Cost Effectiveness of adding progressive dynamics PD-9245??

[OregonPerson]

Hello,

I live in Hillsboro, OR where it is cloudy or rainy about 1/2 the year, not so much in the late spring, summer, early fall. I store my travel trailer under cover off location because our home owners association doesn't allow RVs on property. The location I store it at has covered 12X40 sites for $200/month with power that is limited to a manual timer switch of an hour at a time. They have covered 12X40 sites with 24x7 power and no timers for $275/month. Please no comments on the cost of storage.

Because of the covered storage and cloudy/rainy days I can't count on solar to help me properly maintain my 2X6volt batteries and because I don't have a good 3-4 stage battery charger as part of the WFCO 8735-P 35 AMP power center I'm thinking of adding a Progressive Dynamics 9245C 45AMP converter/charger.

Question: Is it worthwhile to add the PD9245C if I can't provide it 24X7 power so it can properly go through the various charging stages or would I need to move to covered storage with 24X7 electricity at $275/month or should I just plan on replacing the batteries every couple of years and stick with the WFCO 8735-P??

Thanks in advance

Added detail below:

I take delivery next Thursday of a 2018 Jay Flight SLX 212QBW that has a WFCO 8735-P 35Amp Power Center. I will have (2)Trojan 145 (260Ah) 6 volt deep cycle batteries, 200 watts solar in Renogy solar suitcases with a 30AMP PWM controller....... plan on adding 360 watts solar on roof with 30AMP MPPT controller and a 1500-2000 inverter in June.

[Siamese]

If your trailer is being put away with a charged battery, an hour a day with the WFCO should be ample to maintain it while you're not using it.

I immediately upgraded the WFCO in our 26BH, because I anticipated boon docking, and knew the WFCO wasn't going to recharge our batteries in reasonable period of time, If at all. Our setup is: pair of 6v's, Progressive Dynamics, and a 2200 watt inverter generator.

I don't anticipate going with solar for our particular style of camping.

[Mark S]

$75 per month times 12 months is $900 per year. I would think that even if your batteries died for lack of charging you could buy 2 replacement batteries every year and still have money left over. Just a thought.

[CampNow]

Can you visit your trailer for 20-30 minutes every month or so while it's in storage?

As long as you totally disconnect your batteries at the terminals, they should hold a good charge for at least a couple months. If your trailer has a battery disconnect, it's hit or miss whether it totally disconnects the battery from any parasitic draw.

Assuming your WFCO 8735 is like most WFCO converters, it will rarely go into bulk charge mode even if the batteries are very discharged. It'll probably remain in absorption mode (13.6v) and produce maybe 10-15 amps of charge current. A PD 9245 should net you at least 40-45 amps of charge current (almost triple the WFCO) in bulk mode (14.4v) with significantly discharged batteries.

Assuming you can visit your trailer at least every month or so, the PD9245 should easily top-off the batteries in 30 minutes or less if you manually place it in bulk mode with the PD Charge Wizard pendant.

[OregonPerson]

Visiting it once a month would not be a problem.

I'm out of my element here moving into solar and trying to properly maintain deep cycle batteries but trying to learn what I can.

With further investigation I think I am going to have to stick with the WFCO 8735P. The WFCO 8735P is one of those all in one boxes and the charger/converter doesn't have its own box separated from the fuses and breakers.

You can order a PD Inteli-Power 4135 as a complete replacement for the 8735P but since it is a new unit it probably would mess with any electrical part warranty or electrical damage claim.

I may just have to pull the batteries occasionally and hook them up to some smart battery charger such as a NOCO Genius or take them in for an equalization charge.