Dealer Discharged Interior Batteries

[Motorhommie]

Let me guess the Camping World location...Las Vegas?!

[Motorhommie]

Gee, well tell us we’re to not go at least!

[Florida Ranger]

Gulf Breeze,Fl.

[Florida Ranger]

On my Sons trailer it took a week to get a topper put on his slide at this location.

[hikerjohn7]

Originally Posted by Jaycodaughter

Hello! My parents own a 2018 5th wheel. Took the unit in for warranty repairs and Camping World did not flip the switch to turn off the interior batteries. It’s still in the shop. Camping World states this should only have a 1% impact on the batteries. I have read otherwise.

As Jayco does not install the batteries it’s difficult to find answers to support our case. Camping World has been a nightmare to say the least. This is just the beginning of the issues we have had. Found out late Friday that the batteries are Interstate batteries. Book and all supporting literature is in the trailer at Camping World. Thoughts???

The same thing happened to me so I raised hell with the service manage. I don't know for how long they were down but when I dropped by to get something from my rig which was sitting out on the pad, not a single LED would come on in the cabin.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the manage said they would do a load check on the battery and get back with me. A couple of days later he called and said the rig was ready to go. I checked the battery level from the console in the cabin and it showed the batteries were full. It's been a number of months now since the incident and the batteries seem fine, though, they read only bout three lights instead out of four on the console. But then, that's all they were reading when I first took the rig in for repair. So, perhaps, it's not that damaging when batteries run down for a reasonable period of time. Who knows. I am not an expert on battery physics.

[Joan617]

Originally Posted by Jaycodaughter

All - thank you so much for all your replies! I ended up calling Interstate Batteries this morning and spoke with a gentleman that has been with them for 15 years. Nice guy with a wealth of information! Here is what he he had to say -

Anytime you discharge a deep cycle battery it affects the longevity of the battery if you let it sit discharged for a period of time. If you discharge a relatively new battery and charge quickly after discharge, more than likely it will be fine.

All the load test will tell you is if it has a bad cell. It doesn’t tell you if has low capacity.

Again, thank you so much! Will update once we pick up.

I'm late to this thread but let me add another vote for Interstate Battery dealers. Shortly after getting our rig, I made the rookie mistake of leaving the rig in a storage yard without disconnecting the batteries. Our rig has a residential fridge running off the inverter. Something like 36-48 hours later I remembered my mistake and was sure I had wrecked the batteries. They were Interstates installed by the RV dealer. We have a local Interstate dealer so I went to them for advice. It was New Years Eve day, and they guy there was doing inventory and did not mean to be open but he cheerfully let me in anyway. He was helpful with lots of advice and information when I explained what had happened.



He offered to have me bring them in and he would put them on the bench for a few days to coax them back. Alternately he recommended a Deltran Battery Tender smart 5A charger. I figured I should have a charger anyway so I took that route. The charger was smart enough to sense that the battery (s) could take the charge and 2 days later I was back in business.


Reminded me of Billy Crystal as Miracle Max in "The Princess Bride". "He's not totally dead, just mostly dead..."


Props to the local guy.


Angus

[mbell5263]

I've done the same thing with my rv batteries many times. I've never had a problem with them fully charging and holding a normal charge afterwards, unless it was an old battery already. Charge the battery, do a load test and see. If it's a deep cycle marine battery discharging it once should not affect it, they are designed to be discharged up to 80% repeatedly.