Dajain
Member
Good Morning Everyone!
I have a 1999 Freightliner which I use as my travel rig and the batteries in the truck are four, 31 series commercial batteries hooked up in parallel for a 12 volt system.
But, here is the problem....I use the truck maybe 5 times a year and with the lack of use, I have to charge the batteries every time I go to use it. This results in shortened lifespan of the batteries, about 2 years on the last one that went bad.
What I am looking to do is have enough solar power just to maintain these 4 batteries. I have a small solar panel mounted to the roof (maybe 50 watt?) and I still have to charge it every time.
Here are what I have tried:
-pulling the 2 fuses for the house systems to remove any drains.
-Disconnect the negatives from the frame
-the current solar panel with controller
The batteries still need to be charged each time.
What I haven't done:
-disconnect all batteries from each other
-checked for drains on main circuit
One thought I have is I have a rotation of batteries going bad which keeps draining the rest while resting, so here is my question....
I am planning on just replacing all 4 batteries at once (probably tomorrow) to eliminate the rotating door of bad batteries, but what size solar system would I need to just maintain a charge on these 4 commercial batteries?
Battery info:
Thanks for any info!
I have a 1999 Freightliner which I use as my travel rig and the batteries in the truck are four, 31 series commercial batteries hooked up in parallel for a 12 volt system.
But, here is the problem....I use the truck maybe 5 times a year and with the lack of use, I have to charge the batteries every time I go to use it. This results in shortened lifespan of the batteries, about 2 years on the last one that went bad.
What I am looking to do is have enough solar power just to maintain these 4 batteries. I have a small solar panel mounted to the roof (maybe 50 watt?) and I still have to charge it every time.
Here are what I have tried:
-pulling the 2 fuses for the house systems to remove any drains.
-Disconnect the negatives from the frame
-the current solar panel with controller
The batteries still need to be charged each time.
What I haven't done:
-disconnect all batteries from each other
-checked for drains on main circuit
One thought I have is I have a rotation of batteries going bad which keeps draining the rest while resting, so here is my question....
I am planning on just replacing all 4 batteries at once (probably tomorrow) to eliminate the rotating door of bad batteries, but what size solar system would I need to just maintain a charge on these 4 commercial batteries?
Battery info:
Thanks for any info!