Do I Have the Right Battery?

[silverta16]

Had my battery out and inside the house all winter. Went to throw it on the charger and noticed its a marine deep cycle. Seems I remember reading these weren't the right batteries for campers. It was stone cold dead. Here are some pics please let me know just trying to get everything ready for spring. Thanks

[dennis b]

Short answer is No

[arkhillbilly]

Appears to be a dual purpose type. Meaning not a true deep-cycle. Will do cranking and deep useage to a degree. Usually if you let the battery charge go below 50%, the battery is forever damaged. Suggest you store your battery on a maint type charger. Most rvs are sent out from the factory with this type. They are much cheaper than a true deep cycle. I have two of these connected to a solar panel on the roof, and they work fine. What type, and how many depends of the type camping you do.

[Nate]

Edit: Okay, it says "Deep Discharge Type"... does that mean it really isn't a deep discharge? You don't need cranking amps in a TT, so this might not be the right one.

[norty1]

If you don't spend lots of time camping without ac that battery will work fine. I have 2 in my rig that work fine.
You should keep them charged with a trickle charger when removed for winter.

[tnchuck100]

It IS the same type of battery you typically get with a new camper.

However, if it has gone "stone cold dead" it probably won't recover. It may take a charge but likely will no hold it long. I would replace it. If you plan on doing a lot of boondocking a true deep cycle battery is a wise choice. If you will usually have shore power a marine battery will do fine.

[silverta16]

Evidentially it went stone dead over the winter, it's been on the charger all evening and is just showing 25% so it must be toast.

I never camp over 2 nights anytime without electric. I Would just need lights and enough to run the shower pump etc and maybe the inverter for a few hours of TV at max.

[norty1]

Originally Posted by silverta16

Evidentially it went stone dead over the winter, it's been on the charger all evening and is just showing 25% so it must be toast.

I never camp over 2 nights anytime without electric. I Would just need lights and enough to run the shower pump etc and maybe the inverter for a few hours of TV at max.

You will be fine with the same size/type. Get a trickle charger for the next time it's removed or not charged by the converter. They are very inexpensive and will prolong the battery life.

[seanmcpherson]

If your charger has a desulfation feature try that before you decide it's toast. As a battery slowly discharges the plates get covered in lead sulfate crystals. During normal discharges these are small and break back up under normal charge current. On long periods of sitting totally idle, the crystalline structure changes and the crystals are both larger and over more area. That prevents the recombination effects that happen during charging. Many chargers have pulse and current varying circuits that can break up the sulfating. Older chargers had very basic methods which could damage a battery (but if it was so sulfated it wouldn't charge much, then the risk was low anyway); newer chargers have better identification circuitry which can adjust the pulses and current to more effectively desulfate batteries in a variety of conditions. Check your charger documentation. If it's a small or trickle charger it may not have the feature. If it's a Schumacher or better, it likely does although you may have to enable it by holding a button or starting the charger up with a button depressed. It's not unusual to have to run multiple desulfation cycles over a couple of days, with a normal charge cycle in between. I've successfully recovered dozens of batteries for people over the years w/ good chargers, and some of those batteries lasted many more years especially if they were then used with some run up/run down cycles to continue the desulfation process thru normal use. A good standalone 'recovery' charger w/ multi frequency output and temperature compensation is great to have and if buying one defers a purchase of a new battery every year or so it's paid for basically on day 1. PulseTech makes a good one (XC100P which I've used), and BatteryMinder also makes a good one (maybe not quite as good, but I think they're comparable). They're maybe $100. They don't fix a battery overnight; it does take some time. I've lent mine out to folks who had a bob cat or back hoe, etc which sat, or who had a battery backup on the sump pump and didn't realize the breaker'd tripped on it. If you don't have but 1 battery to babysit, it may not be worth it. Mine's paid back it's $100 several times, and that's after I upgraded from a simpler charger/desulfator that was just a bit better than a normal charger.

[Seann45]

NO... any battery that has a CCA rating (yours is 750) is a poor choice for an RV.. the plates in it are just too thin for long life.

[seanmcpherson]

I definitely agree with the above comments re: getting a bettery battery. I hope my info on the desulfators (which was meant as a general info posting for when people find this thread) wasn't taken as arguing against the fact that starter batteries make bad deep cycle batteries. Marine combo batteries are slightly better than, say, automotive batteries for non-crankiong discharges as they're expected to run loads like bilg epumps and such when the engine is down but there's no shore power, but they're not designed for longer duration deeper discharges or the longer idle periods that trailers/RVs suffer through, especially in off the grid camping. The generic group 24 combo batteries 'work' but their biggest advantage is they're cheap and available at any big box store or car parts house. The downside is you definitely swap them more often and the conditions which will kill them are much easier to enter than for better quality batteries. If you have a coach that can handle the weight, flooded deep cycle batteries will last the longest of the traditional lead acid style (if you can prevent them from freezing or drying out during charge/discharge, which are their most dangerous conditions), followed by the sealed long duration AGMs (which can handle unattended periods and freezing temps better), then high quality true deep cycle general lead acid batteries, then you get to the generic deep cycle, then combo, then starter batteries. The cost per battery is higher at the upper end but the lifespan and endurance of each is also much different than combo or starter batteries, by multiples of the usable capacity of the combo or starter batteries.


If you own or can borrow a battery already and it's recoverable then desulfation can be worthwhile to give it a shot, was the only point I was aiming for And if you have other batteries that might sit or which you want to max their lifespan and have not had a good charger to use anyway, then you can still use the charger/desulfator in the future (even on new batteries) which might make it a good investment. Mine get used constantly, either on my own not-in-use batteries or where folks borrow it to recover batteries their charger can't bring back or replace the capacity their chargers aren't able to get them due to plate surface conditions.

[silverta16]

Well I had gave up on the battery as it wouldn't take charge the first day. I let it sit a day and just plugged it up again and the charger jumped up to 75 %. I let it charge on trickle about 3 hours and it was 100%. I stuck it in and have been testing it here at home and so far so good. I turned on all the lights and Tv and DVD on this morning and it's been running for almost 5 hours as of now. Still working the Atwood power jack so I may be good for what little I use it. What I need is some sort of gauge to hook up on the battery box.

[Mustang65]

The only way you can check that battery is to see if it is OK is by checking the specific gravity of each cell. The manufacture will have the number on their website somewhere or contact their support group for the information. Autozone or other automotive parts stores have the hydrometer and they are inexpensive. If the cells are not near the same, get a new battery. Call the parts store and see if they will do the SG test for you, safer that way. How is the water level in each of the cells? All equal?

The problem is once a regular battery is brought to "0" volts it has already done the damage. The battery voltage is a reference point, but you also need to somehow check the temperature of the battery while charging. If it has a bad cell the TT's charge controller could keep trying to charge the battery to try and get it to 100% charge, which will never happen and it will boil the battery acid in the battery, which could create other issues.

Personally, I would dump the current battery and pick up an entry level size 24 RV/Marine battery (Interstate is fine). It will be well worth the investment, and peace of mind not having to constantly worry about it.

Here is an inexpensive voltage display that plugs into your 12VDC accessory port in the TT, it should do the trick.

Just my thoughts,

Don