Battery question

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saw1953

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2005
Posts
10
Location
Richmond VA
We just bought an 27' R-Vision Trail Sport (our first TT) and I have read everything I can find about keeping the battery charged but I'm still confused.  Should I leave the battery plugged into the house and just check the water level occassionally or should I just plug it in for a few days once a month or so.  Thanks for your help.
 
Hi Sheila,

Welcome to the forum.

You can leave the coach plugged into the house and check the battery like once a month. Top off with distilled water if necessary. If you are not going to use it for several months, and you are in cold country, you could remove the battery and put it in a basement or garage to keep it from freezing. I'd probably charge it every month just to keep it topped off.

 
Sheila,

If you leave it plugged in, make sure you have a 3-stage charger which will go into "float" mode when the battery is fully charged. This will prevent overcharging the battery which can lead to early failure. They aren't all that expensive, and others on the Forum can give you specific model recommendations. Still check the water level on a regular basis.
 
Thank you for your answers.  We just discovered today that the moniter for the holding tanks also has a battery moniter on it.  It shows fully charged, 2/3 charged and 1/3 charged.  Should we just plug it in for a day or so when it gets to 1/3 charged on the moniter?
 
Should we just plug it in for a day or so when it gets to 1/3 charged on the moniter?

No. You should start charging when it shows 2/3rds charge. It's bad for batteries to allow them to get too discharged in spite of them being called "deep-cycle" batteries. Suggest you get a hydrometer and test the charge that way. Far more accurate than "Full, 2/3, 1/3, discharged". Any auto supply store will have them in addition to places like Wal-Mart.
 
Try to find out what kind of charger/converter you have on the rig... My MH has two of them (one added) The factory installed a Progressive Dynamics Intellacharger with Charge wizard (I truly like the spec sheet on that unit) and after market I had an inverter installed... Xantrex Prosine 2.0 {that's 2000 watts of very clean 120Volt AC})

The intella charger with charge wizard is designed to be left plugged in all the time with monthly monitoring of the battery levels, it automatically performs many of the maintance tasks such as equalization of wet cells (Note, Some batteries do not like this, mine do) and such.  The Xantrex also is a 3 stage charger but I have to manually request equalization... Which is better for other types of batteries.

NOTE: it is best to keep batteries charged ESPICALLY if you live where it gets cold.

A fully charged battery is very hard to freeze,, A discharged one goes all to pieces at around 30 F, And that is not a good thing on many levels (By go all to pieces I mean the liquid, which is mostly water in a discharged battery, turns to mostly ice, expanding and breaking the housing, then when it warms up it all runs out, and of course damages anythign it flows over on it's way to wherever it ends up,,  As I said, not a good thing)

Note 2: I am not familure with most of the charger/converters out there,  I know the two I have, simply because 1: I have them and 2: My mother did some consulting work for Progressive Dynamics many moons ago.  Do not take my post as a recomendation of either of the products I mention by name over another brand.  Do your own investigation.. Progressive dynamacs (obvious url) gives you some good info
 

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