battery question

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Rene T

Rene T

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Farmington NH
I made friends with a couple here in the park and I'm going to move their trailer to the CG storage lot for them. It's a 5'er.  I told him to check his battery to make sure the cells are full before storing.  He checked it today and found that for whatever reasons, the caps were off and there was a big crack along the top/side of it. Before coming to FL, he did have it home in Ontario for a winter so it may have frozen. He's not a DYI person so he had no clue.
He's asking me if he should replace the battery now before it goes into the storage lot. Initially, I said no to wait till next year but then I'm started think. (That's scary). Apparently he must have been running all his 12 volt stuff off the converter. Now I'm thinking that when he goes to retract his 3 slides, the converter will not have enough power to run the motors. He also has hydraulic levelers/stabilizer jack. If I hook up to my truck, with that give the needed power to run them in or does he need a battery right now? 
 
He is probably OK if he retracts slides and jacks while still connected to shore power.  Your truck may be able to supply enough power if there is no shore connection, but the condition and wire size of the umbilical cord is going to be a limiting factor. Jacks probably ok, though, at least enough to deploy at the storage lot.
 
Thanks Gary. So if he always just stores his trailer every year at the end of the season here in FL, he would probably never need to replace the battery. Is that right? I'm sure the battery probably cracked a couple  of years ago and it seems he's been running everything off the converter just fine.
Power from my truck will only be needed to raise and lower the front landing gear to connect and reconnect the trailer from my truck.  I'm going  to move it back to his site next fall. 
 
Another option is to use jumper cables from the truck battery. That should provide much greater current than the usual truck connection via the light connector.

Ernie
 
Ernie n Tara said:
Another option is to use jumper cables from the truck battery. That should provide much greater current than the usual truck connection via the light connector.

Ernie
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea Ernie. I'll keep that in mind.
I think I'll have him disconnect the ground wire from he battery anyway even when hooked up to shore power. No need of having the converter try to charge a battery that's junk. I'm sure it's not helping the converter at all and may be hurting it. .
 
1) So what I got out of this is that a battery is not required in a RV if it's only plugged in to shore power all the time. This RV will NOT be towed on the road. If it did, it would need a new battery.
2) If the slides operate OK while plugged into shore power, a battery is not needed. The converter will take care of all 12 volt necessities.
3) I want to disconnect the negative wire only the cracked battery so the converter isn't trying to charge a junk battery. I'll leave the positive cable hooked up to that battery just so it isn't a hot wire just floating out there. 

If I'm wrong on any of the above, please recalibrate me and set me straight.
 
I'd caution that the battery acts as a filter to smooth out the dc from the converter. Newer convertors may work better w/o a battery, but electrical noise is never desirable.

Ernie
 
I would say that you are very very close.

THe caution about the battery filtering the DC power is also good but a low cost Group 24 (or even smaller) can be used there or a "Hardening Condenser" or "Hardening capicator" from a high end car audio store, those last basically forever by the way.

Some converters.... Well I have sone very very senistive hardware (Electronics) including a Kenwood TS-2000 Ham rig that runs on house power.. IT can not tell if the batteries are connected or not.. still clean audio both transmit and recieve if I accidently disconnect house batteries.

Progressive Dynamics 9180+Wizard powers it . That's one good 80 amp supply!!!

(THe power layout for this RV was ideal for hooking up that radio by the way)
 
I would pull the battery and dispose of it properly, then thoroughly clean the battery tray area. No sense in leaving the remaining acid sitting in a damaged container.

For what it's worth, the converter on my fiver wouldn't power the slide. I found out when the slide wouldn't operate due to a poor battery ground connection.
 
HappyWanderer said:
I would pull the battery and dispose of it properly, then thoroughly clean the battery tray area. No sense in leaving the remaining acid sitting in a damaged container.

For what it's worth, the converter on my fiver wouldn't power the slide. I found out when the slide wouldn't operate due to a poor battery ground connection.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. I'll find out Sunday morning and let you know what happened.
 
    Like Happy Wanderer said, I would put the battery out and find a safe way to store it for turn in unless the core charge is minimal. I wouldn'tlike to see a cracked battery sitting in an RV or vehicle in florida during the summer. All that acid and fumes would make me uncomfortable.

  BTW I just bought two group 27 batteries from walmart for $101 apiece, they also had group 29 and 32 for even cheaper.  The old batteries were dated 10/10 and were used in and old army M35a2 truck so the heat and vibration is extreme, that alone is a good reason for me to go back to them.
 
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